He Watches Over the Soles of Cinderella and Mickey--Which Is No Mean Feat

All his life, Dave Dakos, 59, has been well heeled, so to speak.

Actually, he’s one of the more innovative cobblers in the county. He forms shoes for clowns, eight-inch-high heels for rock stars, and even slippers for Cinderella and footwear for all the other characters at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.

“Most people in California have healthy feet,” said Dakos, who also makes orthopedic shoes. “People here either go barefoot or wear sandals and tennis shoes, and that gives the feet breathing room, and that’s good.”

Although healthy feet aren’t great for business, Dakos isn’t really complaining. He has three shoe repairmen working for him at Capri Shoe Repair in Fullerton. “Business isn’t that good, but it’s not that bad either,” he admitted.

Part of the reason for less business, he said, is that many imported shoes worn these days are not worth repairing. That’s the opposite of the Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm footwear, which needs to be re-heeled and re-soled after three or four parades or speciality shows.

His workers regularly pick up about 150 pairs of footwear--and that includes “feet” for Donald Duck, Goofy and Mickey Mouse--three times a week from both theme parks, the result of harsh wear on asphalt surfaces.

Dakos, who learned the business from his Greek-born father, is slowing down these days, content to supervise his workers between motor-home jaunts around the country with his wife, Dolores.

“I liked shoes from the first day I worked at a shoe company,” said Dakos, who opened his shop 26 years ago. “I put a lot of effort into it, whether I was a salesman, a repairman or a shoemaker.”

Jack Mayes, 21, seems headed in the right direction, considering he’s only 21 and last year marketed $500,000 in baseball trading cards and related paraphernalia.

“I found out there was a big market in the wholesale market for baseball trading cards, and the business took off,” the UC Irvine senior said.

Naturally, he’s an economics major, “but I plan on getting a master’s degree after I graduate,” said Mayes, of Tustin. “I need more education. There’s a lot of competition out there.

Does he have his own baseball card collection?

“No way,” he said. “I hate baseball.”

Four years ago, William E. Sanders, 38, of Anaheim, bought a footlong house pet, named him Burmi and watched it grow. Today, the Burmese python is 11 1/2 feet long and weighs 72 pounds. “Anyone can have a dog or cat,” Sanders said, so he opted for the python, which is still recovering from an intestinal problem it suffered when it accidentally swallowed a bath mat.

“It’s still touch-and-go, but he looks OK,” said Sanders, an insurance salesman.

He said owning a snake is like owning a painting. “It’s something you buy to look at.” But in his case, “I also like to watch it grow.” Eventually, it will be 18 feet long and weigh 300 pounds.

Owning a snake does have its drawbacks. Each time he brings a girlfriend to his mobile home, “I go through pure hell. They all want me to take Burmi outside,” since it lives in the bathroom.

And besides that, he added, “my parents won’t come over.”

The 300 guests at a recent party at the Hyatt Regency Alicante hotel in Garden Grove were all on a first-name basis. That’s because everyone’s last name was Hyatt or a similar-sounding name, such as Hiatte or Hiette.

Jerry Lewin, who manages the hotel, which was incorporated in the Hyatt chain in August, said it was his way to get the Hyatt name better known in the community.

He should have a good start. Richard Hyatt, a resident of Irvine, is state executive director of a nationwide family association of people named Hyatt, Hiette or Hiatte. Hyatt said that the U.S. group has 20,000 members--with and that about 2,500 of those are in California.

Acknowledgments--Their relationship and positive influence on the child’s behavior have earned Big Sister of the Year award for Stephanie Hulme of Huntington Beach, Big Brother of Year for Dan Ketcham of Costa Mesa, and Couple of Year for Joyce and Tom Caballero of Fullerton.)