[AT] Some ads from the 10/8 Lancaster Farming

[Larry D. Goss]

:-)  One of the things I "inherited" from my great grandfather was his
set of cobbler tools.  In among the hand tools and lasts were a pair of
half soles and rubber heels.  All are right at 100 years old at this
point.  Their only value at this point is purely sentimental, but it's a
little hard for me to get too enthused about that as I suspect that he
was using the set (mail order from Sears) basically for helping to make
and repair harness.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Indiana
Robinson
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 11:03 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Some ads from the 10/8 Lancaster Farming

On 8 Oct 2005 at 17:43, Mike Sloane wrote:

> 
> 1,000's of old shoe laces, still v.g. cond., make offer.



	I still have an old file drawer of old laces from my 20 
years as a cobbler. I once sat a full wheelbarrow of new 
laces in the packages out at a flea market for some tiny 
price but couldn't sell many. With laces most folks would 
have no idea as to the huge number of types, lengths, 
colors etc. that are needed to be kept on hand in order to 
have anywhere near a complete stock. Then along comes the 
fad stuff...   :-)
	One thing I had observed over the years was the propensity 
of shoemakers to buy waaaay too much stock ahead. This was 
mostly the older fellows that had come through the 
shortages of WWII when rubber products were really hard to 
get. My father and my uncle both kept too much stock on 
hand and bought way too far ahead. Rubber soles and heels 
"age out" and will look good but fail quickly. That was not 
the kind of work I wanted to turn out. I did have the 
advantage of only being about 25 minutes away from my 
primary supplier (called a "finder" in the trade). I could 
go about once a week and pick up what I needed. Other guys 
not near a large city had always depended on a salesman 
calling on them every month or two or less. When my uncle 
died he had thousands and thousands of dollars of old stock 
some of which was as old as 30 years that he had not been 
able to get himself to throw away. I didn't like to use 
rubber that was over about 3 years old. A cordwainer friend 
here in town bought waaaay too much stuff on sale and even 
though he was only in business about 5 to 8 years when he 
retired he had at least $15,000 of unused stock still up in 
his attic. He wondered why he was not showing a decent 
profit...   :-)   Some salesman had convinced him that he 
was saving a bundle by buying in bulk but he would have 
been better off investing that money someplace else. Back 
in those days a bank CD would have paid at least 12%. There 
is almost zero market for that old stock when someone 
quits.  When I retired from that business I doubt that I 
had $500 of stock left. There were a couple of other 
advantages for me to make a weekly trip to Indy as I also 
bought stock and parts for the other businesses and we 
generally ate lunch out on those trips which was a nice 
break. (I had to use the "brakes" to take the "break")   :-
)   For a time we were recycling newspapers and we would 
take a load (about a ton) up each week and it would pay 
enough to pay for the gas, buy our lunch and sometimes 
leave a couple of dollars left over. Today I'm not sure a 
semi would do it...   :-)
	I was a very good shoemaker and my vendors often tried to 
get me to enter my work in the national silver cup 
competition but I had no interest in it. I am glad for the 
memories of those days but I am glad that they are just 
memories. My god how I hated putting zippers in tall 
boots...   :-)
	

-- 
"farmer"
Hewick Midwest

The master in the art of living makes little distinction 
between his 
work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and 
his body, 
his information and his recreation, his love and his 
religion. He 
hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision 
of 
excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide 
whether he 
is working or playing. To him he's always doing both. 
 ~ James A. Michener, attributed

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net

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