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There are clown shoes and there are clown shoes.
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Vic’s Shoe Repair in North Bay just repaired a pair of damaged clown shoes worn by legendary McDonald’s vendor and mascot Ronald McDonald about 50 years ago.
The story goes that (one of) the Ronald McDonalds was on tour in the 1970s and the shoes eventually ended up in the hands of the Graydon family. The family owned three McDonald’s locations, two in New Liskeard (now Temiskaming Shores) and one in Kirkland Lake.
The Graydon family had a long relationship with George Cohon, the (former) President and CEO of McDonald’s Canada. Cohon employed several Ronald McDonald’s in Canada and one of his favourite people made the Northern Ontario tour.
This Ronald McDonald often stayed with the Graydon family during these various tours.
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After 39 years, the family sold their restaurants but still had plenty of McDonald’s paraphernalia in Darren Graydon’s parents’ house in New Liskeard. Their house was damaged by fire in March this year. A firefighter removed the damaged shoes from the house and there was only one place to send them for repairs.
Graydon has been bringing his cowboy boots to Vic’s Shoe Repair for over 40 years and trusts and appreciates the work done there. From Toronto, where Graydon now lives, he told the Nugget by phone about his trust in Vic’s Shoe Repair.
“I always wear cowboy boots and have had them resoled 40 or 50 times,” Graydon says. “When Ronald McDonald’s shoes broke, I only wanted to take them to one place, Vic’s Shoe Repair. I had a long relationship with Vic (Pettella, who died earlier this year at age 82). I wanted to get those shoes repaired because it’s always nice to find a way to make people smile,” Graydon says.
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Vic Pettella’s son Marcello, who now runs the workshop together with his wife Angelina, also had a smile on his face. After his father’s death, Marcello wanted to tell a nice story about this business.
Repairing big red clown shoes was the solution, although he didn’t expect those shoes to show up in his shop.
(Before and after photo of Ronald McDonald’s shoes (SUBMISSIONED)
“I was surprised,” says Pettella. “On the other hand, we have seen clown shoes in the past, but the connection to Ronald McDonald was different.”
What did Pettella have to do to get it repaired? Apparently a lot.
“I had to remove the water stains, remove as much smoke smell as possible, they had to be re-colored, “Treat all leather soles inside and out and then re-lace them,” says Pettella, adding, “Finding yellow laces was not easy.”
After repairing the clown shoes, Pettella noticed the effect they had on children who entered the store.
“When parents came in with their small children, “I ran to the back, grabbed the shoes, put them on the counter and asked the kids, ‘Are these shoes yours?’ and they were so excited,” Pettella says with a big smile.
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