George Glover doesn't quite remember the first time he got his hair cut nearly 30 years ago at Miracles barbershop-a slumped yellow cottage nestled three blocks from Duke's East Campus.
Since those days, however, the gray-haired Durham native has seen his Walltown community change, a University emerge and a beloved barbershop-the place to sit around and play checkers on a hot summer afternoon-shut down and then reopen to a new era of customers.
"It been so long ago now I forgot," Glover admits. "That was back when Mr. Frizel Day owned the place. The older heads are gone now, you know, but all the locals of Walltown, we used to patronize that shop."
For many old timers, the quaint, three-chair, lantern-lit barbershop that has been passed down through the community stands as a triumphant fixture of the Walltown they will never see again.
About a year ago, the traditional barbershop reopened its shuttered doors to a new generation of Walltown residents.
"I've always been told, 'if you want to get a sense of a neighborhood, go to the local barbershop,'" says Rodney Bower, one of two barbers who run the shop these days.
"It's a significant place. Welcome to the shop, man. This place got history-so many stories have been told inside these walls."
As children on bicycles race by outside Miracles' air-conditioned chill, temperatures reach a scorching 93 degrees. Bower's rusty fold-out chair guards the entrance to the shop.
Jay Jones opens the barbershop's screen door and positions himself in a chair.
Bower switches on a single lantern, casting a yellow light on the shop.
On Fridays and Saturdays, Bower says he can get as many as 30 customers, ages five and up. A normal haircut costs $10. Jones will have to pay an extra $2 for his braids.
Walltown is a close-knit community, Bower explains as he circles around Jones, and the barbershop is an important part of the neighborhood.
"It's a place where you shoot the breeze, conversate, you know," Jay Jones says as he lifts his chin. "This place is like a beauty salon for the men. You go and you gossip about what's going on."
Bower emphasizes the fact that everything in the shop is original, right down to the combs and brushes.
"It looks just like it did yesterday. Everything you see, everything, I would say antique," Bower says with pride, pointing to an electric razor at the checkerboard that old timers still use.
Across the room, an old green sign indicates that patrons of Miracles must abide by certain rules-no use of profanity, no smoking, no loitering, no drugs or alcohol.
"Thank you and have a blessed day," the sign reads.
That's the way it always has been at Miracles, Glover says.
"Well, it was a fine place to go to, because you wouldn't meet nobody during that week and then you would go there, play checkers, you know, sit around talking," says Glover.
Glover does not remember the last time he got his hair cut at Miracles, and it is not likely he will return.
After all, it just wouldn't be the same.
"I don't know what a lot of these young folks are doing," says Frank McRay, who went to Miracles back in the mid-1970's and has since moved out of Walltown.
He, like Glover, does not plan on returning to Miracles.
"It's not the way it was forty years ago," says Glover. "There's a new breed, you know what I'm saying, a new breed, and it's hard to get back to the way it was.
"It's hard to get something like that back. Maybe, though, over a period of years."
Although it might not be the way it was, Bower has faith that Miracles will be the go-to spot for a new generation of Walltown residents.
"The community is glad to see that a few black men are keeping the dream alive for this place, rather than let it sit here and do nothing," Bower says.
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