Thursday, February 10, 2011

shoe hospital

I think my town has some of the nicest and most personable businesses anywhere. One of the places that I patronize is Dunstone Shoe Hospital. The establishment opened in 1952. That is actually Before I was born!
DSC00036
The proprietor, Jacob Throckmortenson is 78 years old and has been doing shoe repairs here all that time. He also informed me today that he did shoe repairs before they moved into this location as well.
It is a bit terrifying leaving your goods here, that is, if you care about them at all. The place kind of looks like it was last cleaned in 1952 and over the years hundreds of people have forgotten to pick up their shoes which are now scattered about on every surface imaginable and some unimaginable as well. Jacob doesn’t give you a receipt, but jots a note on the bottom of your shoe and tells you when to return to pick it up.
This time, both Doug and I left a pair of shoes and he told us it would be two weeks. When I went back to fetch them today, they couldn’t be found. I tried not to panic, since Jacob seemed confident that they would be located imminently. About ten minutes later, he did indeed locate them on the top shelf. One  of only two orders that were bagged. As always, the shoes looked terrific and the work was well done.
DSC00037
Thank you, Jacob!

2 comments:

debbie said...

I love Dunstan's. I grew up in my step-dad's business in downtown Eustis and remember him from when I was a kid. Didn't know he was so young. Truly a local icon.

Melody said...

I have gone there before too and thought exactly the same thing. However, I didn't have the scare with not being able to find the shoes. Not good.