From left, Mik Davis, Will Poynor, Harry Crumpler, Harry Crumpler Jr. and Shaw Ingram
Harry Crumpler Jr. You won’t find Harry Crumpler Jr., Harry’s dad, out on the floor “where the music is too loud,” but tucked away in an office in the back, crunching numbers and providing analysis of one type or another. “It’s not fun or glamorous, but has a certain amount of enjoyment,” he said. Jr. grew up in Magnolia in southwest Arkansas. His dad was a state judge who raised horses and Dalmatian dogs as a hobby. “He loved horses more than his work,” Jr. said. “His hobby was my job.” Jr. said Magnolia was a nice town to grow up in, “but was insulated from the outside world. And the horse farm outside town made me more insulated.” Before graduating high school, Jr. helped his half brother, who lived in Arkansas, open a restaurant. Jr. loved carpentry and electronics, so was suckered into helping open the business on a shoestring budget. “I was at that age H. Crumpler Jr. where everything seemed exciting. If they’d asked, I would have said, ‘Yea, I’ll dig a ditch, call me.’” Instead he built the cabinets and installed the sound system for the place that would be known as Cash McCools. “I had helped open a place I wasn’t old enough to go into,” he said. “While I’ve done professional work most of my life, it was more satisfying to do that type of work,” he said. He also helped open a second Cash McCools in Meridian. “The day after I graduated high school I headed to Meridian to open No. 2,” he remembers. It was there that he also met his future wife, Jennifer. “We didn’t own these places, but established them. After that he wanted to open one of his own. “I’d never been to Hattiesburg, but loved the city. We were married and opened a Cash McCools here, which we kept for about 5 years before selling it,” he
said. He and Jennifer then both decided to attend USM and never left. Jr. decided to be a sociologist and went to Tulane to do graduate work. He loved teaching students and the classroom, but the pressure to publish and competitiveness was unappealing to him, so he did accounting work for the next 20 years until the downturn in 2008. And then he retired and came to the back office at TBones. “I’ve been here ever since, and have seen the business grow steadily.” Jennifer, who also played the trumpet like her husband, is district assistant manager for the social security office. Jr. said he’d been a musician since the 6th grade. So when Harry decided to join the band, “I strongly encouraged him to play brass, so I could teach him,” Jr said. “As parents we didn’t push, but we knew nothing about woodwinds when Harry opted for the saxophone and took off like a rocket with it. But it was the right choice for him.” Dad was also proud to brag that Harry made the State Lions Band for all four years of high school. “He traveled while Mom and Dad paid,” Jr. said. “He tried out the first year he could, which was as a 9th grader. The directors weren’t negative about the tryout, but usually only seniors try out and make it, but they did feel it would be a good experience for him. He tried out and made it and was first chair for three years.” So, as a freshman in high school at 14 years of age, Harry made his first Lions Band trip to Seoul, South Korea. “That was half way around the world and as parents we were very anxious about letting him go,” Dad said. “It was such a long way and he was at such a young age.” The couple went back and forth before finally saying yes. It was on the first day Harry was gone that the couple turned on the news and saw where a shopping mall
that band members had been scheduled to visit had pancaked to the ground. They frantically started calling, but no one spoke English and could help them. They finally connected with the band director, who assured them that everyone was O.K. Harry’s next trips were to Birmingham, England; Montreal, Canada and Philadelphia, Penn. “We would have much preferred he had been in Philly that first year,” Jr. said. As a member of the band, which would tour the South, Harry Jr. and Jennifer helped the young Harry and fellow band members buy a 15-passenger van they traveled in from Oklahoma to Miami, from Wednesday to Monday. “We were nervous about him being on the road,” Dad said. When Harry approached us about the possibility of buying T-Bones, we said, “It’s up to you.” “This month it will be 11 years. We didn’t have any idea what we were getting ourselves into. And it was beyond our wildest dreams we would be where we are today. We had no idea where to go or what to do. Harry was pretty much the only employee back then. Now we have 15.” It’s been a learning experience for all. “Harry was driven and loved music in a way that was rare to me,” Jr. said of the five or six artists he listened to. “Harry had thousands and taught me. Some music was kind of I find it enjoyable. I’ve ventured out. It’s something new all the time.” “A few years into ownership it started to become evident to the Crumplers that CDs were on the decline. “Downloads were popular and things were O.K., but what was down the road, we asked. As a small business we had to have a plan for next year and the next and four years down the road. What would replace CDs? We looked and kicked around some ideas and decided to go more in the direction of coffee and food.”
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