I know I’ve shared a lot about my gratitude of my childhood. One of the reasons I do is because I think my childhood was unique to those who grow up in rural, small town, farming America. I meet many people from around the world and it seems my childhood was different in many ways from others. One of those ways, was shoe repair. I remember going to the Amish or to a man in Warrensburg to drop-off or pick-up shoes, bags, etc… They would repair our shoes or straps. One time when my Mom and I were yard sell shopping, we saw a nice basket type bag with leather straps, only one of the straps was broken. It didn’t faze us, because we could take it to the shoe repair guy who would fix it.

Here there are cordonneries (shoe repair) along many roads. These men sometimes have their own booth or sometimes they roam for business. Saturday, David wanted to get his shoes repaired and left with his shoes in hand. Normally, we go to a guy who is on the next street over who has a place he sits on the road. Within minutes I heard David return and he was talking with someone. I looked out and saw a man with his wooden box of supplies come inside our gate and start working on David’s shoes. This was the first time we had a show repair person come to us. For the equivalent of $2, this man by hand sewed the sole of David’s shoes back onto the shoe.