How it used to be, and still is

Bill’s belt broke the other day…I should say, Bill’s beloved belt.

I said, “Buy a new one.”

Bill likes old things, resists buying new stuff. And Bill is thrifty.

He said, “But I love this old leather belt and the buckle is simple and perfect.”

So I took a ride today. Went to see Levi Shetler whose father, Ben, was our harness maker a decade ago when we still raised Percherons.

Since Ben’s death, Levi has taken over the business. The shop is unchanged–harness and harness parts hanging from the beams and from hooks around the section of the old barn converted into a work space. There’s a complicated bit of belt driven machinery and the leather-work sewing machine can be hooked up to that belt drive or operated manually with a turn wheel or the treadle.

I had Sarah Harris with me for this excursion. Sarah, as you may know, is interning at the station this summer. I had told her about the 40-horse hitch Ben Shetler had made for the big royal celebration in Ottawa 10-15 years ago. She couldn’t believe it.

I asked Levi if he still had the picture of the hitch. He does, of course. He showed us the wonderful–as it turns out 50-horse–team linked together with harness made in a little Amish shop on the back roads of northern New York. There it was: 12 four-horse hitches, plus one pair in the lead, hitched together by old Ben Shetler. The horses all decorated and fancy for the parade.

Meanwhile, Levi fixed the belt. He wanted $2.00 for the work. I gave him a bit more. It may be that not too many “English” need harness-makers anymore (I’m sure 90% of the work Levi does is for the Amish community), but it is so amazing that this craftsman is still quietly pursuing a trade that has almost disappeared since the population move from country to city so many decades ago. Levi, his work, the remote roads are all part of what I call the north country, are all part of what makes this place, well, this place.

By the way, I gave up trying to find an “English” cobbler. They don’t exist anymore, at least not around St. Lawrence County. I think I may ask Levi to stitch up some old boots I hate to throw away.