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| Eli Wurl recreating history for Toma-Walk patrons |
I wondered how he’d do it. Last weekend, Eli Wurl had a challenging
job. He needed to portray me as a shoe shine boy 67 years ago without benefit
of my original equipment. He did well.
As you can see (scroll down a bit to the July 11 post, “The
Geezer Goes Historic”), Eli’s chair lacked the altitude of mine. But his
attitude was just fine, as he indicates in the photo above of his portrayal
during Toma-Walk activities. Pete Wurl, Eli’s dad, kindly sent the photo and
observed that the young actor “really enjoyed” his experience. True to reality,
Eli advertised “Shoe Shine 15 Cents, The Other Shoe Free” just as I did.
Eli greeted walkers in front of a “Main Street ” building in Tomahawk, Wisconsin , constructed
by my grandfather in 1911. That’s where my stand was, although I was positioned
on the west side of the building entrance, not the east. Actually, Eli picked
the better of the two locations. My stand was in the way when people wanted to
use the door to the second floor stairway.
The building originally housed grandpa’s tailor shop and
mens apparel store. At the time I worked in front of it, my father operated the
tailor shop in the rear of the building and the main section housed Central
Drug Store.
Several ladies who took a look at the photo of Eli as me
commented on what a handsome lad the young actor is. They seemed to imply I
came up a little short in the comparison.
Oh well, that probably is something historic figures played
by the likes of Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Eli Wurl just have
to put up with.
