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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 1982)
SUMMKRNKBRASKAN JUNK 17, 1982 Two women practice vanishing trade BY LAURA HAVES Two 34-year-old Lincoln women spent the past year learning a vanishing trade. Tat Waldren and Holly Herrod were aware of the declining number of shoe re pairers in Lincoln and decided to learn the trade from Harold Stoehr a downtown shoe repairer. According to Ms. Waldren Lincoln has 10 shoe repair shops, but only three or four young people are learning the trade. On May 28 Ms. Waldren and Ms. Herrod bought Storky's Shoe Repair at 1230 P St. They are doing business as Downtown Boot & Shoe Repair Co. Stoehr has been a shoe repairer for 45 years, Ms. Waldren said. "He plans to work part-time and teach us more about the trade," she said. "If the economy gets worse, we'll have a skill to teach our children," Ms. Herrod said. "Our kids love to come down to the shop and help out." They are becoming fa miliar with the trade and realize that money doesn't come on a silver platter, she said. Both Ms. Waldren and Ms. Herrod kept full-time jobs during their apprenticeships. Ms. Waldren then quit a sales representive job and Ms. Herrod quit a teaching job. Ac cording to Ms. Waldren, Stoehr advised them to work in the shop for a while before going into business. "We were scared at first," Ms. Waldren said, "but as time went on we became more confident in ourselves." Most customers are surprised to see lady cobblers and question whether they can fix shoes, Ms. Herrod said. Dead shoes can't be livened up. Only shoes with minor damage can be fixed, Ms. Herrod said. "It's worthwhile for custom ers to have their favorite shoes repaired," she said. According to Ms. Waldren, they can half-sole a pair of shoes for one-fourth the original cost. Their most common repair jobs are replacing women's heel caps and putting half-soles on men's shoes she said. The new business partners plan to ex pand their services, Ms. Waldren said. Later this summer they'll be dyeing shoes, replacing zippers in women's dress boots and repairing leather purses and jackets, she said. Some repair jobs are becoming easier with the aid of new dyes and cleaners, Ms. Waldren said. For example, she said, a new de-salter on the market will remove salt that stains shoes during the winter. According to Ms. Waldren, only eco nomic barriers stop people from entering the shoe repair business. Not every day is a busy day, Ms. Her rod said. When business slows down, she said, survival depends on savings. "You have to be good at it," Ms. Wal dren said, "or starve to death." 1 -"syvrr .- - ,jjn rK it , f ...... $ v a I 4V Iff 4 .V f . k s V-';. fyj.t. i c' X ; Photo by Beth Lawton Holly Herrod stitches a piece of leather to a back pack strap. Photo by Beth Lawton Pat Waldren smooths the rough edges, the begin ning step in reheeling a shoe. Special rescue vehicle used if riders trapped The message arrives at central dispatch: a car has overturned with its occupants t rapped inside. Call Rescue One. Rescue One is the Lincoln Fire Depart ment's only special extrication vehicle used when people are trapped inside wreckage. It is a four-wheel-drive truck, containing equipment to recover persons from almost any accident. Kire Capt. Al Kraus said the truck is dis patched with an ambulance to accident scenes where people are thought to be trapped. The equipment carried by Rescue One in cludes an air chisel and steel cutting saw that can "cut the top right out of a car," said Kraus. The truck carries lights and generators in case of a night accident, ropes and a padded stretcher in case the injured person needs to be transported up a hill or is too heavy to lift. The truck is also equipped with an electric winch on its front bumper. Car business is Wally 's runaway hobby BY JIM ANDERSON This is Wally Smith country. The name is correct but it doesn't quite sound right to most Lincolnites, nor to many Mid westerners, who are more accustomed to billboards which proclaim, "This Is Weird Country." Wally Rex Smith has been selling used cars in Lincoln for the past seven years. He uses a relaxed sales approach that he said would probably not work well for a new car dealer in Nebraska "maybe California, but out here when people want to buy a new car they don't like the salesman telling them what's wrong with it." "We educate customers about our cars," Smith said, "so they won't be surprised if a car they buy here gives them problems later." Wally, who was labeled ' Weird" by a friend w ho witnessed his sales technique, makes no bones of the fact that his inexpensive used cars may not last more than a few months without needing repairs. More than half of the cars on his lot at 2323 P St. are priced under $500. "We sell a cheaper line of cars here," he said, "Some of them are real pots." But Weird Wally doesn't lie to his customers about that. He said he doesn't use the words "perfect" or "won't give you any trouble" when selling his cars. As a result, he says a lot of his custom ers are repeaters. "Most of our customers here are good hard-working, blue-collar type people." "If someone comes to me and wants a $400 car and tell me that they want to be able to drive for six months or a year without it need ing any work, I'll send them someplace else," Smith said. "They want the impossible and we can't give them that. Maybe another dealer will promise them that if he wants then they can yell at him when it breaks down." Runaway hobby Smith calls Weird Wally's a hobby that ran away. He said he started seven years ago sell ing what he calls " special-interest cars" cars not quite classics or antiques yet. His business, then called simply Wally's, was al his home and began with four cars. After a year and a half he made it a full-time busi ness. On a good day, Smith said he can sell as many as five cars." A new car dealer may sell five cars in a week. I'd go nuts if I only sold five cars a week." These days Smith says his business is good, not as good as some years in the past but still acceptable. The rising prices of utilities, rent, taxes, labor and advertising make it harder and harder for Weird Wally's to show a profit each month, even though sales may still be up, he said. His own boss Smith, 41, said before he became Weird Wally he drove a truck. He said he didn't like the kind of pressure he had to work under when employed by someone else.lt came from two directions, he said, himself as well as his employer. Nowadays, Smith said, the pressure only comes from himself and he likes it that way, even though he carries a lot more responsibility than he did when the busi ness was run from his house. Smith said the advertising ideas for Weird Wally's come from himself, his wife and his employees. The slogan, "This Is Weird Coun try," was his own idea, he said. "I got the idea from the old Marlboro ciga rette ad." Smith said. "We've been pretty lucky with that one." Pictures of Lincoln bill boards bearing the ad have ap?.)eared in several nationally circulated magazines, in cluding National Lampoon. "We've been very fortunate with the me dia," Smith said. "It's gratifying a real com plimentThe name Weird Wally's can proba bly be identified by more people in Lincoln than any other business in the city." Two more counties adopt lodging taxes By The Associated Press have Two more Nebraska counties adopted county lodging taxes. State Tax Commissioner Don Leuenberger said Platte and Sheridan counties will begin collecting a county tax of 2 percent, effective July 1. Leuenberger said the local tax will be col lected along with a 1 percent state lodging tax that all Nebraska hotels and motels began collecting July 19, 1980. County lodging taxes are being collected in Adams, Buffalo, Custer. Dawes, Douglas, Hall, Keith, Kimball. Lancaster, Lincoln, Red Willow. Sarpy, Scotts Bluff and York counties. Revenue from the state lodging tax helps promote travel and tourism in Nebraska while local taxes aid local programs.
