Exes

Most folks spend their days daydreaming or finding clues
My whole life I've been here at the train station shining shoes
I started when I was nine, on my own and taught myself
No complaints, I'm doing pretty good and I got my health
Memories and calluses, my hearing's probably next to go
Sometimes I do a little handy work for extra dough
But mostly this here is how I spend my time
And I've perfected a technique I call the dry shine
Some guys use lots of water on the shoe but then
When it's out in the open air it's gone in ten minutes
That whole approach to the job is dumb, in fact
Dollars to donuts, that customer won't be coming back
This is the most common mistake of the amateurs
Going for big numbers to satisfy their managers
Anyway, the dry shine, the first thing I mean to do
And this part is very important, I clean the shoe
The residue and old polish to keep the shoe from being ruined
All you need to do is use a rag with some cleaning fluid
If the shoe's all caked up with gunk you need to think
The shoe can't breathe and that's what causes the feet to stink
They took Carfoine off the market, I believe
It was a few years ago cause that leather couldn't breathe
Now once you've cleaned the shoe and it's dried
Your base coat of polish can now be applied
Then you brush, cause what that tends to do
Is clean the shoe a little more and gets rid of the residue
And then you do the second coat just like the first one
You brush it, you rag it, and voila, your work is done
And that's it, you treat each shoe like it's special
Care about your work, and be a professional
There's a right way to go about your job and a wrong one
I find this way is much better in the long run
It ain't about the dollar or trying to go fast
Unless you take pride in what you're doing, it won't last
Craftsmanship is a quality that some lack
You got to give people a reason for them to come back

The world's a different place than what I was introduced to
They don't wear shineable shoes like they used to
Casual clothes in the office, what is this
The villain in sneakers is killing my business