FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13TH., 2024
HOMETOWN MEMORIES!
I'm intrigued with "Used To Be's." Places
and buildings out of my past that are gone now
or changed in their use from their vision in my
memory.
Thomas Wolfe wrote "You Can't Go Home
Again" but that's not really true. Memories
and phots can take you there anytime you'd
like to go.
A Facebook friend took me back to my
old neighborhood through a couple of
pictures she turned up from her family's
collection.
Just a block away from the home in which
I was born stood a small Shoemaker's shop. I
was sent there often.
Back "in the day" you had shoes repaired
rather than replaced. And you did it until they
couldn't be repaired anymore!
I can still remember the wonderful aroma
of leather in that shop and the "German accent"
of the man whose craftsmanship preserved
much of the DeCosmo footwear in those days.
But I was just a kid and never really knew
very much about the Craftsman himself!
That's where my Facebook friend comes
in! One of my previous blogs referred to
places in my old neighborhood. After reading
it Sharon Kadler Montone asked if I remembered
her Grandfather's shoe repair shop!
And so it is, after all these years, I learn
that Charles Schiel was born in Vienna, Austria
in 1894. He learned his trade there and was
eventually brought to America through an
effort of the church I attended in my home
town of Hazleton.
Charles and his wife Myra were
friends with my Mom and Dad. They lived
just a few blocks away.
Mr. Schiel worked in his little shop
for 55 years finally retiring at age 80. He
passed away in 1985 at age 91.
The shop is gone now. There's an
empty lot in its place. I don't pass that way
very often these days but when I do I look
at that spot and remember the machines and
the smell of the leather as if it were yesterday.
How ironic my wife and I were
in Austria earlier this year and now I'm
learning about its native son who kept me
in my Buster Brows for so many years!
There are ways to "go home again."
Hope you do occasionally and that all your
NEWS is good.
