Monday, July 5, 2010

Shine em up!

One of the chores my brothers and I had was to polish dad's shoes. They had to be shiny, every pair. Then when my brother was a sailor on the way to 'Nam, I would talk with him while he explained the fine art of a spit shine. He was an artist at that lost discipline. Then I started traveling for career and carrying a little shine kit along, and rated airports by the quality of shoe shine stands. (STL was the best). Now I am shining my shoes for the step daughter's wedding. How can such a mundane task be tied to such memories?

2 comments:

TheWayfarer said...

I inherited a shoe-shine kit & box like that, including a strange machine called a "Ronson Roto-Shine Magnetic"...Does yours have one, or is it strictly mechanical?

Paul Banbury said...

Ted, mine is strictly manual. It is the contention of shoe shine afficianados that a power shiner runs at a speed to fast and will melt the wax polish yielding inferior results.