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Tuesday, Oct. 07, 2008

Tight times in the midstate: Longtime hairdresser makes adjustments, urges others to cut back

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories about how the economic downturn is affecting Middle Georgians.

Marian Heath, a 65-year-old hairdresser, has some practical advice for getting by when the bills pile up and cash is hard to come by: Don't let it get you down.

"People made it a long time ago. They didn't have cars, they didn't have lights. If they could make it, we can make it," said Heath, who has been styling hair in downtown Macon for nearly half a century.

Heath, who caters to both men and women at the House of Johnson hair shop on Poplar Street, has seen a gradual drop in customers during the years.

"Times are tight," she said, "no doubt about it."

On a recent morning, Heath, in a black hat and a smock, slicked down a customer's hair, tucked it under a plastic cap to set and then held forth on everything from the sluggish economy to personal finance.

"One thing you've got to learn is that you can't spend money like you used to," she said. "You've got to cut back. If you're living in a house and it's real big and your notes are real big and you know that your money's getting sunk, you don't have to let the house go into foreclosure. Sell it to somebody that can afford the house. ... Or, you might have to let it go into foreclosure and get you a little house. ... And gas is expensive so you can't be riding everywhere like you used to. You don't go riding all over town being nosy, checking this out and checking that out. Use your common sense."

She remembers when downtown was "a little New York."

"Everybody would come downtown dressed up on Saturday," Heath said. "So many people you couldn't hardly walk."

Nowadays, with foot traffic not what it used to be, walk-in business is sluggish.

"There's a decrease in the customers," Heath said. "A lot of the people come by and they say they've lost their jobs. The economy is just going, going, going, going. It's going away. ... Ten years ago, if you came back in here it would be jam-packed. ... And people don't have anything to tip lately."

Heath, who on occasion coiffed the locks of James Brown and Otis Redding, doesn't have trouble saving money on food.

"Really, I don't eat that much anyway," she said. "If somebody had to feed me, they wouldn't have a problem. I'm not a big eater."

At 65, she figures she is doing her part to help the economy.

"If I can work," she said, "there's a whole lot of more people out there that can work."

While an evangelist-healer TV show blared in the background at the style shop, Heath said people need to "put their trust in God" and know when to put their checkbooks away.

"If you don't have the money," she said, "you don't go buying no $60,000 car when you know you can't pay for it. You don't go buy no $300,000 house when you know you can't pay for it. There's a whole lot of houses in the paper that have been foreclosed that you can go buy and buy them for little or nothing. ... If you go to try and build a house in this day and time you're just sick."

To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of stories about how the economic downturn is affecting Middle Georgians.