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Name: Jane X. Leary
Subject: The Shoeworker of Lynn
Patent Leather Shoes
Page 1
3/1
"Taday, it 'aint sa hard fur manufacturers ta make patent
leather shoes as it wuz in my time. Fur then the leather 'ould
crack sa easy. Jest a little cold weather 'ould crack 'em if
ya'din't watch out.
Why when a manufacturer 'ould have racks a 'em in the shop,
he'd shure see ta it that the shop 'ould be warm, night as well
as day. Fur if he din't more'n likely he'd come inta the shop
some mornin' and see hull racks a 'em all cracked. Ya cun't sell
them and they'd be all loss."
Page 2
Back Yard Pumps
"Jest as things hav4hanged a lot in shoe shops since I
first went ta work there, so other things have changed a lot.
remember when most a the tenements din't have runnin' water
in em. There wuz a pump or a well in the back yards. Some
folks din% even have their own pumps but had ta come to a
neighbors ta get water.
"I remember one time how folks usta come ta our back yard,
when I wuz a boy, ta get their water. They'd even get ta think
they owned the pump, they used it sa long, cause if it 'ould
get outa order, they'd core ta my mother an say, 'Why don't ya
get your pump fixed so it'll work right?'
"In the winter time that pump lould get frozen every time
we'd have a cold snap. We'd hav4a pour cold water down it, or
maybe put salt down it, so as we could get some water.
"Everybody had a water buczet beside the sink in them days
ad a tin cup somewheres handy."
,a4cresation
thing that a lotta folks thought wuz fun years ago wuz
ta go on a picnic in summer. A gang from a shop or maybe a
r -N
couple shops 1 ould take a picnic lunch an' go ta some grove
fur the day. There'd be a lotta good eats, an' generally some
beer or maybe somethinl stronger. An there wuz games, Quoits,
etc., an' card games an' fun all day. A lotta the picnics wuz
aa_we harlAw,batta- mom.
u10ther times a fella'd hire a rig fur a day and take a
girl ta some picnic that might be a few miles away. I remember
once I hired one and the horse got loose from the hitchin' post
and turned aroun' and come back ta the stable in Lynn by itself.
le and the girl had ta get a ride hone with some other people we
knowed wuz cominl ta Lynn.
srWhen ya took your girl out that way, she usually brought
the lunch. The rig 'ould cost ya considerable fur the day an'
it wuz her part ta provide the eats.
"The people that had a lotta money owned their own rigs. A
place up in Salisbury made some a the best in the country. If ya
had a rubber tired coach from that place, it wuz like havinl a
Packard tqday. An' they cost somethin' too
''I remember when they advertized tkes 'em as bein' built on
springs that wun't jar ya. An' we thought they din't toot when
we rode in 'em. Taday the oldest kinda cheap car runs smoother and
with less bumpin' than them carriages that everybody thought wuz sa
smooth runnin'. Jos4-a-waItam.a.aamear+ereft.
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Page 4
'In the winter time a gang 'ould get up one a them sleighinl
pities but I never saw much fun in 'em. They'd crowd in tagether
on the straw so as ya'd be cramped up when ya got out. An' it
wuz cold too. If there wuz no snow, they'd have what they called
a straw ride, usint a big wagon with straw on the bottom ta sit on.
*The smart thing fur a young fella ta do wuz ta take a girl
ta Boston fur a show, but ya had ta watch out so as ta make the
last train back ta Lynn. They din't run sa late as they do taday.
ya missed that train the girl 'ould sure be in a pickle
'cause her reputation would sure and no foolin' be ruined if she
din't get back that night. So we always had ta have enought
r
money in our pocket ta hire a heritig ,4 a small cab set on two
A
wheeled) foundatio,a would bob ta _and „fro as- it went to bring
her home in if we missed the train.* —w-
PAPVIAVAfk
Page 5
Another thing we always looked forward to too wuz the 1
Lowell picnics. The workers from the mills 'ould come down
every year and a lotta folks from Lynn 'ould go. They wuz
I always on the beach.
"An' wun't them girls get their skin burned? They wan't
ust ta the sun, an' there 'aint no shade down there. Some a
the girls 'ould geta week off, cone down from Lowell, time a
the picnic, and then stay on. They'd hire a room down by the
beach and maybe sleep five or six in a room, some a 'em on a
mattress on the floor. They din't care, ya see, fur they spent
the hull day on the beach. Jest had the room ta stay in nights.
But wun't they be burned like a lobster 'fore the week wuz over
and they'd go back to Lowell!
"I knowed lots a girls an' fella's that first met at them
Lowell picnics and then got goin' together regular and afterwards
got married. A girl a settin' there on the beach a watch in' a fella
play ball, thought he wuz a pretty fine lookin' guy, but she din't
think that maybe in a few years she'd oe his wife and would be
keepin' his house and washin' and scrubbint fur him. An' livin'
in Lynn and raisin' a family."
Page. 6
Food and Entertainment
"When I wuz a young man, /People bought food-diffrunt than
they do taday. Everybody Pad a barrel a flour in the house.
Folk 'ould wonder what wuz the matter with ya if ya ever bought
a ten pound bag a flour like ya do taday.
"An' your potata bin 'ould be full a potatoes in the cellar
too.
"I remember when my mother 'ould make enough bread to fill
up that hull table." He pointed to the fair-sized kitchen table.
tit' it would get eat up too.
"Fur on Sundays there'd usually be a crowd come ta dinner.
Din't think nothin' a feedin' six, seven or even more'n that extra.
If ya wanted ta bring some one home ta Sunday dinner, ya jest brought
'em. There wuz no need ta tall Mother ahead a time. She jest put
an extra plate on.
"We always cook.ed an extra large piece a meat fur Sundays.
'Cause ya sorta expected company ta come. No Xne hardly ever et
in restaurants in them days.
"An' if there wuz a wake, yald have ta get a big supply a
food ready. Any one that 'ould come from outa town, 'ould havta
stay over night fur the funeral. And ya'd always give them as come
from nearby cake an' sandwiches an' coffee, and maybe something
stronger ta drink. Wilz always plenty ta eat in a house where there
wuz a wake fur a lotta people'd come. It wuz thought terrible not ta
go to a wake."