City Shoe Shop
128 W. Broadway
Hollis, Oklahoma
George and Edna Forducey opened a shoe shop for business in the latter 1930�s. They rented half of the building and the other half was Matlock Barber Shop.
They repaired shoes and sold polish in the early years and later expanded to making leather sandals. This led to the making of bridles, belts, hand-tooled purses, saddles and chaps. One of the Forducey saddles is on loan at the Harmon County Museum from the Herman Crowley family.
They also made orthopedic braces and platform soles for shoes and boots.
My best memories growing up in a community where you could walk to school and walk home from the store after shopping: Saturday was a busy day for all the stores. In the evening you saw families sitting in their cars watching the "parade" of people walk up and down the sidewalk in front of the stores. Traffic was busy, due to all the lucky ones driving the "main drag" (all of three blocks). The Mexican man selling tamales on the corner in front of the drug store. Farmers wanting to barter for goods. Booster parades at the start of football season and rodeo parades, always good for business.
June 1952 they closed their shop and moved to Lawton and opened the 4 Deuces Western Wear and Shoe Repair.
