Word: petered
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Early financial problems were great, according to both Peter and Mama. "When I got to America, I had $5.50," recalls Peter, "and when I paid the express for my trunk I didn't have anything." Peter, who spoke no English them, went on in the shoe repair business, and gradually turned his trade to bigger and better things. To the shoe repair business was soon added that of shoemaking. The Limmers showed a sample pair of ski boots around, but in 1924 there weren't many skiers in America...
...Limmer establishment works very much on the old world system, with the two sons, both unmarried, living at home and working with Papa and Mama in the shop. Peter Jr. estimates it would take one of them alone two full days to make a pair of boots. The shoes are easier and the Limmers can make about three pairs...
...boots, according to Peter, are better than the ones they made in the old country, but along the same general lines. "We believe," explains Peter Jr., "that if the boot is carefully fitted and comfortable, yet tough and waterproof, it's right. All the extra lacings and straps you can put on only get in your way and hurt your feet...
...making a pair of boots in a painstaking and tedious one. The pilgrim who travels to 135 Boylston St. gets his foot measured by Papa who insists that the lucky skier wear a properly ftting sock for the occasion. Having got a measurement of the customer's foot, Peter, or one of the boys, selects a "last" (the "last" looks like a solid wooden shoe tree with no hands) nearest the size of the measured foot. This "last" is carefully sanded down or built up with pieces of leather so that it emerges a working model of the foot...
When the uppers have been cut and sewn, they go, with the "last" and the original pattern, back upstairs. Here Peter, or one of the boys, performs the strategic steps in boot production. The inner sole is tacked to the bottom of the "last" and then trimmed to fit it perfectly. Next, the upper is fitted to the "last" with repeated stretching and tacking. From there, the steel sole shank and outer soles are applied and the heel is built up. Finally a corrugated rubber outer sole is applied and the finishing touches of grooving the heels and waterproofing...