 Him and I have done a lot of things in this town, some we can talk about and some we're not going to talk about. My name is Bust Toy and I've been in Freeport most of my life. I had a barbershop here for 50 years and I've been a friend of John's, I think I've been a friend of John's Shoops for a whole lot of years and but I was pretty much led astray by John as a young fellow because I was a country boy and John kind of took me by the hand and showed me how the city boys lived. My name's John Choup. I've lived here all my life, I'm 83 years of age now. My business was where we're sitting right now, the men's clothing business and it was started by my great-great-grandfather back before the Civil War and it was a men's clothing business and it was a wonderful life and the great thing about it was that I got to talk with all the old timers telling me what Freeport was like when they were young and there were phenomenal stories telling about when the distillery was here and they made the whiskey and a lot of them had parents that drove the buggies that hauled the barrels from one place to another but it had a reputation that it was everybody in town was a drinker but it wasn't true because it got so bad that people were drinking that they had to outlaw drinking for a while in Freeport. And so the whiskey kind of disappeared completely until after the prohibition but at one time they claimed that when you went out in the town in the evening you took a bottle of whiskey with you and when you were done with the evening you just poured the second bottle of whiskey down the drain because you knew tomorrow you could get back and get another gallon of whiskey. So it had a reputation for people drinking and it continued on into my generation and it was kind of funny because we had an exchange student come up from South America and proceeded to tell her folks about the history of Freeport and all the whiskey that had been made at the distillery and when they came up for her graduation the father was invited out to dinner quite often and nobody ever offered him a drink and finally one night they went to a house and going down the steps to the guy's shop the guy said would you like a shot of whiskey and he reached up under the steps and pulled a bottle out that it was hidden that his wife didn't want to know anything about it and my remembrance of there was before my stage that they closed them but I can still remember having women coming into my store that they didn't want anybody in town knowing that they were buying whiskey at the state store so they would ask me give me the money and ask me to go ahead and buy them the whiskey yes I remember those days yeah that's happened more than once right yeah yep but the old days were were kind of tough around here a lot of rough people through Freeport yep because this was the Freeportage along the Allegheny River back right the boats could come down the rafts and so forth the Allegheny River and they could park along the shoreline here not be charged at anything and that's where they got the name Freeport yeah and that was back in oh well 1830s from there up to the Steve brings a lot of good points in that book that he wrote about very much so he has a excellent rundown he's done a lot of research done a good job yeah they run it for other tricks I think we ought to have one I started to tell you the jokes about about he was having an electrical problem back here in the in the dress room and I used to monkey my electricity and stuff so he got out of metal ladder and got me up on the ladder these wires are hanging there and so I said John is the electricity turned off oh yeah yeah bus it's turned on well I get up there and I got to messing around and I put a couple wires together a man the sparks flew and I said thanks John I thought maybe Joanne was paying him to get rid of me I didn't know but every Friday we got together for lunch and then we sat at a table like this and we played gin and it was we kept score the whole year and what the prize was at the end of the year was a case of beer the whole year we played for that and I mean it was pride that you you won the beer people used to come in just to see who was winning and who was cheating and oh yeah people come in just to watch us because of our comments calling each other liars and so forth well here's to you well I think you had the same thing I had with the people coming in and telling me stories in the barbershop he had people come in every day and one in particular I can remember that had a new joke to tell every never repeated same story Hermes Delatano we used to come in every morning he'd bring the paper bring our coffee and he would tell jokes all day long on one day George Bailey was a magician from out here in the country and Doc Heilman was a heart surgeon in Don Trenham they were at the barbershop at the same time and I remember the three of them standing by over by the cash register and Doc would tell a joke and then George would say now just a minute I got one for you and then it would be to Hermie and he'd tell one and that went on I'll bet you for a half an hour people used to just come in and listen to them and had a great time there was more conversation back in those days that people would just come in and sit down and even when I was working they would talk away and you would pick up tidbits for instance I remember one guy lived across the street here Bert Walsh oh yeah and Bert was oh up in his 90s I think and he got telling about his experiences with the boats or the rafts coming down the river with the lumber and the oil on and at the upper end of town he would row out and meet up with them and take their orders and then he would come back in and his mother being baked goods then they would drive down the lower end of town and catch up with the boat and go out and deliver and make the money but there were so many stories like that but you know John back getting back to the barbershop used guys used to come in and play cards and they'd be sitting there playing gin while we were cutting hair and people would come in and it was just a on a group setting you know people always conversation and stuff and yeah those were the days and I I miss the people okay John do you remember the railroads very they had the railroad across in BJ in the old BJ yeah and they would bring stuff down from Butler and up from Pittsburgh car loads of stuff and then they'd put the locomotive on a turnbuckle turn it around and it would take that whatever it might be back down from south but Freeport was very much of a railroad town so many of the people that lived in town a big percentage on the railroad yeah and what's interesting my great great grandfather had an opportunity to buy a lot in Pittsburgh where the courthouse is now but he decided against it because he felt that Freeport had a greater chance of growing than what Pittsburgh did so you talk about making a mistake in life yeah but that was interesting but a lot of railroaders