Young ladye working hard on her saddled shoes on the floor of the kitchen. Not sure if she is painting or waxing them, circa 1950s

    by Electrical-Aspect-13

    12 Comments

    1. I remember wearing those things, they were still popular in early 1960s. But glad no one has a photo of me in them.

    2. We had to wear them with our Catholic school uniforms in the 50’s and 60’s. We’d use saddle soap on the brown leather, and then there was this white paint-on polish in an applicator bottle we used on the white part, after saddle-soaping off the scuff marks. I still remember the smells…

    3. There was white and black/brown shoe polish. It looks like wax residue on the saddles so she may be shining them up with a neutral wax. My sisters wore these for years.

    4. I used to polish my own saddle shoes. The nuns told us this was something we should do ourselves and “don’t bother yer mithers about it.” [that was me trying to type an Irish accent]

    5. I had to wear white bucks for marching band and we used the same white stuff in the applicator bottle.

    6. ThanosWasRight161 on

      I do miss shining my shoes. It’s something that was very cathartic, that seems to have gotten away from us. I need to bring this back.

    7. I don’t polish my shoes, but I’m a clean freak, and make sure any white shoes are white. Dear ole mom embedded that into my skull as a young child.

    8. When i was growing up, one night a week all our shoes would be polished. Our father always said a person’s shoes tell you all you need to know about them. We kids all wore brown shoes. The big guy had black and cordovan. Mumsie was a nurse, so she got the white polish. Everything was paste, worked into the leather and buffed to a high shine. Sunday patent leather wasnt polished the same way. I love the smell of that Kiwi shoe polish. A tin lasts forever, too.

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