"My daddy was a World War I veteran. He always told us, 'Don't scratch when ain't nothing biting, don't laugh when ain't nothing funny, look people in the eye when you're doing business, stand up and be a man, and always tell the truth.' And he said, 'Worry don't help anything. If something going on and you can't do nothing about it, give it to God and he'll take care of it.' Worry will kill you quicker than anything. I come from a family of twelve children, and when we turned 18, my daddy said, 'You still got a place to live for as long as you need it, but you won't be making any rules in this house. The only ones making the rules around here are your mama and me.' He kept us under control, kept us straight. He told us, ‘When something comes up, any kind of trouble, just get on away from it. Don’t have nothing to do with it.’ I tried to raise my children the same way my parents did, and we never had any problem out of either one of them. If I had any advice for young people, it would be: 'Obey your mother and obey your father. Obey your teachers and obey the Lord.' If you do all that, God will take care of you. He took care of us. He brought us through."
Leo Whitmore is a long-time barber at the Highland Park Progressive Barber and Style Shop at 890 S. Highland Street (near the intersection of Highland and Park).
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