THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412070104
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 1B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEAN GEDDES, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
DAINTY VICTORIAN ladies boots and an artist's sketch of an old-fashioned cobbler at work are reminders for Cedola Morton of the 37 years she spent as owner of shoe-repair shops in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
The items, displayed in her Bayside area living room, also serve as interesting conversation pieces, said the lively 84-year-old retiree.
``Our family is now into the fourth generation involved in the shoe-repair business. It began with my father, then my brothers and I became involved, then a nephew and now, a great nephew is learning the business,'' she explained as she poured a cup of coffee. Her nephew, Terry Fant, operates a shoe-repair shop at Haygood Shopping Center.
She continued, ``I really had no actual experience in that business when I decided to buy my brother's shop in Norfolk, but I did have a business background and I knew I could make a go of it.''
And ``make a go of it'' she did, for the B&M Shoe Repair shops became well known and respected. She added two more shops to her business venture before retiring around 1982.
She bought her first shop in 1948 in downtown Norfolk. She later bought two more, one in Janaf Shopping Center when it opened in the 1950s and one in Southern Shopping Center, also in Norfolk.
Her husband, Vernon, worked along with her for a year before suffering a disabling heart attack in 1949, which eventually led to his death six years later.
Facing life squarely in the face, she allowed herself no self pity, instead buckled down to work harder, overseeing her shops, and later when she was needed more at home, she began to design dresses for her friends and friends of friends, building up another business for herself and allowing her to support her family, which included a young son, Jack.
Recalling those busy days, she said, ``I'm only glad that earlier I had completed a business course and later taken advanced accounting at the College of William and Mary, for I put that knowledge to good use in my business.''
After caring for her husband until he died and raising and educating her son, she began to realize her dream to travel all over the world.
``I have always had an insatiable thirst for knowledge of how other people live and so I began to travel - to Holland, France, Italy, Russia, England, Hawaii and other places which fascinated me. In Venice, I stayed at a hotel where once George Sand and Chopin had stayed on their way to Majorca and I also visited that famous place there called, `Harry's Bar.' ''
A flexible person, she finds it easy to laugh at herself such as when she was preparing for her first trip abroad and had booked passage on the Greek ship, Queen Frederica. She decided to take dance lessons from Arthur Murray when she had heard life aboard ship was a social one. Although she learned to dance, she quickly discovered that while there was dancing every night aboard ship, it was done by the men in the traditional Greek way, dancing in a circle.
``I got my money's worth though on my second trip to Europe aboard the United States, for I danced every night that time,'' she said.
She still loves to dance, to walk, play bridge (which she does three times a week), bike ride, attend social functions, go out to lunch and dinner, visit friends, listen to music, read biographies of famous people, drive and watch news programs on television and cook. She has often flown to Washington to attend a cocktail party or other social event.
She said working all those years helped her. ``It taught me great discipline. I still get up at 4:30 a.m. and go for a half-hour walk. I learned early on how to manage money and get along with people. After breakfast, I settle down to do my letter writing, for that's how I keep in touch with my family and friends.''
She converses on paper with people as though they were seated there with her in the room. She may talk about how she has just watched a frisky blue jay splash about in the bird bath, what flowers are blooming in her garden, where she has been lately, what her two grandchildren or six great-grandchildren are up to or how her son, Jack, and her daughter-in-law, Jean, are.
Lively discussions please her but arguing does not. She has definite opinions on many things, such as raising children:
``Praise. Don't degrade.''
On health: ``Take care of your mind by exercising it as well as your body.''
She said bridge is a wonderful way to keep alert as it involves study of the game as well as playing it and it is also a social outlet.
Meeting life's challenges head on is still her philosophy and her most recent challenge came when she realized she might lose her eyesight to glaucoma. When told she would need a cornea transplant, she took it all in stride and with hardly any sight left, lived alone in her condo for six months waiting for the necessary operation.
Undaunted, she determined to study Braille ``just in case'' and said: ``I will be forever grateful to my close friend, Ruth Robinson, who introduced me to the world of talking books and great music on tape, for as my eyesight diminished I depended on these more and more.''
When the operation was finally performed, she recalled the next day vividly. ``I could see,'' she exclaimed.
Today, completely self sufficient, she said she always has a project planned to keep her busy and each day wakes up in anticipation of it. ``I find also that I enjoy greatly the simple things of life: a picnic on a patio, a letter from a friend; cooking a favorite recipe.'' She recalled tasting a Italian zucchini casserole in a hotel in Venice and asking the chef for the recipe. He obliged and she has used it frequently for more than 30 years.
She has never given up her love of traveling and advises everyone to travel as much as possible.
There is one place she still wants to visit: Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Canada. ``I spoke with my son recently about that, telling him that's the one place I really want to go and he said, `We may still get you there, Mom.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Cedola Morton, pictured with a portrait of a cobbler at work, says
``Our family is now into the fourth generation involved in the
shoe-repair business.''
by CNB