THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502160112
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEAN GEDDES, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Wallace Leary says the best time to get a shoe shine is on a rainy day. The water will bubble off and the wax will hold the shoes in shape.
He should know. Leary, 67, has been caring for people's shoes on and off for more than 50 years. He also has lots of additional advice for customers and friends who drop by his shoe shine station in the hallway at Holiday Inn Executive Center on Greenwich Road.
Change your shoes every other day to stop them from getting an odor.
It's wiser to buy leather shoes than plastic. ``A good pair of leather shoes will last about 15 years if they're shined and cleaned once a week.''
Make sure your shoes aren't tight. ``While loafers will stretch, others won't,'' he says.
Weekdays between 7:30 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., customers stop by the Portsmouth resident's station, climb up onto the handsome green leather upholstered chairs, place their feet on the brass foot stands and talk to Leary while he works his own particular kind of magic.
``Lots of time people will say, `I guess these shoes are too far gone,' but I'll assure them they aren't and I'll make them look good for them,'' he said.
Leary, who is a walking encyclopedia of area history, is proud of his many customers who come from not only local areas but from Richmond and Washington, as well. ``Sometimes people just stop and pass the time of day with me and we'll talk about the weather, politics, what's going on in Richmond or Washington or about church activities. Some of my old friends come by and we recall the days we used to work together in Norfolk.''
Leary said he offers advice not only about shoe care but about anything they'd like to have his thoughts on. ``I even give directions sometimes. That's what I like about this job: the people I meet.''
A longtime customer, Michael Boykin from Danville, brings several pairs of shoes to Leary when he comes to Virginia Beach. ``He even fixes the squeaks in my shoes,'' Boykin said as he sat and watched Leary shine his loafers, then clean his hiking boots.
His shoe expertise includes the proper care of sneakers. ``That's a specialty of mine,'' Leary grinned explaining: ``First I put on the white sneaker polish, then I apply the sneaker paste and buff them. I tell my customers never to put their sneakers in the washing machine.''
He also is an expert in caring for colored shoes including suede ones. ``There are two different types of suede. One can be cleaned with a suede polish and the other with a good suede brush. I do both.''
His wide range of customers include a city manager, lawyers, bankers, professors, doctors, congressmen, judges and other business people of both sexes.
Bill Jagdman, with First Jefferson Mortgage Co., dropped by to say hello to Leary on his way back to work from lunch. He has been a weekly customer for the past three years as has his boss, George Temple.
``I don't take vacations as I have every weekend off, unless there's a special occasion,'' the shoe man said.
``I began shining shoes when I was 7 years old and would watch my father take such special care of his shoes. He told me that's how you prolong the life of your shoes. First, he'd apply liquid cleaner, then the wax, then he'd brush his shoes and finally use a nylon cloth for the finishing shine. I learned from him and then from my own experience,'' said the Norfolk native.
By the time he was 8, he was shining shoes at the T.L. Auston barbershop in the Berkley section of Norfolk. ``My friend was Willie Auston and he asked me to shine shoes at his father's shop. That was back in 1939 and I charged 10 cents a shine.'' Leary's current rates are $3 for regular shoes, $5 for boots and golf shoes.
He later opened his own shoe shine parlor on Liberty Street in Norfolk and worked part time for Chatman's Funeral Home. In 1949, he left the shoe shine business behind when he joined the Army and was stationed two years in Europe in the medical corps as an ambulance driver. Upon his return to the United States, he was at Fort Belvoir and later worked for, and retired from, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. ``I was the first black storekeeper they had in the Hampton Roads area,'' he added.
Leary has been at his present shoe shine station for three years and has no plans for retiring. ``I thank the Lord every day that I get up and go to work. I don't want to ever retire again.''
An event he always anticipates is his annual April visit to Chesapeake General Hospital for Doctors Day. ``The administrator there asked me to come each year and from 7 a.m. until noon all doctors get their shoes shined free of charge. I guess I shine about 50 doctors' shoes.''
Leary said he has much to be thankful for: his health, his family, which consists of wife, Lessie, an associate minister at Canaan Baptist Church in Chesapeake and a businesswoman; his two sons, both students at Norfolk State; a daughter, a social worker in Norfolk; and four grandchildren.
He takes to heart the old saying ``You can tell a man by his shoes.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Dave Arnold, above, gets a shine from Wallace Leary at the Holiday
Inn Executive Center. ``Sometimes people just stop and pass the time
of day with me and we'll talk about the weather, politics, what's
going on in Richmond or Washington or about church activities,''
says Leary, 67, who has no plans to retire. ``I thank the Lord
everyday that I get up and go to work.''
by CNB