It was 1962 back in Brooklyn, NY I was 8 years old running my own “business” shining shoes. My father had an old homemade shoeshine box when he was younger man and I used that to make a few dollars at 25 cents per shine. It was a great “territory” in front of Wes’s candy store because it was the last stop on Ave U and Veterans Ave where all the bus drivers went to sit down at the counter for food or pickup coffee and those were the days when men wore real working leather shoes, I think Knapp was the preferred brand back then.
It was a great summertime job, the bus drivers treated me like gold. They talked to me as if I was one of them and to an eight year old they looked cool in their blue bus drivers uniforms.
When five o’clock came around my mom would give Wes a call and he would come out and tell me it was time to go home to dinner. I thanked him, packed up my stuff and walked back home. It was another great day with 5 to 10 dollars in quarters in my pockets. I wish I still had that old shoeshine box today.
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