Every time I go into an antique or thrift store, I wonder if I will find a certain thing--a pair of shoes made by my grandfather's shoe company, Erica Shoes.
My grandfather, Sidney Seidner, and his partner, Sol Litvak, founded the company in the 1950s. Both immigrants, they picked the name Erica in honor of their new homeland, America. They made ladies dress shoes--classic things like pumps and spectators and fancy satin dress shoes. The company sold to stores like Saks, Bonsit Teller, Neiman Marcus, I Magnin, Joseph Magnin, Bullock's, and Bloomingdales.
My grandfather was always doodling shoes. Once, when I was about 9, he asked what my favorite color was. I said purple, so he made me a pair of purple shoes. When my grandmother died, she had a mini-Imelda Marcos closet filled with shoes. Size 9 1/2, not useful to too many people (other than my niece, Sydney, whose taste in shoes is not exactly classic lady shoes--she is 20 years old).
Anyway, I have NEVER ever seen a single pair of Erica shoes in any antique store. Until today, at Papillon, in Jerome, Arizona, where there were two pairs of black satin very dressy shoes.
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| Erica Shoes, in Jerome, AZ |
Just as we were telling the manager about my grandfather and his shoe company, our daughter, Erica, called. Yes, she is named for a shoe company--sort of. Her Hebrew name is in honor of my great-aunt, Tante Elsie, but we actually got the name wrong (we found this out years later). Oh well. Erica she is.
We have a few pairs of the shoes at home, and a few of the distinctive black and white boxes with the script Erica on them, and a pair of Erica cuff links.
After my grandfather retired, Mr. Litvak and his son had the business, which then closed I think in the mid-1980s. It's too bad--my sister Martha would have done amazing things with it---but she was only about 12 years old when my grandfather retired. Alas.
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