Lost Art

I recently bought shoe polish. I would have thought it a pretty easy task. I always remember that being the one thing grocery stores carried, long before it became fashionable or necessary to be a 'one stop shopping experience'. I had to hunt high and low to come up with simple black and dark brown. Two simple little tins, with the little red and white bird on top. I never remember there being much other than Kiwi polish. My mother dabbled in other forms, besides the semi-solid puck, but always went back to the pucks. The one glaring exception would be white. White shoes needed to be heavily dosed in a white, opaque liquid, squeezed out of a sponge top bottle. It was sticky stuff and always seemed to leave streaks.

I had forgotten how soothing it was to shine shoes. Lining them up on old newspaper, slathering on the polish with one old rag and rubbing it off with another, both rags kept especially for this purpose, since no cleaning liquid has been invented that will remove it from fabric. The simple satisfaction of seeing all those shiny, nearly new again shoes lined up.

Perhaps in today's throw away society, we have forgotten about shoe polish and keeping things for as long as possible. I am glad to have re-discovered it. Kiwi polish, since 1906 and still going strong 1. 2.

Lost Art

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