Takes Me Back
“Wow! That’s an old relic!”, he said rather loud,
He was referring to my patcher of which I’m quite proud.
I said, “That’s a Singer Patcher, a model 29,
from back in the 40s, and it still stitches just fine”.
“You mean you still use it, it’s not just for show?”
“Of course I still use it!” I was quick to say so.
“I was seated at it sewing, just before you came in,
and I doubt it’ll be long before I’ll need it again.”
“When sewing in tight spots, like the side of a shoe,
it’s the machine that can do it, and I always go to.”
“For purses, bags, cases and similar stuff,
to sew them without it would be pretty tough.”
“The long narrow bed can get way down inside,
where other machines can’t, even if they tried.”
I’m not sure he was listening, so I hushed for a bit,
he didn’t say a thing, just kept looking at it.
Finally he spoke, after a long pause had passed,
“I know back in those days, they built them to last.”
“I remember back home, in the town I was raised,
Mr. Bill’s Shop had one, boy those were the days.”
“I spent many hours, down at that cobbler shop,
watching Mr. Bill working while I drank a pop.”
He paused again thinking, and stared off into space,
and then after a bit, a smile came on his face.
“With few Shoe Shops still open, or Saddle Shops too,
it’s nice to again see one, and it was nice meeting you.”
As he went out the doorway, I bid him “So long!”,
he hopped in his car and soon he was gone.
I looked at the patcher, and thought in a way,
that relic old patcher, had made that man’s day.
It took him way back, for just a moment it did,
to some really fond memories of when he was a kid.
CD in Oklahoma