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In those days a cutter never worked without a...
Posted on 6/28/2010 at 2:08 PM
In those days a cutter never worked without a shirt and a tieYou could work at seventy-five and eighty years old tooThey could start in the way Al did, at fifteen, or even younger, and they could go to eightySeventy was a spring chickenAnd they could work at their leisure, Saturday and SundayThese people could work constantlyMoney to send their kids to schoolMoney to fix up their homes nicelyAl could take a piece of leather, say to me, for a gag, 'What do you want, Lou, eight and nine-sixteenths?' And just snip it off without a ruler, measuring it perfectly with just his eyeThe cutter was the prima donnaBut all that pride of craftsmanship is gone, of courseOf the actual table cutters who could cut a sixteen-button white glove, I think Al Haberman may have been the last guy in America who could do itThe long glove, of course, vanished' There was the eight-button glove replica santos cartier which became very popular, silk-lined, but that was gone by '65We were already taking gloves that were longer, chopping off the tops, making shorties, and using the top to make another gloveFrom this point where the thumb seam is, every inch on out they used to put a button, so we still talk, in terms of length, of buttonsThank God in i960 Jackie Kennedy walked out there with a little glove to the wrist, and a glove to the elbow, and a glove above the elbow, and a pillbox hat, and all of a sudden gloves were in style againFirst Lady of the glove industryWore a size six and a halfPeople in the glove industry were praying to that ladyShe herself stocked up in Paris, but so what? That woman put the ladies' fine leather glove back on the mapBut when they assassinated Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy left the White House, that and the miniskirt was the end of the ladies' fashion chanel watch women gloveThe assassination of John FKennedy and the arrival of the miniskirt, and together that was the death knell for the ladies' dress gloveTill then it was a twelve-month, year-round businessThere was a time when a woman would not go out unless she wore a pair of gloves, even in the spring and the summerNow the glove is for cold weather or for driving or for sports--"
"Lou," his wife said, "nobody is talking about--"
"Let me finish, pleaseDon't interrupt me, pleaseAl Haberman was a great readerNo schooling but he loved to readHis favorite author was Sir Walter ScottAnd Sir Walter Scott, in one of his classic books, gets an argument going between the glovemaker and the shoemaker about who is the better craftsman, and the glove-maker wins the argumentYou know what he says? 'All you do,' he tells the shoemaker, 'is make a mitten for the footYou don't have to articulate chanel earrings logo around each toe' But Sir Walter Scott was the son of a glover, so it makes sense he would win the argumentYou didn't know Sir Walter Scott was the son of a glover? You know who else, aside from Sir Walter and my two sons? William ShakespeareFather was a glover who couldn't read and write his own nameYou know what Romeo says to Juliet when she's up on the balcony? Everybody knows 'Romeo, Romeo, where are you, Romeo'--that she saysBut what does Romeo say? I started in a tannery when I was thirteen, but I can answer for you because of my friend Al Haberman, who since has passed away, unfortunatelySeventy-three years old, he came out of his house, slipped on the ice, and broke his neckRomeo says, 'See the way she leans her cheek on her hand? I only wish I was the glove on that hand so that I could touch that cheekMost famous author in history
"Lou dear," Sylvia Levov said kelly handbag again softly, "what does this have to do with what everybody is talking about?"
"Please," he said, and impatiently, with one hand, without even looking at her, waved away her objection"And McGovern," he went on, "this is an idea I don't follow at allWhat does McGovern have to do with that lousy movie? I voted for McGovernI campaigned in the whole condominium for McGovernYou should hear what I put up with from Jewish people, how Nixon was this for Israel and that for Israel, and I reminded them, in case they forgot, that Harry Truman had him pegged for Tricky Dicky back in 1948, and now look, the reward they're reaping, my good friends who voted for MrVon Nixon and his storm troopersLet me tell you who goes to those movies: riffraff, bums, and kids without adult supervisionWhy my son takes his lovely wife to such a movie is something I'll go to my grave not vintage cartier watch understanding
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