First Time Bootblacking in 2 years

Hello everyone,

  i hope everyone had a good holiday this past weekend!

i went to visit a Leather Couple who host Thanksgiving at their house.  Also, that Saturday was a Leather United event.  i asked if I could volunteer to bootblack, and was told that it would be great.

Before the event, my head was spinning already of that i should not do it, i am not good enough,  etc…  the typical mind games that tend to happen to me.  However, i got myself into getting ready and went to the bar.

When i got there, and got set up…. it was odd looking at my station and starting to feel the familiarity of the scene and started to feel better.  i started to sharpen the grease pencils and position myself to get ready. And soon enough, i was ready.

Waiting or the first customer is always the hardest.  There was a slave bear taking pics and wanted one of me getting ready.  Well, i figured it be better if he was on my stand and doing his boots while he took the pics….but it ended up from going from a photo op, to actually doing his boots.  It was these nice red-brown grease boots that when I was done, had this warm feeling from them.  i looked at them and astonished that i was still able to make boots look great.

Next were these over the calf, hard polish boots.  i started to work on them, and explaining what i was doing since the person wearing them was borrowing the boots, and was learning what I was doing to take care of the boots.  The brush and flannel buffing started to feel more familiar the more i kept using it and soon enough, everything started to feel familiar.

After doing those boots, my shoulders were really sore…. it HAS been a long time since public bootblacking (two years in fact) and commented to a friend that it was a while.

As the night went on, time became distilled, and the next thing I know it was 11pm (3 hours after i started).  i went into my service/sub space without realizing it, the bar disappeared, the noise disappeared, and it was me and the boots…. and yet I still had to force myself to talk, despite being happy doing the boots.

By the end of the night, i was very tired (and hungry) and was happy.  i hope i am able to bootblack again soon, i have missed doing it.