and just well they had a big kisky junction over here yeah and that would make on the other side of the river yeah and that's I remember they used to bust them like from Altoona to kisky to economy to the different what was great was before that was a canal which crossed the Elagetti River just above Freeport and then it came down the canal came down through Freeport to Pittsburgh and I have ledgers telling my great great grandfather would get on the boat in say on a Friday and go into Pittsburgh stay overnight shop and then come back the next day and it was a slow trip but they had a viaduct which was wood and the boats were drug across it and lo and behold it burned down which one they had the station down here yeah about what between second and third yeah and I remember going down there and getting on the train and going down to Aspenwall I had a nant down there yeah and I remember that that was big then they had a newsstand right at the bottom at the bottom and and that was that was big then oh but to hear the trains go through town I would have cousins come visit and in the morning they'd say did you hear that noise in the night we know what are you talking about here a train came through time and we were so used to it you just slept through it well that was the thing we got got so used to them even being where we're at oh yeah now that you didn't even notice them didn't even know they were going by no but the trains were big okay the magic of Hollywood John we got a new table and nobody knew the difference I'll bet I'll bet I could whoop your butt with cards on this table you ask for it but I'll tell you you'll pay dearly for it John do you remember the time you came out to the house and we were playing cards and how you and I are always cheating I mean you're always cheating and I told you to keep the boys were coming up Karen's boys and so I got my 357 magnum out and we had you knew about it and so we're playing cards and you started cheating and I grabbed laid the gun on the table and the boys looked they thought oh grandpa's lost it he's totally lost it we had more fun as far as playing cards together over the years and like you say we had people come down just to watch us we used to sit back there in the back every Friday afternoon for about an hour or so and just play cards yeah people would come in to see who was doing the most cheating and it was always John but that was okay but you know John we've had good years in Freeport yep I can't think of a place I would have rather spent 50 years cutting hair right well same but you figure it was my great great grandfather that got here and started his business down by the river originally because that's where all the trade was the boats were coming down the river then when transportation with automobiles and trucks came in they moved up to the main street here so things have changed in Freeport every generation but it's for the best wasn't your store the oldest family owned store in the united states mids clothing store yeah yeah yeah started before the civil war and I still have all the ledgers and diaries from back at that time wow and it's interesting just to get through I bet it's interesting just to see what you paid for a pair of jeans in and what they're worth it has all that information and how John now when the jeans got more and out and stuff we threw them away now you pay dearly for them more not true it's a big change worn out jeans but companies like Woolrich were started same time as our store was started yingling beer I kid yingling it was started in 1829 we were started in 1830 so it was a Pennsylvania firm that we know John I like a little yingling boy you can't beat the old whiskey you know oh yeah and the whiskey Freeport's been famous for that for years oh yeah it's not anymore and it's a shame yeah but who knows some day John remember the characters we had remember the characters we used to have in town they all had nicknames yes and they all people didn't look down on the characters that we had in Freeport they fit in they were just people that were different than what we were but they were still good people talking about that John do you remember Mark Kamer's restaurant up here oh my yeah and how the people passing through they used to call them bums would knock on the door yeah and she'd bring them in and feed them feed them and then they'd be on their way if you was in that restaurant one time the next time you went in and sat down for a cup of coffee Bertha would say you're not new here get up and get your coffee yourself that's right and they hit the round round table the back all the locals came in you were free to sit down wherever you wanted to and one time we had a guy in town that came up to me and said John I want to talk to you he said I found something on the table up at Bob Kamer's and I knew you went one up there all my buddies like you would go on vacation they'd send me these postcards saying dear daddy mommy's told us so much about you why don't you come visit and I said Bertha don't worry there's no truth to that so you can leave it at the table would John do you remember Bob Moody the actual American boxer yeah the only guy that ever knocked Joe Lewis out huh and they ran Bob Moody out of training camp and he used to come in to mock Hamers all the time oh yeah yep and he lived up at Mill Street correct yeah correct up towards the brickyard yep up and the brickyard was a big part of the as a kid I can remember going up there walking up and our next door neighbor he was the guy that took care of all the mules and so forth and he was a blacksmith and John Kerr John Kerr lived over on 4th Street right right across the alley from the Masonic Lodge right and and John Kerr lived across from D. E. Taylor yeah and D. E. Taylor was a surveyor that had surveyor yeah that had an office up here above your store he was above and his son his son was out in Hollywood and he was a producer director movie star and I remember as a kid he married a a British model yeah she was gorgeous yeah and I remember some of those guys used to sit on Kerr's front porch and look over at the models a little bit I remember some of those guys used to do that right well I never would do that but I remember the guys matter of fact I think I had a front row seat good good my great great grandfather kept a weather book because his business depended so much on him he's along the river and as long as the rivers open barges are coming down but if it freezes over you know he's done I can remember my great great grandfather depended on the barges coming down the river and the rafts tied up with the lumber and whiskey and so or oil from up in oil city oh yeah and they would tie up down here free of charge uh yeah they used to do a lot and and then when the water was low when the river was low they couldn't get through they couldn't get through they had a backup therefore his business was done so he had a weather book to show every day of the year what it was like