Max Plafkin was a bootmaker in the Russian army; he left Russia in 1903 when Russia went to war with Japan; he was warned by a fellow officer that the Jewish community was going to rounded up and shipped off to who knows where; he decided to go to Germany, get on a boat and go to Canada where relatives--Zalev family-helped him bring over my grandmother and all of his children; he was a shoemaker all of his life; enter Reuben, one of his sons; Reuben was a talented shoe repair person; he had a shop on Fulton and Diamond; he also worked at Economy Shoe Repair on Division near the Majestic Theater; Reuben began helping his father Max at 1212-14 S. Division; when his father, Max, retired, Reuben took over the shop; enter Plafkin Brothers buying surplus, overruns, closeouts and manufactured goods from shoe companies from Pennsylvania, New York, Boston, Mass, Lynn Mass, Waycross, Georgia, H.H. Brown, Worcester, Mass, Eagle Shoe-Everette, Mass, Porter  Shoe, Millis, Mass, Gardner Shoe, Gardner Maine;  Plafkin Brothers had shoes manufactured for them by H.H. Brown; we were able to select the upper leathers from Argentina, the thickness of the soles, one or two piece counters, and put our labels on the boxes if we wished.   Roger Plafkin-Plafkin Brothers-Plafkin Farms, Ada, Michigan