"Ancient Lane Style" Wang Xigen said that folk customs | cobbler

Yangzhou custom, every leap month year, the married girl to make a "leap moon shoes" for the mother. Filial piety daughter also pays attention to the embroidery of the day, the day is good, the day is sent over, with new socks to put on the elderly by hand, on the one hand, filial piety, on the other hand, pray for the health and longevity of the elderly. Therefore, in the leap month year, the cobbler shop business is particularly prosperous, and the anniversary is full of shoes and last shoes.

Cobblers are also divided into two types, one is the foot, and the other is to do the storefront. Walking on a pair of cobbler's burdens all day long, the streets, alleys, under the shade of the trees in summer, and the gables facing the sun in winter, are the permanent points of their stalls. One end of the burden is a bamboo basket, which contains large and small shoe lasts, nailed shoe soles, and a matza on which he sits, on which hang many skins of different shapes, yellow and black, which are blown straight by the wind; the other end is a round-bottomed square lid and a toolbox, the round bottom is made of three layers of bamboo pieces, which at first glance looks like a cage drawer, which contains hammers, cutting knives and new shoes that were hung for people the night before, and the square lid on the top is actually a flat wooden cabinet, with two drawers, and one drawer for awls, tongs, and wax wire. There is also a piece of paraffin wax that has been crossed by wax lines for an unknown number of times, and another drawer has two or three compartments, with various iron palms and shoe studs, and the shoe nails are grouped into a ball, and there is an iron absorbent stone in the middle. From morning to night, year after year, tie a dirty apron, bow his head and silently cut shoes and repair shoes for customers, and the wall behind him is full of shoes of all sizes, which are the crystallization of his blood and sweat.

There is a cobbler in our neighborhood surnamed Sun, known as "Sun Cobbler", good craftsmanship, very brushy work, that is, the legs and feet are not flexible, is a cripple, married a short wife, gave birth to four servants in a row, insisted on regenerating, and finally really let him fulfill his wish, all day long happy. You see his shoes, the sole, the upper of the shoe to the thigh of a clip, the awl on the head "light" twice, an awl pierced through the sole, the upper, gently pulled out, two slits by the needle with the wax thread pair through, the wax wire wrapped around the cone handle tightened, the action is fluent and in tune, the rhythm is uniform and compact, the stitches are dense and proper, and it takes less than half an hour to make a pair of shoes. Immediately after the last, the wooden last is tucked into the shoe, ding-dong knocked tightly, with a brush dipped in some water to brush off the sweater on the upper, and then nailed a shoe nail on the heel of the shoe, tied with the bottom line, hung on the wall behind the body, the last can be worn in a day and a night. Sun Cobbler's last is custom-made, not only good-looking, but also not easy to wear. Therefore, even if some people make shoes at home, they must take them to the sun cobbler to take a look, and the picture is that style.

In the mid-1960s, fewer and fewer people wore cloth shoes, and more and more people wore leather shoes and plastic sandals. In addition to shoes, Sun cobblers also learned to repair leather shoes and sandals. The soles of the shoes are thin and can be worn for a long time after he slaps them. Young people like to show off, even if the new leather shoes have to go to the Sun cobbler to nail the iron palm before and after, walking on the stone road and croaking, it is simply "the land temple has no roof - the spirit is through the sky". Due to the heavy burden of the family, Sun Cobbler repaired plastic sandals and could not afford to buy a soldering iron, so he asked the blacksmith master to hit a dozen earth soldering irons, and the welding head was also made of copper, placed on the coal stove to burn red, took out the "light" twice on the wire brush for removing rust, and quickly pressed the broken place of the plastic sandals, and after two or three minutes, the plastic shoes were welded seamlessly.

There is a way is "survival of the fittest", and Sun Cobbler recognizes this life and also recognizes this principle.

Source: Rong Media Center, Jiangdu District, Yangzhou City

Author: Wang Xigen