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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Tony Bonczewski has spent generations bringing salvation to tired soles.
				After 76 years, though, the veteran shoe repair man plans to lay down his tools.
				&ldquo;It&rsquo;s time,&rdquo; Bonczewski said, standing beneath a sign hanging on the back wall of his Public Square shop that reads &ldquo;Tony&rsquo;s Shoe Hospital.&rdquo; 
				&ldquo;All I&rsquo;ve done for all of my life is work, work, work,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to retire.&rdquo;
				Bonczewski, who will turn 91 on Feb. 7, said he will close the doors to his Jordan National Show Repair shop at 15 Public Square by the end of February. After that, he&rsquo;s not sure what he will do to fill his days.
				&ldquo;I like to go to Aruba, but I can&rsquo;t go there now because of the pandemic,&rdquo; the affable Bonczewski said. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;ll just take it day by day.&rdquo;
				Bonczewski, of Plains Township, said the machinery in his shop is old and near-obsolete. He said he has outlived many of his base customers. And add to that, he said shoes aren&rsquo;t made the same these days.
				&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t get shoes repaired much anymore,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Shoes aren&rsquo;t made the same. They dispose of them and get a new pair.&rdquo;
				The aroma of leather and shoe polish remains part of the ambiance of Bonczewski&rsquo;s shop. And the TV in the corner remains on to keep the cobbler informed of all that is good &mdash; and bad &mdash; in the world.
				Bonczewski said for many years he worked seven days a week, opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 5:30 p.m. These days, he opens at 8 a.m., but locks the door at 1 p.m.
				Bonczewski said he will miss repairing shoes and he will miss the customers he served.
				&ldquo;My customers are loyal,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always enjoyed what I do. I really mean that.&rdquo;
				The shop is located in the Bicentennial Building on Public Square, where Bonczewski has plied his trade for the last 44 years. Before that, he had a shop on North Main Street, next to the former Times Leader building, which he opened in 1962. And before that, he was learning his trade at other shops even before he graduated from Coughlin High School in 1947.
				Now do the math &mdash; Bonczewski was 15 when he started shining shoes and making deliveries and in between he was learning to repair shoes.
				His sense of humor has never waned. He said most of the machines in his shop &ldquo;are dead.&rdquo;
				&ldquo;The reason they&rsquo;re dead is that there isn&rsquo;t anybody to repair them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And even if there was, you can&rsquo;t get the parts.&rdquo;
				The shop looks like the way a shoe repair shop should look &mdash; shoe laces, shoe polish and plastic bags filled with repaired shoes waiting for customers to pick up.
				&ldquo;I love this business,&rdquo; Bonczewski said. &ldquo;I love the people and the conversations day-in and day-out.&rdquo;
				Bonczewski bought the business in 1962 from Frank Giordano and kept the name of Jordan National Shoe Repair. His original partner, Jim Alu, died years ago.
				Bonczewski said he loves to listen to Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, plus the oldies from the 1950s and 1960s.
				On Feb. 7, 2020, balloons hung from the entrance door of the shop in celebration of Bonczewski&rsquo;s 90th birthday.
				Customer Barbara DiGiovanni and her husband, Dr. Vincent DiGiovanni, brought Bonczewski a birthday cake bedecked with candles and a lady&rsquo;s shoe. Bonczewski blew out the candles and made a wish as &ldquo;Happy Birthday&rdquo; was sung.
				&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe Tony is retiring,&rdquo; DiGiovanni said when told the news. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have to get him another cake for his birthday to send him off to retirement in style.&rdquo;
				When asked a year ago how long he would keep repairing shoes, Bonczewski said, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be here until the man upstairs takes me, or if the machines stop working.&rdquo;
				Not surprisingly, the machines were the first to go.

Wilkes-Barre’s ‘Shoe Guy’ to retire after decades in business