2016/02/26 – Free Shines, July 4th Deaths

Recently my good friend Jeff remarked that he admired my entrepreneurial spirit. I thought about that during my bike ride today.

When I was a boy my dad was always telling me stories about how he made money when he was a boy. Most of his stories sounded really dated and stupid in the modern 1950’s.

But he did encourage me and once I got the taste of capitalism, I was addicted. I went door-to-door taking orders for custom potholders that I would make. I pulled neighbors weeds in summer. I shoveled snow in winter. I carried people’s luggage at Kennedy Airport. I put on chemistry shows (that’s another story), and I shined shoes.

I had a gimmick for shoe shining. I would go in the local bars. In those days on Liberty Avenue underneath the elevated train, there were bars on every other block. I would go from bar to bar.

Picture an eleven-year-old boy walking through the bar doors yelling “Free Shines!” In those days the bars were packed on a Saturday afternoon. And walking through the smoke, and noise, and smell of stale beer, a little boy was offering free shines.

And when asked how I could make money giving away free shines, I would reply, “I just work for tips”. And I always got great tips, especially in the black bars. Once I even got a $5 tip! That would be like $50 today.

BTW… My mom tells me we were poor in those days, but I never realized it.

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Did you know that 3 of our US presidents died on July 4th?

Later,
Steve