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For the past two decades, 84-year-old Israel Wright Sr. had operated a shoe repair business in Eutawville. Back in December, he decided it was time to hang up his cobbler's tools.
"They don't make shoes like they used to," said Wright, a soft-spoken man.
Shoe repair, also known as cobbling, was Wright's "first love," he says. At age 14, he got his first job at a shoe repair shop in St. Matthews, where he grew up. On his walks home from John Ford High School, where he graduated, Wright would pass a shoe shop owned by a Mr. Johnson. He said he frequently stopped in at the shop and the owner would put him to work shining shoes for 5 cents a pair.
"That's where I learned about spit-shining shoes," Wright said.
"Spit-shine" refers to the "high gloss" finish that is achieved by polishing, brushing, buffing and then rubbing a damp towel quickly from side to side over a leather shoe, he said.
"Mr. Johnson taught me on the job," Wright said.
He spent 40 years employed as a steelworker at several companies in Charleston, including at the Charleston Naval Shipyard and Alcoa Aluminum, and in Orangeburg. Wright retired from the shipyard in 1991 after working as a shipfitter and anglesmith, a blacksmith skilled in forging angle irons, beams, etc., into various forms used in shipbuilding.
Even while working in the shipyard, he couldn't forget his love of repairing shoes, Wright said.
"A submarine and a shoe remind me of each other," he said, smiling. "There's only one way to go into a submarine and there's only one way a foot goes into a shoe."
In 1992, Wright decided to take on cobbling as a part-time job. The rest of the time, he'd be fishing, or so he thought.
"I hoped to have two to three pairs of shoes a week and then go fishing," he said.
Over the past 20 years, Wright says he's done work for 4,000 to 5,000 different customers from all walks of life and from all over the area.
"I've shined many shoes for The Citadel," he said.
Citadel cadets from the area would drop off their shoes at his Eutawville shop during a weekend visit, then pick them up on the way back to Charleston, Wright said.
"I felt good because they liked the high-gloss finish," he said.
Wright said he also shined shoes for the prison system.
In addition to shining shoes, Wright stitched, stretched, buffed, polished and sanded thousands of shoes over the years using German-crafted machines and tools he acquired when he bought out Brown's Shoe Repair on Russell Street in Orangeburg.
He said he prefers shoes made of genuine leather that are sewn, not glued, together. Many shoe companies today are taking shortcuts in the manufacturing of their products, Wright said. For example, a well-made dress shoe will not have a combined sole and heel but rather the sole and the heel will be attached separately, he said.
In addition to fixing the soles of shoes, Wright worked to save human souls as host of a local gospel radio broadcast, "The Word of God," for several years. He ended his radio program last year but continues to encourage others to put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Wright was pleasantly surprised when 100 of his closest friends and family gathered at ESJ Banquet Hall in Vance to celebrate his retirement from the shoe repair business on Jan. 14.
During the celebration, one of Wright's nephews, a retired U.S. Army sergeant major, recalled that Wright repaired a pair of boots for him prior to his deployment overseas about 20 years ago. He said he was proud to say he still had those boots.
Now that he's retired, Wright says he plans to focus on vegetable and flower gardening.
"That's one of the keys is to keep active," he said.
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