I had a day off today and I was out running errands so I stopped by the old Sanitary Barbershop where i shined shoes in my younger days. Bob Bone, my barber and friend of nearly 50 years was busy as usual, even though he is now only working three days a week by appointment only, was busy as usual with a steady hand, a quick wit and never missing a beat on any topic of conversation.
It was a very pleasant hour of chatting with Bob and a couple of his customers, who he would tell them that I shined their shoes 40 years ago. Today I didn't remember the customers. I lot of the time, I do. We were all listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio while we were talking sports, foods and restaurants, and whats going on around town. there was a little competition of joke telling, all three of us participated, there were no clear winners, but we all had a good hearty laugh at the end of each punchline.
I looked over at "my corner" where my two man shoeshine stand sat at one time. Its the place where I learned more about people and how to do business, than I did while I was in school. I learned that you if you wanted to succeed you have to work for it. Ask for the job, do the job right and do it in a timely manner. It also taught me to market myself and get out there and meet people, this led to more shoes to shine. I did quite well back then in those days at just 25 cents a pair.
Bob said the barbershop use to be the hub for all the action in town. We new everything that was going on in this town. Our barbershop was the pre-cursor to facebook. Perhaps the barbershop isn't like it use to be, but it was today, even though for just one hour.
It was a very pleasant hour of chatting with Bob and a couple of his customers, who he would tell them that I shined their shoes 40 years ago. Today I didn't remember the customers. I lot of the time, I do. We were all listening to the St. Louis Cardinals on the radio while we were talking sports, foods and restaurants, and whats going on around town. there was a little competition of joke telling, all three of us participated, there were no clear winners, but we all had a good hearty laugh at the end of each punchline.
I looked over at "my corner" where my two man shoeshine stand sat at one time. Its the place where I learned more about people and how to do business, than I did while I was in school. I learned that you if you wanted to succeed you have to work for it. Ask for the job, do the job right and do it in a timely manner. It also taught me to market myself and get out there and meet people, this led to more shoes to shine. I did quite well back then in those days at just 25 cents a pair.
Bob said the barbershop use to be the hub for all the action in town. We new everything that was going on in this town. Our barbershop was the pre-cursor to facebook. Perhaps the barbershop isn't like it use to be, but it was today, even though for just one hour.
