Inquiring Photographer:”Would you object to shining your husband’s shoes if he asked you to?”January 27, 1966
by CryptographerKey2847
Inquiring Photographer:”Would you object to shining your husband’s shoes if he asked you to?”January 27, 1966
by CryptographerKey2847
3 Comments
This is NYC in 1966. I was five. There was a shoe shine guy on every corner in NYC back then. There were even shoe shine guys on the Staten Island ferry, as well as in both terminals.
Shoot, even my aristocratic father shined his own shoes, along with mine. That’s only because we lived on Staten Island and my father drove everywhere.
Cleaning and shining the family’s shoes and boots was my Dad’s first official chore as a kid, age 5, 1950s. Grandma had wayyy too many other things to do to waste time on that.
I wouldn’t want my wife to shine them. Until relatively recently (Covid, maybe?), there were shoe shine places everywhere in Manhattan. When I worked, I liked having nice shoes, and it was a small treat to have them shined (regular shine, no water). You sit up there on your little throne, reading the paper or just looking around, and 10 minutes later, your shoes look great. Just like how, when you get your car washed, it seems to run a little better; when you get your shoes shined, you had a little more spring in your step.