The Mountain Laurel
The Journal of Mountain Life

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from the
Heart of the Blue Ridge


Do You Remember Handmade Shoes?

By Susan M. Thigpen © 1983-2012

Issue: 1983-2012

I have another “batch” of my favorite “Do You Remembers” and here they are:

Handmade shoes, made on a straight form so there was no right or left until you wore them enough to get them “broke in” on your feet. (This was a memory told to me by Glen Reynolds of Rustburg, Virginia. He grew up at Mayberry and had shoes made by Simon Scott the tanner, whose tools are on display at Mabry Mill now.)

Soft drinks bring back a lot of memories also. Do you remember when they were just a nickel? Do you remember the first time you ever tasted a soft drink? I heard one old timer described his as, “Tasting like it feels when my foot’s asleep.” Remember when soft drinks used to have real cork liners in their caps? I always liked the old style drink coolers that held cold water in them and held the bottles by the neck so that you had to slide them along a slot to get them out of the box. I remember my grandmother buying me my first “fountain Coke” it was at a drug store and had a squirt of cherry syrup in it. To this day I still think it was the best tasting soft drink I ever had.