The winter sun is setting at 600 Lancaster Ave. but the lights are still on at Berwyn’s “Riding Boot and Shoe Service.”
Third-generation cobbler Joe Quici putters around, spit-shining a boot here, ringing up a customer there.
No longer a young man, he’d been working even longer hours since word got around that he’d be closing up shop at year’s end. “People are trying to get their stuff done,” Joe explains. “I’m the only one in the area. I never want to disappoint anyone.”
He’s animated this late December day – even more chatty than usual – as he talks about his family’s 102-year-old business, his dying craft and his decision to retire.