Being in Love for Four Generations
Bob Wood, 69, has been working in Dawson Shoe Repair Shop, Columbia, Missouri, for almost 60 years. “You may think that I should retire, but I just love this work so much and I will never want to retire,” Wood said, as he was repairing a pair of shoes, April 14, 2017.
Dawson Shoe Repair is a four-generation business, starting in 1926 with Wood’s grandfather in Colorado. When Wood was young, he loved to be around his grandfather and father in the store. His father didn’t want him to take over the store, but this was the only thing Wood wanted to do. After he ended his serve in U.S. Air Force after high school, Wood has been working in the shop, which was moved to Columbia, Missouri, in 1956. In 1990, Wood took over the shop from his father. “I have never gotten tired of this and I want to do this for a hundred more years,” Wood said proudly.
Nowadays, few family business lasts for more than two generations. Even though Wood’s son Matt Wood, 27, is working in the store with him now, he will never push his son to take over the business. Dawson Shoe Repair becomes a family business for four generations only because of the love toward shoe repair.
The studio in Bob Wood’s Dawson Shoe Repair Shop. The studio is full of all kinds of tools that Wood uses to repair shoes, especially in the foreground. He spends most of the time in the studio every day.
Bob Wood was putting glue on the bottom of the shoe in order to stick the new shoe sole on. He had to repeat the same actions for many times every day.
Bob Wood just finished slicing off the thin bottom of the shoe in his studio. He was carefully examining if his work was good enough. Wood has to repeat the same actions for multiple times before he can get his work perfect.
Bob Wood was punching holes in a belt for a man in his studio in Dawson Shoe Repair Shop. He didn’t ask the man to pay him anything, because “it is just punching holes”.
A shoe was lying on the shelf in Bob Wood’s studio. Wood wrote on the labor to record how the customer wanted the shoe to be fixed.
Bob Wood was telling a joke to his customer at the reception desk, and his studio was behind him. Wood enjoys talking to his customers.
Bob Wood was standing behind the reception desk and talking to a customer. Some of his customers has been there for more than 20 years. His shoe repair business is quite busy every day.
