A little of what you fancy

My father decided, when i was around 11, it was time i cleaned my own shoes, we all had leather shoes for school in those days and cleaning them was a weekly event. Everyone’s shoes were either brown or black; you started with a small brush upon which you put a small amount of shoe polish, you then buffed them with a larger brush and, if you had the patience or time, wiped them over with a soft cloth and they were ready to go. Sometimes a special pair needed cleaning, like patent leather, for that we used petroleum jelly wiped on and off with soft cloths. For the white plimsolls we wore for Gym we had a white paste we painted on and they came up as new. The smell in the back room we cleaned them in was strong after we had finished.

When I joined the Women’s Royal air Force in 1969 the shoe cleaning ritual we did, while in our 6 week basic training, was a daily affair. We had old fashioned black lace up leather soled shoes which we were expected to be able to see our faces in by the time we “Passed out”. We put the shoe polish on with a rag, fairly thickly and either used wet cotton wool to rub it in circular motions until it shone or we carefully warmed it with a match, lighter or lit cigarette so it melted just enough but didn’t’ catch on fire (an art) after doing this a few times each night a build up of thick shinny polish was achieved. Mine passed muster but were not the best.

When we where living in Montreal my next door neighbour, an older Brit., used Dubbin on his winter boats and i picked up this trick from him. You may gather I cleaned our winter boots today ready to be stored until next winter.

Not much sunshine today.

Trudeau is out of quarantine and back in the House, Boris is still in Intensive Care but improving and Trump is now dissing the WHO for being too favourable towards the Chinese.

Trump is also touting a Malarial drug used for Arthritis sufferers, this drug is so far not proven and has many side effects. It is not a miracle drug, but might help if you have the disease and are severely affected by it.