The Endangered Cobbler

I was having a conversation recently with a young man who belongs to Gen-Z. I made a reference to cobblers when the young man expressed that he didn't know what the term meant. I was a bit dumbfound. I believe I felt what previous generations (namely baby boomers) before me must have felt as they described computers almost the size of some rooms or ice cream makers that needed a good crank. As I explained to the young man what a "cobbler" is, the exchange made me recognize a few things: 1) I am getting older 2) time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along (I love that song) and 3) It made me feel old. Yes, cobblers still exist. Maybe not enough apparently. In my explanation to the young man, I threw in names of a couple of children’s books with mentions of cobblers to jog his memory. His expression was blank. Some children’s stories with romanticized versions of old-world Europe have mention of cobblers in them. Think stories set in Italy, France, or Germany centuries ago, i.e. think Aesop’s or Grimm’s. It used to be that cobblers and tailors lined the streets of cities and towns. Even across the pond in the United States, a tailor was once a decent profession. After all, Boston was at one time the textile epicenter of the world. Nowadays, especially given the rise of e-commerce, people just throw out pairs of shoes they deem to be old. Cobblers are still very much needed as are tailors. They not only bring a warm feeling of community to a place, like a neighborhood bakery or mom-and-pop restaurant does. But, they also extend the lives of our clothing items, saving us money and many would say even helping the environment . Tailors, skilled in alterations, keep us looking our best during some of life's most important events. Tailors working at ateliers, with their skilled and nimble fingers, make brides around the world happy. Here's to hoping that cobblers and tailors never become extinct.