This is a story, in photo and in writing.

I'll just tell the story how I experienced it. This is a series of photos which tell a story, one which I experienced. I suppose this is why it might feel more special to me than it would to others, but nontheless, here it is, no fanfare.

My boots. With the line of work that I do, they are one of the most important things I wear, six days a week, eight hours a day. They're important.

They started to come apart at the soles. They are fully rebuildable, repairable, servicable, but I had no idea where to start to look for a shoe repair man. How often have you had to repair a shoe? Most of the time you just throw them away anymore. Right?

I found one shop in the phone book. I called, a man answers the phone, just from the first words he says to me I can tell he has charachter. I tell him I have boots which need reapir and was wondering if I could bring them in to have him look at them. He says "I guess so...if you bring them in today I could have them done by Tuesday." I ask him if there is a problem and he goes on to explain that he is going out of buisness on Tuesday May 09 (it was Friday).

I bolted over there after work. He tells me to take my boots off and sit. I'm in the front of the shop, the machines are in the back, behind the counter and through a door.

I'm standing at the counter talking to him while he works on my boots, and I can barely hear him, so I ask if I can come back so we can talk better.

First, let me explain his mannerism. East coast, Italian. Take Al Pachino's voice, attitude, talk, accent, everything about Al Pachino without actually having Al Pachino stand in front of you, and you have Jim Falone, a third generation cobbler. His charachter was

"Sure sure, come on back."

I come back and immediately my eyes were saturated with pure photo oppurtunities. There was a story there, which I knew if I did not take advantage of, I'd never had a chance to shoot again.

He liked to talk. He'd talk talk talk, and if what he was talking about was boring, he made up for it with charachter. During one of his pausesI ask him, "Hey......You mind if I get my camera and take some pictures?"

"YOU wanna take piktures? Take piktures of me?! Sure, get your camera, take piktures, I don't care. Make me famous. If I become famous one day I'll share the cut with you. Yeah mang, take some piktures"

So I went back to my car got my camera, and started taking photos.

He starts stitching my sole back onto my boot. "This machine weight one ton." This I didn't doubt. "When these machines break, they're done, but they never break, they dont make them anymore, they don't make things like they used to. China is killing us. You buy a pair of shoes and throw them away. You, you're smart, you like good things like these boots, you can fix them, they'll last you a long time. I'll fix them up good for you." I made a comment about not being able to buy parts for the machines anymore. He bursts out, "You, you're a smart guy! Educated! You're no dummy! I like you"

He's telling me how his father started the shop in 1949. He has pictures on the wall of his father in the shop years ago. "I have to cut cords on tuesday. I have a few big guys from the bronx coming down to buy my equipment and move it" I asked him what he meant by cut chords, "These machines have been here so long, they are hard wired into the electricity. i have to cut chords on Tuesday, they're selling the building, I am outta here"

I asked him what he was going to do after this he said "What am I going to do?! I'm gonna be workin with you." I kind of chuckled, because I knew it wasn't far fetched.

He had stories, and a LOT of them. When he had a story to tell he'd say "You wanna know somethin funny? Here's somethin funny! Well, you might not think so..." and he'd go on to tell a little story, and you would sit there waiting for the funny part, and realize, the story was over. Charachter.

After being in the shop for almost an hour, as he talked to me and worked on my boots, he finally finished them up. He gave me some hand tools, crimpers for rivets, "See those drawers, go and take whatever you want out of them, I won't need that shit anymore." I regret not having taken more, he would't have cared.

The charge was eight dollars, I would have paid twenty, I told him to make it ten.

I wonder what he's doing now. I hope he is well. Maybe someday I will run into him again.

This is just a small experience of mine, but one that I will never forget, for whatever reasons I was completely fascinated by the story. A small chunk of history.

"We're a dying breed son. People don't need people like us no more. It is what it is."

May 2006

Infos
Canon AE-1 ~ 28mm & 50mm ~ Ilford HP5+ @ 400