Shoe Making and Shoe Selling

 By Bruce Shawkey

This piqued my interest because my first "real" job after a short stint as a pizza cook, was a shoe salesman at J.C. Penny East Towne, in Madison, Wis. It was an OK job, apart from the fact that the department manager, Don Veldboom, never seemed to order enough shoes in the common womens' sizes ... 6-1/2 to 8. This required me to bring out at least one or two "alternate choices" in case we didn't have the customer's first choice in stock in the desired size.

Back to school was always an interesting and busy time. And the parents always wanted their kids' shoes two sizes too big because they were "growing like a weed." And my time in the department during the 1970s was the era when Dupont came out with the dreaded Corfam synthetic leather that did not breathe and caused feet to sweat.

These were the tools of my trade.

But all in all, it was a good time. I asked a cute co-worker, Darcy Davies, out to dinner on one of my first dates. I got to go to Schaumburg, Ill. for training... parts of the foot, parts of the shoe, etc. I had an interesting group of co-workers. We had a nice snack bar for breaks.

I worked in a couple other departments ... mens' clothing and the inauguration of the fine jewelry department. I bought my first electronic calculator and first SLR camera, a Minolta, and (gulp!) my first (and only) leisure suit. But I have to say the shoe department was my favorite. The shoe department is gone, the entire store a ghost town. Most people buy their shoes online now. There is still one shoe store in Madison ... Morgan's Shoes in the Hilldale Mall, offering expensive shoes and Birkenstocks to the Shorewood Hills crowd.

From there, I went on to being an organ player in various supper clubs around Madison, and even one hotel/restaurant in Virginia, Minn.