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."
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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.