Shoe Shine

Walking around Downtown Chicago I pass what is called a Shoe Hospital. I look down at my beat up old shoes - a bit of mud from the Berkshires, the broken laces that I didn't have time to replace in London, the leather drenched of any sheen by the downpours that greeted me on my arrival in the city. This was for me.

I've never had a shoe-shine before so took the opportunity to apprentice myself. Here are the stages:

1) Lightly scrub the shoe with a detergent solution
2) Rub the shoe with alcohol to remove the water
3) Carefully wind old material around your fingers, twisting it like a tourniquet to you can barely bend them
4) Apply polish
5) Spritzer with water - no shoeshine guy is going to have enough spit to go around
6) Buff with brushes
7) Repeat steps 3-6
8) Repeat steps 3-6 again
9) Take strip of thicker pile material
10) Brush the strip of material with a firm bristle brush to bring up the pile
11) Pull taut over the shoes and buff from side to side
12) Finish with blackening around the welt to cover up any scuffs.

My campers (black leather trainer type things) now look a bit like Katharine's army boot toe caps. Amazing.

Cost: $4, less if you buy them in batches of 10. So cheap it didn't seem right. I gave him more than this as a tip
Quickest time: The shoe shine guy swore he could do it in 3 minutes and they needed to be fast as there were often people queuing by 7:30 when they open
Reading opportunities: Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun Times - So I ask, do you learn whether your customers are democrat or republican and give them the paper of their choice? And what about having Cosmo for the ladies? They look bemused at this strange British woman although the profess themselves in love with the accent. I leave glinting and glimmering and go and top off the American experience by tucking into a burger, with Swiss and fries. Can you see your pot belly reflected if you go for enough shoe shines?