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Limmer's
Hi all.
I recently returned from my annual two-week New
Hampshire "retreat" -- had a great time, crossed
nine more four-thousand footers off the list, and
my son met his first _real_ thru-hikers ("Why do
those guys smell so much?" :-) )
I made the pilgrimage to the temple of leather and
had a chance to speak with both Karl and Peter...
Karl, the bootmeister, is no longer making boots.
He has a pretty bad skin condition from the constant
exposure to the glue used in the bootmaking process
(laminating day at the shop probably makes most folks
decide on a career other than bootmaking) and has gone
out on disability. He now works part-time on the
operations side of the business, but figures he's done
as a bootmaker. He's also starting into computers :-)
Peter, the shoemeister, is doing his best, but as he
said, "When Karl stopped working, our backlog went from
eighteen to thirty-six months overnight". They've
stopped taking orders on shoes and Peter estimates it
might be as long as four years before they make any more
after they finish the current batch. IMHO, they're also on
the verge of stopping to take new orders on boots until
they can get the backlog down to something a little more
manageable.
BTW, there's three "little Limmer's", but it'll be awhile
before any are tall enough to reach the workbench...
jim
jloudon@juno.com