Tel Aviv Close Encounter of the Second Kind

         1952 - 1969

                                                                                     

It can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, but while wandering through narrow side streets of a Tel Aviv souk for my first time in 1969, I chanced upon an industrious cobbler I already knew. But that wasn’t possible ….. or was it?

Weeks later back in the States that Tel Aviv Close Encounter still mystified. Fortunately, the intrigue soon ended and the unsettling incident became ‘case closed’. Here’s how … I had liberated a photo anthology titled Israel the Reality from my bookshelf and kicked backed to relax, savor the volume's iconic photos, and reminisce about the trip. Flipping through the pages, I abruptly froze. There he was .... again, still seated and laser focused at his bench, just as he had been when recently spotted! The image was captured by French photographer Izis (Israel Bidermanas) in 1952, seventeen years before my journey. Shoes suspended from the walls in that ’52 photo framed him then just as now. My déjà vu sixth sense while in Tel Aviv had been spot on.

Technology, mass production, and The World is Flat globalization have forever changed the way shoes are made, but repairs are still performed the old fashioned way - one at a time, by hand. So, if just half the shoes hanging in the Izis image needed attention, the déjà vu all over again cobbler could remain fully employed for life. By the way, if you look really carefully, you just might find a pair hanging in its 1952 spot still awaiting a mending touch (Tel Aviv Close Encounter of the Second Kind).