where I get my shoes fixed

Ken Neuhauser in the C-J on Ron Badger, Cobbler!

Cobbler Ron Badger doesn't accept credit cards. A computer is nowhere in sight at his venerable New Albany shop at 1618 E. Market St., but he will own up to using a cordless phone. He continues to repair shoes with a shoe hammer that once belonged to his great-grandfather...

Badger, 70, arrives at work at 5:30 a.m. every Monday through Friday, hours before his shop opens to the public, plying a trade he learned when he was in junior high school.

Many of his customers, however, bring in — or mail in — their higher-end shoes, work boots and cowboy boots to have half or full soles stitched back on....He said he's been able to stay in business due to his craftsmanship, reasonable prices, no rent because he owns the building and a "good reputation, I guess."

When the shop opened 70 years ago, Badger said, there were 13 shoe repair shops in New Albany. "Now there are none from here to Scottsburg on the Indiana side, except mine. There are not many of us left."