Mr. Bright

On October 29^th 2014 I wrote a blog about Bright’s Shoe Repair. http://www.ourlifeinanutshell.com/2014/10/brights-shoe-repair.html

I talked about how over the years I had used those services less and less. It seemed that shoes just weren’t designed to be repaired any more. Our disposable society took another victim. Today, Louise told me that she had wanted to take her shoes in to Bright’s to have a button sewn on, but when she got there the store was no more. I made some comment about if she memorized my blogs she would have known that Bright’s had gone out of business. She said something about if my blogs were more memorable there wouldn’t have been a problem. Well, that’s what I heard but it isn’t exactly what Louise said. She is much more diplomatic than that.

We talked about where there might be another shoe repair in the city and off hand I didn’t know of one. Well, there is a place in Kensington, but it’s quite expensive and rather difficult to get to. I told Louise I would be willing to try and fix the shoes if she could find a replacement button. We looked in the button box that every house should have. We went to the second hand store but had no luck there either. Perhaps tomorrow we will go to the fabric store and see if they have a couple of matching buttons that will fit the bill.

I have always been something of a magpie. I like to pick up interesting things off of the ground and carry them around for a while. Yesterday I picked up a broken combination lock and a bit of telephone wire. I was thinking that I could fix the lock and then try to figure out the combination, but sadly it is too far gone and I will just toss it in the metal recycling bin. The wire I will use for something. In the past I have used the wire to “sew” a plastic basket together and to practice soldering on. I’m not very good with a soldering iron.

I will pick up broken cell phones, bits of metal from a car accident as long as they are interesting. I like to pick up those lead weights used to balance tires, but ever since lead has gotten so much bad press I just don’t bother any more. I used to like playing with mercury, but that is a no-no now. I can remember the teachers in school giving us mercury to experiment with. Times change. I will pick up washers, screws and nails when I see them on the ground. I usually toss them into a small container and every six months or so I will sort them out or toss them out. It is a pretty harmless hobby.

I vaguely remember picking up a button a few months back that I thought would look kind of like the one Louise lost. It would be on the other shoe, so unless someone looked really closely, no one would be the wiser. I went to my container of odd bits and pieces of metal and started rummaging around. There were some nails, washers and screws of course, a domino, a very neat looking cufflink with the Swiss cross on it, a broken tee, one die, a zipper pull, a tiny hinge, a key ring and a guitar pick. Oh, there was also a metal button.

I took it out to see if it would be a close…ish match with Louise’s other shoe and what do you know? It was a perfect match! I guess when Louise lost the button a couple of months ago I picked it up like the human magpie that I am. It took little effort to sew it back where it belonged and I kind of wished that Mr. Bright was still around to do the repair, but that’s just because I don’t like change.

Who does?