He spent all of his adult working life in local shoe factories. His job was nailing heels to unfinished shoes using a machine his employers leased from the United Shoe Machinery Company of St. Louis. His employers paid royalties for each dozen pairs of shoes he produced.
He was employed the first few years by the A.C. Weber Co. When the Weber brothers, who owned the business, opted for retirement in the late 1920s, he was left with a young wife and a young son and no job. It was the only time he was ever out of work -- but not for long. Within a few days, he was offered the same job at Wall-Streeter, where he remained for more than 20 years, including the World War II era.
It was during the war period that he suffered a hernia. He was out of work for a few weeks following surgery, the only time he ever had time off from his job.
Handling the heavy shoes being produced for the armed forces produced blistered hands upon his return to work. His wife bought cotton work gloves at Jack Goldberg's Army & Navy Store on Eagle Street, but cut off the fingers and reinforced the palm with strips of leather to save his blistered hands. This was successful.
He was a "piece worker" -- paid for work actually performed, unlike workers in other industries paid for hours worked. He was paid for each dozen pair of shoes completed, the heel being the final part of the shoe in its construction. For each dozen pair, he received a coupon.
Every Sunday evening he counted
He never had a vacation as such. Vacations weren't provided to employees during the Depression. He took days off when work was slack. He went for day trips on excursion trains to Boston ball games and once to the New York World's Fair. He was a true family man whose wife and son came first.
How do I know these things about the man? His name was Fred, and he was my father.
Roger Rivers of Adams, 90 years young, loves to spin tales from the past about the city of his birth.
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