Buggy whipped.

• Author: Dodson, Jim
• Position: Town Square - Carthage Buggy Festival

Carthage, the Moore County seat, might have been the Detroit of the South. Now the town celebrates a proud history while facing a challenging future.

Anchoring a southwest corner of the town square in Carthage, the City Barber Shop has long been a daily gathering spot for local news, views and friendly gossip --the ideal place to take the pulse of an old town. "Just about everyone in town comes in here at one point or another: judges, lawyers, farmers, business folks, especially mamas wanting their kids' hair cut for church on Sunday," owner Lee Chriscoe says as he works on a squirmy youngster's buzz-cut late on a warm Friday afternoon. "This shop has always been a good place to find out what's going on in town. Been that way since Gene Warren opened the place way back when."

That year was 1946, not long after Warren returned from piloting a Navy minesweeper during the D-Day invasion. He left Moore County only one other time--for a two-month stint at barber school in Durham--and soon opened City Barber Shop in the town's former movie house, charging a dollar for a good haircut, a dime for a decent shoeshine.

In tribute to his predecessor, who local lore holds was so frugal he once listed his farm mule as a dependent on his federal tax returns, Chriscoe, 49, made only a few updates to the shop when he took over 12 years ago. He kept the antique apothecary jars full of Lance crackers, a humming Coke machine from the Jimmy Carter years and a shoeshine stand that hasn't had a paying customer in years. Fading sports pennants adorn the upper walls. The only visible nod to 2015 is the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, silently playing Fox News.

"I watched John Edwards on that TV set when he was runnin' for president," says an old-timer waiting his turn for a trim. He grins and winks. "Too bad he didn't get his hair cut in here. He'd have gotten some useful advice and saved a helluva lot of money." Edwards, who hails from nearby Robbins, preferred $400 cuts that drew derision during his disastrous run for the presidency in 2008. At City Barber Shop, $12 would have won him a good haircut and some local wisdom.

City Barber Shop is an unapologetic throwback to a slower time in North Carolina, a symbol of the way life remains in Carthage. Its stagnant economy has locals anxious--general-fund revenue isn't covering the town's expenses, and expensive improvements for water and sewer systems are overdue. Hundreds of rural towns in the state share the...