I didn’t know there were any shoe repair shops left in America, most of the people I know just go and get new shoes when their old ones fall apart, which they do with regularity.
Joe Napolitano has a shoe repair shop in Bennington, just off the main drag in Bennington, a few miles from the radio station where I do my Talking To Animals broadcast every Wednesday.
The shop looks like a 100 year-0ld -photo there is a rich smell of oil and leather, shoes stacked every where and hand written signs pointing out the rules of the store.
Joe is from Italy and speaks with a heavy Italian accent, I brought him a pair of pull-on shoes, one of the tabs on the back was opening a tear in the heel. Joe looked at the shoe with some disgust but said he could fix it and gave me a yellow ticket.
I parked right in front of his shop. I’ll pick them up in a day or so.
I looooove shoe repair shops. LOVE them . This is the old world, before consumerism became our god. Things were repaired, not replaced. Socks were darned. Holes mended. That was the way it WAS. I live with one leg in the new world but my other leg and foot, stays glued to the old. I revere the old.
I also love the OLD ways of doing things. I relish them. My home is old. My stuff is old. When I find old things it’s like an old friend. I am here to tell the tales and history of old. I take that as an honor. I teach youth, who have no reverence for old. I live the old way. I love old.
There is something magical about a shoe repair shop. We have a wonderful one in a nearby town. When I leave shoes there to be fixed, they magically get made like new – even polished to a lovely shine. I could stay there and breathe the air all day, with the odor of leather, polish, glue, and sweat. It smells of competence and care.
I think we have at least 5 shoe repair shops in Madison, Wisconsin! For some reason the old ones often seemed to be in quonset huts — maybe because the owners were often immigrants and the huts were affordable?