and you know we feel bad when it's raining out but he was glad to see the rain come down because that brought the river up and then he knew the flow of rafts would be coming from up in oil city and he'd be doing some business and it was pretty much the canal ran through town where the railroad now runs through town but uh it came the whole way from Philadelphia the canal from Philadelphia the whole way to Pittsburgh and fortunately it went through Freeport and this brought a lot of popularity at that time because Freeport was a big center would you on about when about when was the canal done away with then I mean when was the era that the canal would have been I would say about 1860 that uh and then is that when the railroad started the railroad started they found it was so much more efficient than what the canal was and so that's they took the railroad or the canal line and that's pretty much where they put the railroad because the railroad follows the rivers and the creeks and so forth to keep the elevation flat yeah you know I I often thought that they made a big mistake when they took all the rails up and everything from Butler down to clear down the rails yeah yeah because I think I think that that could have been passenger trains that would have alleviated a lot of traffic off the highways that I would love to see Freeport come up with in the future a transit system into Pittsburgh yeah because we have the right away right and why not use it and build it up that way so I hope that comes up they did a lot of good things in the past and I wonder why they did away with for the future yeah yeah but uh the canal was a very important part of Freeport at that time but as far as some of the old things in town that mirror behind me came out of the old Monogahilla hotel that was more or less a hotel in Pittsburgh that took in all the the big boats that came up the Ohio River from Cincinnati and all and there was this mirror and my great uncle bought it and put it in a flatbed truck and brought it up and set it up and it's been sitting there for as long as I could remember isn't it amazing back in those days how they could do that and not break it and not break it isn't it true yeah they didn't have the paved highways like they have now it's yeah I'm marvel at things like that yes and then a lot of these old buildings that used to be in Freeport up here in the corner John was the old Hesselgeser store wasn't it sure the grocery store grocery store right and then going up high street on the right there was the bank and then I think was nobles feed store yeah and then wasn't volettos didn't they did a voletta have a little fruit market in there yeah and then there was bronze meat market yeah and then there was new berks new berks cover form yeah and then on the other side well then you had the funeral home but what was in there before the funeral home was kind of interesting in the sense that it was built years ago and it's a real monument here in town and that was something that has been around for a long time then the catacorders from the from the funeral home used to be a furniture store yeah yeah and then on the other across straight across from the funeral home wasn't that a telephone company or telephone company north Pittsburgh telephone but not the original the original telephone company was up here by the alley the old three port telephone and telegraph in fact I think that but I know isn't it still in the rock up there I think it's still above the door that says north Pittsburgh telephone but that was right up here next to the alley then across the alley john there used to be a newspaper stand okay yeah and then on up from that joe vetus had a jewelry store yeah and then up from that was Aussie's dry cleaner yeah then there's a building that we had you know Aussie was quite a character he was uh death he I want to tell you a story about anything but Aussie every day I would come in as a kid up to my dad's store and he would have a pile of clothes that had to be pressed and so I had to take it up the Aussies so I would take it up and here is this guy that is a death what is it when you mute and I found that more about what was going on in town from Aussie he could stay in there and talk with me and I don't know how I did it but I understood but I got all the gossip in town from a death mute which is pretty tough to come by John do you remember back in the day when they used to make money a call to the Italian people would make money a call to and if you ate Bunya called a don't reason anybody no so her me still a thing over the guy that used to come in the shop every day was going to church Sunday morning and he had been out Saturday night meeting Bunya called and so on and so forth but Aussie was already in church and he was sitting at the front of the church and in comes her me smelling a Bunya called and Aussie is going he spied he spied her me he goes her me said I could have killed him and then do you remember Aussie had a brother no no that used to hitchhike all the time and if you picked him up in your car he changed the radio channel right away he put on whatever station he wanted I don't remember that but you know what I remember is I miss the days as a kid anywhere I wanted to go I got out there with my thumb yeah and I took off I went to college for four years and how I got back and forth to college every time was with my thumb I never had a bad experience I met some very interesting people and I think it's a shame and I hope someday we could get back to that stage that we have faith in each other yeah that we can let a kid do something like that but unfortunately no we can't right now but then John coming on down then on high street cross the street was the hardware Montgomery's hardware yeah yeah but back in the day John there was a lot of business here oh yeah report yeah and I have a sheet showing before that the businesses that were in town for back in the early 1800s and none of the ones that we've been mentioning were very few of them wouldn't you love to see report back that way again or to my teeth to be able to get back to see it wouldn't my great great grandfather was here yeah but I think I learned so much about what it was like when I remember the conversations in the back of the store here in the three captain's chairs where my dad and doc Rogers who was right next door and the Catholic priest the four of the got together every morning was that father swiney or father bungee nor oh this was way before that but they would sit and shoot the breeze and in the middle between them they had a spittoon and they would sit there and chew tobacco and spit into that well my job every night was to mop the floor and clean up and I remember how I hated to empty that spittoon but to this day I still have that spittoon that's that's a rural relic and something to probably get together and see if we could hit that spittoon sometimes I never chewed tobacco I don't want to get started at this stage in my life