a glimpse: betty umberger, born 1928.

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. 

*