The Cobblers to Mark 65 Years

This Coming Tuesday, June 13

By Mike McGuire CASTRO VALLEY FORUM

CVSan provides for the collection of wastewater and oversees the collection and proper handling of solid waste from homes and businesses located in its service area. It also holds recycling events and teaches all local 3rd graders about the “four Rs” — recycle, reduce, reuse, and rot.

The new headquarters will be located at 21195 Center Street. More information is available at cvsan.org, (510) 537-0757.

Hayward is cutting a ribbon in front of The Cobblers shoe store at 22443 Foothill Blvd. on Tuesday, June 13—but it’s to mark their 65 years in business there, not the opening of a new business.

Rudy Grasseschi and his family are in the third and fourth generation of running the store, which opened on Foothill Boulevard on June 13, 1958, in what was then a new retail development. It moved a few doors to a larger location in 1991.

Rudy’s dad Alfred had opened his first shoe store in Hayward in 1932 at the corner of B Street and Castro, which is now Mission Boulevard.

Rudy was the ninth of 11 children born to Alfred and Alina Grasseschi, who had both come from Santa Maria del Guidice, near Lucca in Italy. There was a detour to Montana to mine copper for a decade before moving to much warmer Hayward.

Rudy and his brothers worked at his parent’s shop after school and on weekends after it had moved across the street to what was then 619

Castro Street. At one point, Hayward had 15 shoe stores and five shoe repair shops, Rudy said.

When the store opened on Foothill, Hayward was booming and had recently added J.C. Penney’s, Capwell’s, and Woolworth’s, he added. All those are gone from downtown, although Penney’s remains open across town at the Southland Mall.

Today, Rudy runs the store along with his sons Dino and Rodney and grandsons Kenneth and Wayne. They’re joined by master shoe repairer Hector, an “honorary son.” see COBBLERS on page 10

Art Demo This Saturday

Sandcastle Contest on Saturday

By Ned MacKay SPECIAL TO THE FORUM

One of the East Bay Regional Park District’s most popular and enjoyable events is scheduled for Saturday, June 10, at Crown Beach in Alameda. It’s the 55th Annual Sandcastle and Sculpture Contest, always a family-friendly crowd pleaser.