In fact this 67 year old man has been shining a lot of people’s shoes for the past 47 years. He now works from noon to 7PM and works only five days a week. He has slowed down but he is not planning on stopping. Bryant tells me that he will shine shoes until he can’t do it anymore. From the way he was working today I would guess the retirement date is not in the immediate future.
Based on the information he gave me today and doing a little quick math in my head, Bryant has shined somewhere close to 200,000 pairs of shoes in his career. And still counting.
When I asked him how many famous people have been his customer over the years, Bryant told me he doesn’t shine the shoes of celebrities very often these days. He said most of the time they don’t enter through the main terminal anymore. He reluctantly told me that he shined Dr. Martin Luther King’s shoes a few times as he and his entourage came through the airport years ago. But I did not get the idea that he was very impressed.
In fact I got the idea that not many people impress Bryant. I would suppose if I had been shining shoes for 47 years not many people would impress me either.
But then he told me about his wife of 49 years who is now retired and he told me about his two grown daughters. When he talked about them he stopped shining, stood up and looked me in the eye. And I could see his pride.
When he finished and I got up I shook his hand and looked him in the eye. And I thanked him for his life of hard work and the example I am certain he has set for his family and others. In an America where many people live off the taxpayer’s money and think somehow the rest of us owe them a living, Bryant has never had that mentality. He has earned his way with hard work, plenty of sweat and I’m sure some tears along the way.
I can tell you my Johnston & Murphy shoes didn’t impress Bryant one bit today.
But Bryant the shoeshine man sure impressed me.
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