finally (internet-stirred drum roll, please), here is the very first hint of poems from the second year of this project and the upcoming book of 25 poems, which will be released by autumn through foothills publishing.
betty umberger who knew shoe-thinking kind of living by day in the kutztown area will be the main featured guest for my upcoming poetry reading at the kutztown community library (70 bieber alley, kutztown, pa 19530) this saturday afternoon
, june
25 @ 1 p.m. there are still some life-minutes yet to RSVP to 610.401.3392 or thelaborsofourfingertips@yahoo.com.
below is an excerpt from umberger's poem.
*
at 191 willow street in kutztown, i kept busy at wenton shoe
factory starting in 1970 or 1971. the bosses let me work when
i could be there, after i had to drop my son joel off at school
and before i picked him up at the end of a weekday. i used
a skiving machine, about the same size as a standard sewing
machine. you sat in front of it, cutting—thinning hickory nut
shell or wing of crow-colored leather to tuck under the vamp.
the section just behind the bones of toes is what they call
the vamp. i’d shave lean layers of leather off, down. you had
to adjust the skiving machine’s settings to be sure you didn’t
take off too much leather, too thick of a slice. i didn’t touch
finished shoes, just the raw pieces. a person came and took
your completed pieces away, brought you more new stacks
of leather for your workload. the machines hummed, a chorus
of noise, a symphony of roaring across factory aficionados.
but the place shut down by the end of the decade.
by 1980, i heard adidas USA, inc. moved into the building,
that they were looking for new workers. a lot of us shoe-folks
who knew the building well were brought in again. at rehire,
some people were sent overseas to herzogenaurach, germany,
for detailed training. the thick-accented man in charge of us
in kutztown pounded quality-thinking into us. he always had
the final say, eckert spaeth, although recalling how he spelled
his name isn’t easy to remember.
*
