Burnt Cork Beards

True, I was only a child as well as an only child when the pictures were taken.

If anyone still has a copy.....please set it afire.

Better yet, I will come clean.

On my birthday in 1951, my father decided to organize a "bums" birthday party. The highlight of the party were the paper hats that my father had made for each of the little bums who would attend. I guess nobody in the hood knew quite  how to dress like a "bum" because none of our families had a lot of money and in the adjoining town we were all looked upon as city kids/bums even before the party.

About ten kids showed up, all from the Avenue. I don't remember much about what they were wearing to look like bums but I remember they all had burnt cork blackface on thei chins and sideburns. The burnt cork maquerade was meant to suggest beards.

I was the only kid without the cork. I felt like a town kid in the city. I didn't fit. My parents immediately sensed the problem and presto, they corked me up as well. We all looked alike. We put on our paper hats and had a wonderful party.

Now almost seventy years later, I begin to realize my insensitivity. I and the kids on my block, along with the parents who enabled us were saying something terrible about beards. We were suggesting all of the stereotypes that men with beards would wind up facing throughout our lives.

Bums

Slobs

Hippies

Tramp

Beatniks

Derelict

Lazy

Dirty

Poorly Kempt

Bomb Throwing Radicals

Communists

Homeless

Hobo

Draft Dodgers

Stinking

Urban 

Hicks

Longhairs

And that's just scratching the surface, which we tend to do quite often when we decide to harvest a beard.

I grew my beard on dare when I was 22.....50 years ago. I've kep it for the entirity of my life. My own children and grandchildren wouldn't recognize me without it.

Yet only recently have I become aware of the pain that I had caused myself when I recalled that party so many years ago.

Yes, times have changed thanks mainly to athletes, movie stars and musicians who have sported a wide variety of beards and whiskers as they acheived fame but no thanks to Charles Manson and currently Ted Cruz.

The stereotype still lingers as I remember the pain inflicted upon me by those judgmental folks who couldn't stand me, from the moment they laid eyes upon me including one of my supervisors who suggested that perhaps it might be better for everyone if I quit teaching and learned to drive a truck.

Okay, even though I haven't shaved, I've come clean. If you have the picture go ahead and release it.

Nobody will care anyways.

I've got nothing to lose except my beard itself.