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Jožef Levovnik, cobbler Born in 1926, in Slovenj Gradec.
He decided to work in his father's workshop at the age of 14.
Although he has retired and lives in a retirement facility,
he has not left his workshop, where he still repairs shoes.
Things did not use to be the way they are today.
We lived well. We had many assistants.
We had swines at home. Five pigs. Two cows.
Our food was good. We ate meat every day except Friday, when we fasted.
This year, I got six salami sausages from farmers, because I worked well for them back then.
In pre-socialist Yugoslavia and during the war, the city of Slovenj Gradec had 1,200 inhabitants.
We had 1,700 registered customers.
My education lasted only two years because I had my final exams
and I did not need to study more than that.
The apprenticeship usually lasts three years.
Even four in the countryside, where an apprentice was able to stay at his master’s.
We had over 200 assistants altogether.
My dad posted an advertisement in the newspaper, “Looking for a sewing assistant”.
Applicants from Ljubljana, Celje, and Maribor responded.
They stayed for two, three, four months.
The better ones became attached to the place … Some stayed for ten years.
My father was so … that the assistants, how should I put this;
kept an eye on one another, so that no one took anything.
They examined what was left and divided it among themselves.
Half went to my father and half to the assistants.
You know, drunkards were the best workers.
But none of them worked on Monday.
And then they worked so hard that my dad had to drive them away.
“Enough for today,” he said.
Because they worked until nine, ten in the evening.
And then I told the assistant: “Gosh, you shouldn’t drink so much …
What will the people think?”
He answered, “Know what, I drink to make people think I am a hard worker.”
Every Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, they received their salaries.
Because the shop was opened even on Sundays back then.
Customers from the countryside went to church on Sunday and were measured for their shoes.
I was in the German army.
At the age of 18, I was in Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic.
I was interested in shoemaking and walked through workshops
and saw those more advanced cobblers who worked with assembly lines.
The entire city of Slovenj Gradec lived off trade in Yugoslavia.
There were 19 cobblers. Nuns were our best customers.
Sisters of mercy. There were about 32 nuns in Slovenj Gradec.
We made low-heeled or other kinds of shoes.
They also found work for us.
We manufactured shoes for Sarajevo, Belgrade – for hospitals. Because we were cheaper than they were.
We always worked with the Jewish population, the HEPIJI.
They were from Vojvodina, a province in Serbia.
We were a good customer and they supplied us with ribbons, cards; I still have all of that.
The greatest disgrace was if someone made shoes and their sole fell off or detached itself from the shoe.
A customer did not return to that shoemaker.
We received catalogues with all kinds of women's shoes, with high heels, flat, with patterns, all kinds of combinations.
Then the customers came. We had a book.
The customers put their foot on the shoe, dad lined the shape, and I measured the length, width.
If anyone came in the afternoon when there were no customers,
we put little nails under the leather so that they felt a sting when they sat down.
Ski boots were the most expensive. Boots as well.
At the time boots cost 450, 500 dinars, the currency at the time.
I am the oldest now. Only one assistant is still alive; when he came I had already taken over.
From the town of Črna na Koroškem. He worked in the town.
I am 87 years old. It is different nowadays; back then a 50 year old man was called old.
In the countryside, a father had shoes made for the first son.
The son did not tear the shoes, so that the second one wore the same pair.
The poor families that were not able to provide for many children.
Because there were six, seven, eight children growing up on farms ...
They got shoes for Christmas.
Socialism was bad. All factory employees had same salaries. That was not the case at our shop before socialism.
Better employees worked more and earned more.
Those less hard-working tried to catch up with the best employees.
“Oh, really? Do you want quality?” “I know, I know.”
“You do? Because we have done this before. They are brand new, so I brought an original.”
“Where are you from?” “From Ravne.”
“When will you come?” “I do not know, when I will be in the area. It is not a problem.”
“Next Friday?” “Yes. Is it open?”
“If you are not sure you can …”
There are fun stories about cobblers.
“Nothing beats being a cobbler. In winter, in summer, always clean and valued.
All who want to be modern should join. And choose their own beautiful fashionable shoe.”