Ручная работа против индустрии: как изменились сапоги для больших размеров за последние десятилетия

My father had really big feet for someone in his day. They were size 13. This was back when basketball wasn’t popular and apparently there were not enough big-footed people to support stores that carried shoes for people with really big feet. Today I don’t know where all the big feet have come from; they apparently were not around in dad’s day. My father actually had his shoes made by the neighborhood shoemaker. It seems strange to have a shoemaker nearby and working wonders with leather as it is a disappearing art like blacksmithing. Since his handmade shoes were so comfortable, Dad insisted that all his children get a pair when their feet stopped growing. I did and I still have them. They fit like gloves and are, as advertised, very comfortable. They are also very formal, so they don’t get out much. Anyhow, when my father came home from work (which included the grueling commute from New York City to the suburbs), he would interrupt our watching of “Superman” (5 p.m. every weekday; we stood, held our hands over our hearts and we repeated his anthem), give us each a hug and then change into overalls and an old, worn pair of his handmade shoes, now dedicated to gardening. I thought having handmade gardening shoes was the height of luxury. My own choices in footwear to do anything in consisted of an off-the-shelf pair of P.F. Flyers or the leather shoes assigned for school and dress-up, which back in those days included flying. Shoes were the only items of clothing I didn’t get as hand-me-downs from my two older brothers. We had different-shaped feet and they grew fast, requiring new shoes often. I have vivid memories of shoe shopping with my mother. She took us to the same shoe store to get our shoes, and the same salesman waited on us. He called my mother “Mrs. Lowenfels” as he knew her name because she had three growing boys and bought shoes often. Shoes stores were all the same to me, so why go there? It was in the worst neighborhood, one so bad that it required taking the station wagon to bring the Great Dane to protect the car while we shopped. (They are lap dogs, but the neighborhood criminals didn’t know that.) Mom liked the way the owner did business, I guess. Back to dad’s gardening shoes. Flash forward to the present day. There is now footwear designed specifically for gardening. These come in all manner of styles and are made from lightweight, waterproof and washable materials. I’ve seen a fancy pair made from specially treated leather and countless others in various molded plastics. Dad would be in heaven! I am sure they all come in size 13. Looking at my own garden footwear, I don’t, and wouldn’t, use the pair of handmades Dad had me buy. (They look like they did the day they were made.) However, as a retired attorney, I do have plenty of fancy shoes befitting a suit. It is time to pull some of those attorney shoes out of my closet. I wonder where the Wright Arch Preservers are that a partner made me buy when I was a new associate? They are not handmade, but they are the fanciest shoes I ever bought. I don’t need a pair of plastic shoes when I can garden in leather luxury, almost like Dad. Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar: Alaska Botanical Garden: There is always too much to list here, so visit their website at alaskabg.org for the list, which ranges from all manner of yoga sessions, tai chi, workshops and a world-class botanical garden. What a great time to go. Flowers: Enjoy them while you can. Vegetables: Harvest. Why did you grow those veggies? Eat them. Freeze them. Give them away. (Time to harvest that row you planted for the hungry.) Compost: If you are going to keep your pile going post-frosts, start to gather necessary materials now by putting a few bags of grass clippings aside. Dandelions: Yes, we lost the war, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a bit of guerrilla warfare. Check yours to see if they may be getting ready to bloom again. If so, cut low.