Orby Jr Moss
Orby Moss Jr. recounts his youth living on Copeland Avenue while his father owned the Moss Barber Shop directly next door. He vividly remembers entertainers from the Avalon Ballroom going to his father’s shop and visiting his home as well.
Transcript
Location: 532 Copeland Ave. (currently where the Board Store is today at 524 Copeland Ave.)
On Copeland Avenue the barber shop was on the corner. My dad had a bigger home moved by a friend of our’s, Swanson’s Moving Company, behind the barber shop. Part of the house was too big for the lot so they actually cut off a room on the house and moved it next to the barber shop and that became my home where I was born. We later moved to, and I’m gonna say this, you’re gonna laugh, the “big house.” But that was our area.
And Avalon Ballroom was three blocks from our house so all of the Black entertainers got word that there was a Black barber in town. They knew of our family and used to visit my dad’s barber shop and visit our home. I was too young to know who they were, really, but I’m told now who have come through our house, and it was… it was interesting