Shoeshine Boy in 1930s Pomona, California.

I was a shoeshine boy in downtown Pomona in the late 1930s. I was 13 or 14. I built a box to hold shoe shine stuff. The box was much like the box in this picture. Years later the box showed up in the household of a cousin. It was returned to me. I used it at home for some time as an adult.

Although I did not have a fancy thing for the client to put his shoes on. I believe that I charged a dime for a regular shine. A two tone was twenty five cents. Two tones were in style at that time.

I recall being in the bus station most of the time. It was on the corner of Third Street one block west of Gary. When I came home from the war it had been moved over to Gary and Fourth Street.

This is what downtown Pomona looked like in those days.

I have always been vain and concerned about my appearance. I must have been a sight wondering around downtown Pomona with my shoeshine box. But a dime was a lot of money. I do not recall making a lot of, or very much, money.