Elmer’s Shoe Repair
Back in 1962, artificial ice was installed for the first time in the Berwick arena. It was a tremendous boost for the sports-minded fans of the town and surrounding area and people of all ages joined the six-team Berwick and district hockey league.
Within two years, the Berwick Curling Club opened a new building and attracted over 90 members to their Orchard Street club. New curlers came from all directions to try their luck at a new sport.
Berwick soon became a market for sports equipment, such as hockey skates and curling boots, hockey sticks and curling brooms and other necessary items.
Elmer’s Shoe Repair, with his skate sharpening machine, soon became the busiest shop in town. In addition to skate sharpening, Mr. Wentzell repaired any type of hockey equipment the players brought in for the price of 35 cents.
As a sportsman, Mr. Wentzell was a good bowler and sponsored Elmer’s Shoe Repair team in the Middleton league. His average was high among the league leaders.
Mr. Wentzell was involved in a friendly conflict with some of the players in the hockey league. The Berwick sportsman claimed he could increase the players’ speed by covering the skate blade with a thin coat of a special oil. “To go like the wind,” was how Elmer explained it.
Over the years, Berwick residents were known to get so excited about the success of their sports teams, they would go very long distances to see one of the games. Most local residents were surprised to learn Mr. Wentzell was one of those fans. Once, when a big game took place in Port Hawksbury, Mr. Wentzell and his friends were there when the puck was dropped.
On the way back to Berwick, Mr. Wentzell probably made good use of his spare drivers. The distance was quite long and the shoe repair man, who also worked full time at the Berwick Bakery, was due to start his shift at 6 a.m. As a passenger, he could catch some sleep -hopefully.
The boys were probably discussing the events that occurred on the ice during the game and missed the exit near Truro. By the time they discovered they had missed the turn-off, they were well on the way to Amherst.
The drive back to Truro and all the wasted time may have made the travelers a little impatient and, without realizing what they were doing, they let the speed of the car get a little too high. This happened while an on duty police officer was in the area. He stopped the Berwick car and added a few dollars to the cost of their trip.
Monday evening, Mr. Wentzel was back in the bowling alley explaining to the other bowlers why the trip was so expensive. He could recover some of the money, however, if he could just get some more of that skate blade oil.
