Your post gave me some fond memories of my youth, and 'Jimmy the Shoemaker' around the corner from where I lived. The odor of the leather, glue, polish and feet all blended into a single 'new' fragrance returned to mind and my 'olfactory' senses...

He was a kind man who put up with me and my friends hanging around, asking too many questions. Jimmy gave us a broom to sweep the floor, and get us out of his hair. At lunch time, we'd show up to run an errand for him (going to the Deli to get him a sandwich) Our pay were the pennies we got for returning his empty soda bottles, for the refund.

Beautiful looking dead-man shoes, @herrleeb ... you'll have the devil himself envious of those custom flappers...