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● See Tone Deaf in New blogger.


Thursday 9 July 2020

Mr Little's last

Until I left school for good and joined them, adults bored me. They talked about politics, food rationing and events which happened pre-war, none of which impinged on my often imaginary world.

Mr Little, the local cobbler, was different. Spry, eternally in motion, he welcomed me to his solitary and esoteric workshop, listened to what I had to say, commented, then added his own thoughts, just as if we were the same age. It all happened more than seventy years ago but I seem to remember discussing the attractions of the countryside and of biking.

As he talked he worked, trimming the overlap of a newly attached shoe sole, the hook knife slicing through thick leather as if it were uncooked pie crust. In the corner stood his roller press, lower roller concave, upper roller convex; it impressed a shallow dent on to a shoe sole for reasons I have never investigated.

Mountains of discarded leather offcuts rose from every work surface. On a shelf, covered in thick dust, was a pair of brogues, brought in for repair and never redeemed. The pungent smell of leather has lasted me a lifetime.

It was Mr Little’s own peculiar universe, a rarity for other unrelated reasons. How few adults have the ability to address young people as equals; most patronise, wag an admonitory finger, jollify falsely. I am guilty of all these defects. Yet Mr Little (I’m ashamed to admit I can’t be sure of his surname) responded enthusiastically, revealing he had shared my experience, demonstrating an unspoken bond.

Those few conversations, which ended when I was 12 and moved from the area, must have affected me beneficially, though I can’t say how. But I feel the warmth even now. See his face lighting up. So here’s his tribute.

See also the explanatory re-comment regarding our recent whereabouts.

13 comments:

  1. However uncertain of his name, you have remembered him all your life and told us bloggers about him.

    A good memorial to one who was kind and treated you, a small boy, as an equal some 70 years ago. Even now there are not many adults that have that ability.

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  2. A lovely tribute. Sometimes we cross paths with people whose very essence stays with us for a lifetime.

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  3. This has the makings of a J.B. Priestly story I think.

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  4. A Wonderful Tribute to a Wise Man. My Mom and Dad had the Gift of appropriately bonding with ANY Age Group and so Young People flocked to them and I emulate how they accomplished that. I have as many Young Friends as Old Ones and in my Youth it was equally so, I was probably the only person my Age that I knew, when in my Teens, who had Friends up to and past Eighty. They became my Mentors and I benefit from that greatly. So I payed it forward to Mentor Young People in every Career I ever had. When they had Success early on I knew my Investment in them paid off in Dividends Society would reap. The Essence of those who transcend Generational Barriers lasts forever, everyone I've ever known who could do that has been remembered fondly by whoever's lives were Touched. I'm glad you had a Mr. Little Experience and that those Memories are still so Fresh of his impact.

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  5. All: For reasons I can't go into I am unable to go into I cannot respond for the moment
    But I will.

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  6. Lovely memory. I hope all is well with you.

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  7. Reading about your Mr. Little and how well he talked to children made me think about Mr. Rodgers who was on TV when my daughters were young. He knew exactly what to say to children and spoke their language. When I visited my eldest daughter in Pittsburgh, PA, we visited a small museum about him in his home town nearby. They made a movie about him not long ago but I have not seen it.
    I read your last post about the new blogger. I was not aware of it. I published a new post a couple of days ago and did notice anything different.

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  8. When someone goes on about their craft, that's magic.

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  9. I’m glad to have access to Sir Hugh’s blog, which mentions nothing about your demise. Blogger problems there. I suspect as much with you.

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  10. Are you ok? You've been quiet lately. But so have I...

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  11. Apologies for the growing disturbances I appear to have caused both here on the blog and elsewhere among friends. In simple terms I was going on holiday and didn't want to give burglars free access to my unoccupied house. I felt a warning about my absence was appropriate, if somewhat self-centred. But the month-long prelude to that holiday and my state of mind during that period deserve some explaining, if only to myself. None of it particularly interesting or new, as you will discover in my next post. In fact I'm wincing at possible charges of self-indulgence.

    Things were further complicated by the fact that during the holiday I had no access to the most important of my email accounts.


    One bright matter. As Mr Little seemed to strike a chord with one or two of you, he became clearer to me as the seventy years rolled back. An elfin, half-starved face, blue-black hair hanging like a huge bracket round the left-hand side of his face (very James Bond, I know), a craggy voice which carried great urgency and occasional flecks of spittle. But that's enough. I don't want him to become a fictional character.

    Some individual responses:

    Tom: Priestley perhaps, but only because of the location. Mr Little wasn't in any sense West Yorkshire-ish. That was the ethos I was trying to avoid, even at that young age.

    Bohemian: I wouldn't like to pretend I was in any sense unique among his customers. Just lucky.

    Vagabonde: We lived in the USA during the late sixties and early seventies and my two daughters fed on Mr Rogers. In one remarkable sequence (which I didn't see) he addressed his audience while sitting on the toilet, demonstrating there was nothing to fear from this adult contrivance. True and useful humility.

    As to New Blogger, I'm only just back and caught a glimpse of a note from Google (creator of Blogspot) that things were moving on and Old Blogger was going to get the shove. I must try and identify it for you.

    MikeM: Not blogger problems, more personal than that. Mildly amusing that my absence seems to have been more interesting than my presence.

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  12. Vagabonde: When I use "Design" (eg, to check my blog's statistics) this notice is now attached by Google:

    "Blogger’s new interface is now available automatically. If you want to revert back to the legacy interface, use 'Revert to legacy Blogger'. The legacy interface will be available until 24 August. Please file any critical issues encountered. Read more."

    The tone is ambiguous. Does it mean that users will be unable to use old-style blogger after August 24? It's for this reason that I decided to explore New Blogger.

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  13. Next year we'll all remember you are out of town.

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