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Source: The Santa Fe New MexicanSept.迷你倉 24--Vicente Trujillo recently took over City Shoe Repair, a shop his grandfather started nearly 40 years ago. To say Trujillo has big shoes to fill (or fix, as the case may be) would be an understatement.Trujillo's grandfather, Mariano Ortega , 86, served in World War II, was married for 65 years "and 10 months," raised eight children, and fixed shoes in Los Alamos for several decades years before starting his own business, which has now been in operation in the same Cordova Road location since 1974.Ortega "retired" in 1988 when his eldest son took over the business, then one of his daughters ran it for awhile before Trujillo purchased it from her in July. But he still comes in to Cordova Road shop three days a week to teach his grandson the business and to help fix shoes."This isn't work. It's a hobby now," said Ortega as he trimmed the excess leather off the new zipper on a pair of boots he was repairing one day last week. "When I was feeding and clothing my kids, it was work, 10 to 12 hours a day, that was work."Trujillo himself had a 22-year career guarding nuclear materials for a federal contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory before taking over the shop this summer. He said spending time with his grandfather, and learning his trade, is the biggest perk of his new work."There is nothing better than learning from a master," he said. "Not many people get a chance to learn something from someone who been doing it for 70 years. I get to be with my grandfather three days a week. I'm learning so much from him, and I'm enjoying it so much."Trujillo said he has modernized the shop a little bit since taking over, installing a new exhaust fan and streamlining some processes to cut down turnover time on repair jobs. But, he said, he's cautious when it comes to make changes to the shop, which smells of leather and is coated in a sooty looking layer of old shoe polish."I had to update to make it a little more modern," he said. "But I didn't want to fix sommini storagething that wasn't broken. People come in here for the quality of the work."The work is performed by Ortega and four or five employees, who repair shoes mostly by hand with the help of a just a few power tools, including a buffer and a nailer."It's kind of a dying trade because there aren't a lot of people who work with their hands like that," Trujillo said."No other place has such great artistry, said Susan Callioni, an Atlanta woman who popped in to the shop one morning last week to have the strap on a 30-year-old leather bag from Morocco repaired. "In Atlanta, there are no artists with such high skill, quality and service." Callioni said she and her husband often bring shoes with them to be repaired when they visit Santa Fe.Trujillo said the shop repairs about 1,000 items per month -- which includes jackets, wallets, briefcases and other leather goods. Last week, a young lady dropped off a pair of Prada slides (which can retail for more than $300) to be fixed. On the same day, an older gentlemen came in for a pair of shoes laces. The shop also stocks red chile powder and pinto beans.Trujillo said working with his grandfather allows him to really know the elder relative in way many people don't get to know their grandparents."He tells me stories every day," he said. "So, I'm actually living a big dream."Meanwhile, Ortega is looking forward to the next chapter in his life. After having lost his wife a few years ago, he said, he recently asked his daughters if they would mind if he "took a partner." They gave their blessing.So does the 86-year-old have many prospects?"Lots of them," he said. "There aren't very many good men these days. They are all looking for someone who has a car and a job. She works, and he rides around in her car all day."Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) Visit The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) at .santafenewmexican.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage