In reply to mypyrex:
> As a kid I can remember, on occasional trips to London, seeing shoeshine boys plying their trade on the streets buffing up peoples' shoes. They seemed to die out in the sixties and seventies.
> The youngest lad, who is often in London, occasionally has his shoes "done" especially if he is on his way to court - he's a barrister and a very snappy dresser.
> I get the impression that shoeshines are seeing something of a resurgence. What sort of people do it? It would be nice to think that a lad desperate for work might take the initiative to start such an enterprise rather that resort to crime and drugs etc. I suppose there are others, however, who would regard such work as "demeaning".
A colleague of mine has a very middle-class life as an IT consultant does shoe shining on his days off and at weekends at posh does - shopping mall opening parties, weddings, that kind of thing. He makes good money out of it. No idea if that is typical.
