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whiskers grow.
“It was the first and last time in my life I grew a beard," recalls Breath, who is retired from the boat business. "It wasn’t very comfortable on my face, but I didn’t want to be punished again.”
Breath was one of many victims of a daily Kangaroo Court set up for those who refused to join Brothers of the Brush. Mayor Scafide himself was hauled before the court, charged with not seeing that all male city employees wore beards, top hats and the special centennial red-and-black string ties.
Subpoenas were served by Keystone Kops who gleefully hauled citizens before the judge for reasons other than no beards. The local newspaper, The Sea Coast Echo, reported that funeral director Kenneth Whitfield faced charges of resisting arrest, not embalming his customers and burying several of his customers alive.
Tavern owner Frank Trapani faced charges of fleecing his customers by cutting his spirits and putting too large a collar on his beers. "A vile charge of being a ‘Southern Yankee,’ ” was hurled at commercial artist A1 Summy who was also found guilty of being a bachelor.
Sentences ranged from dunlcings and time in the stocks, to "messy egg rubs and facial massages
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girls dressed as powderpuffs and lipstick performed a Cosmic Capers dance routine.
“The centennial celebration was never-ending,” Mrs. Noto recalls. "Every minute of every day was occupied with plays, parades, parties. Everything else in the town just stopped for the week.”
The grand finale was a beard-shaving contest for Brothers of the Brush. Since the entire Coast had followed the birthday antics of Bay residents, the widely-circulated Daily Herald reported the results:
“John Rutherford won the electric shaving contest by trimming off his hirsute whiskers in exactly three minutes and 50 seconds to beat out other furiously shaving rivals,” the paper reported about the winner who is now a circuit clerk.
And as whiskers fell to the floor, the Bay’s 100-plus-40 birthday party came to an end.
For helping to unravel the mystery behind the first incorporation date, my thanks to Charles L. Sullivan, social studies chairman at the Perkin-ston Campus of MGCJC; Dan Den Bleyksr, history researcher at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson; and Priina Wusnack, director of the Hancock County Library System.
Mayor John Scafide shares a look at the city's history with his wife (left) and Louise Crawford, librarian at the City-County Memorial Library. The library was located on Court Street.
COURTESY HANCOCK COUNTY