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5i Per Copy
VOLUME 9
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, AAARCH 17, 1967
NUMBER 50
It’s high time one of those
so-called experts on child
psychology told distraught New
Bern parents what to do about
Junior’s first barbershop hair
cut.
Perhaps no other juvenllle
upheaval Is ever more violent,
and though the storm is tem
porary, it leaves Mom and Dad
emotionally bankrupt. What It
does to the poor barber Is too
horrible to dwell upon.
Look Into the clipper
wlelder’s anguished eyes, and
you’ll realize that he suffers
more than anyone else. From
the sound of things you would
think it Is Junior rather than
parents and barber, who is being
subjected to unbearable pain.
However, like all kids in
similar circumstances his
screams don’t stem from real
or imaginary hurts. He’s a
victim of fear, liberally mixed
with a seasoning of tempera
ment.
In fact, lots of little boys
who get carted to a New Bern
barber shop for shearing are
more spoiled than scared. Quite
a few are terrified, it’s true,
especially on the first trip,
but when a youngster escapes
with his ears still intact, his
fears should diminish with each
succeeding trip to the tonsorial
parlor.
However, it's a matter of sad
record that plenty of the small
fry keep right on acting up.
Patents naturally become aware
of this unhappy fact, and think
up all kinds of excuses to avoid
the responsibility of seeing that
Junior's overly long tresses
don't transform him into some
thing resembling an undipped
poodle.
Ask any local barber and he'll
tell you that a child invariably
behaves better if Mom isn't
present for the ordeal. For one
thing, the average mother is
quick to give advice on how her
offspring's cranium should be
trimmed, and most of the advice
is impractical and inadvisable.
If a barber is a good barber,
and most of the ones in New
Bern are, he’ll do all right by
your brat. If he isn’t a good
barber, giving advice isn’t
going to heln^
Besides, proud Mamas are
apt to sympathize with their
little darlings, and sympathy
at times is the wrong kind of
medicine. One of those times
is In a barber’s chair. The
kind of medicine that Junior
needs when he' acts up
excessively at a scissor party
is a well applied spanking.
That he will never get. If
you’re like the average New
Bern parent. The barber, in
his secret heart, would find deep
satisfaction in taking care of
both ends o! the brat, but tie
isn't going to volunteer hi.s
service.*, for ihit- exMa atten
tion.
Of cour.oe, barbers iur,- kids
of their own, and i ' i
cut up over cut offs just like
the young sons of the butcher,
the baker, and the candlestick
maker. In fact, the greatest
commotion this town ever saw
in a barber shop occurred when
an unhappy barber was chopping
off his own little boy’s hair
for the first time.
It is interesting to. note that
very few mothers have a similar
problem when they take their
small daughters to one of New
(Continued on page 6).
ERECTED TO GOD—^Travel east beyond Beaufort and
you’ll find one of North Carolina’s newest and most
impressive edifices, the Atlantic Methodist Church.
Designed by a New Bern architect, John N. Peterson,
A.I.A., it has earned for Peterson one of four CertiB*
cates of Recognition awarded at the annual meeting
of the Bishops’ Committees of Church Architecture
held at Duke University. Receiving the award jointly
with its designed was the church, represented by
Alvin Harris. Winners for 1967 were selected under
the Randolph E. Dumont Design Program, sponsored
^ the North Carolina and Western North Carolina
Conferences of the Methodist Church. Dr. M. Wilson
Nesbitt, director of the Work of the Rural Church
under the Duke Endowment, said Peterson’s design
was chosen as an excellent solution to an architectual
problem. The Atlantic church seats 240 for worship
service, and has a church school seating capacity of
850.—^Photo by Billy Benners.