The Messina family has been fixing shoes in North Texas for well over 100 years.
In downtown Grapevine, there's a familiar sound that pours out of a small shop on Main Street.
Sam Messina knows the sound well.
"That was my father's machine," he said. "It's older than I am, and I'm 64."
Messina spends hours behind that noisy machine, because fixing shoes just runs in the family.
"My grandfather did it. My father and two of his brothers did it. My cousin's doing it. I'm doing it. My sons are doing it," he said.
Messinas son, Jacob Messina, works wonders on high heels.
"I'm dealing with the pickiest customers," he joked. "I basically do open-heart surgery on shoes."
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"People just like their shoes," said Sam Messina's niece, Kelly. "I'd say half the things we get, they're not expensive things. They're just people have an attachment to them and they don't want to let them go."
One recent item was a pool sweep that had a torn net.
"What is this?" Kelly recalled with a smile. "I don't even know!"
That's what happens when you've been around for so long.
"Probably the early 1900s," Sam Messina said.
His grandfather migrated from Sicily.
"They had two shops in Dallas at one time," Sam Messina said. "On Ackard and on Ervay."
And the rest is history. The Messinas launched their Grapevine shop back in 1977.
"One of the oldest businesses on Main Street," Sam Messina added.
And with the family still growing, this place isn't going anywhere.
"Oh, it'll be here for a very, very long time," Sam Messina said.
