The Scribbler got a haircut the other day.

The haircut was good, but the story that came with it was better.

The hair cutter explained how she is saving money during tough economic times.

She is cutting the hair of a seamstress.

The seamstress is not paying her cash.

In exchange, the seamstress is refitting the hair cutter's clothes.

Money, an increasingly scarce item (except with the federal government, which can't print it fast enough to give it away) is not part of the bargain.

So the Scribbler is thinking: Who wants a  page of professional prose in exchange for a half gallon of frozen yogurt?

Barter is an ancient trading scheme. It preceded money. Money was invented by people who didn't have a valuable service to trade.

Barter re-emerged as a significant commercial tool during the Great Depression when millions of Americans had no jobs or money.

For example, this notice from the New Era of Feb. 24, 1933, explains how local residents bartered fuel for food.

The first barter deal from the 125-acre farm at Pequea acquired this week by the Garden Spot Co-operative Colony was announced today.

In exchange for a load of fuel, wood cut on the farm, a dressed hog was secured from a local butcher and arrangements also have been made to secure a side of beef in exchange for another consignment of wood.

Practically everyone has something to barter.

Finding someone to accept the other end of the bargain is the challenge.


The twin pools of Brookside


Here's a miniaturized copy of a postcard of Brookside's twin swimming pools, sent in by Irene Buch, of Manor Township.

"When the Golden Meadows swimming pool was facing the financial question of possibly closing down," Buch recalls, "My heart immediately fell to the closing of one of Lancaster's great swimming pools."

Buch provides a capsule history of Brookside.

Silas K. Buckwalter built the first Brookside pool along the Harrisburg Pike beside Long's Park in 1914.  He and his wife, Helen, managed it and later constructed a twin by its side.

In 1946, Gennie and the late Paul Diller bought the pools. They managed them for many years before selling to Robert King, who eventually sold them to T.R. Donnnelley & Sons to expand the company parking lot.

Before the Brookside bathhouse was demolished, Buch wrote a poem about it to Gennie Diller. Buch pretended she was the bathhouse, having survived years of use and abuse.

"I've had nails driven into me, holes bored through me, people running back and forth inside me and money dropped under me." said the bathhouse, in part. "Boys throw rubber balls at my side just to hear the noise I make."

Some old buildings are as special as old people, Buch was saying.

And some are more so.

Discouraging telemarketers

Lancastrian Shirley Shatto likes her Himalayan cat.

She does not like telemarketers.

This is  the recorded message Shatto uses to screen calls:

"If you are a telemarketer, don't bother because the cat's too busy taking a nap to answer the phone."

Shatto says this works. Telemarketers don't bother her.

Or her cat.


Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781. The Scribbler column appears Tuesdays and Fridays.