Bill's World

(Photo by Barry Caldwell)

I’m not sure about going on the road with our act but Darrell Bumgardner is great to work with.
He makes the music and I make shoes shine. And the harder he plays, the more I shine.
He had just moved into a hot number when I threw caution to the wind, unfurled my longest rag, stood up and started flickering around the floor like a lizard looking for love. I should have been looking for the shoe.
Darrell had waited patiently for the cue. The cue was the next shoeshine customer, which turned out to be two. One, a witch; and the other the pretty princess wrapped tight in love.
I was working on the princess’s shoes and was trying to brace myself to resist her charms when Darrell  put down  one tune and moved into another.  Playing his beautiful Alvarez mandolin, he knows my theme song, and there it was: Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy.
It started off:
Have you ever passed the corner of Fourth and Grand
Where a little ball of rhythm has a shoeshine stand
The people gather round and clap their hands
He’s a great big bundle of joy
He pops a boogie-woogie rag,
The Chattanooga shoeshine boy.

I moved right along with the beat, keeping time, trying to evoke an enticing little “pop” from that rag, but middle age has set in for me and the body is more like a grandfather clock. It keeps on ticking but things aren’t clicking.

(Time out here now for a commercial.)
What it was was Friday GTown Market, when vendors return to that new little park near uptown Gastonia, bringing their enticing foods and wares. I was there two weeks ago, shining shoes. Bumgardner (The Sonshyne Boyz) wanted to do what he could to help raise money for Crisis Assistance Ministry, so he volunteered to bring the music.
(Now, back to the program.)

He charges you a nickel just to shine one shoe
He makes the oldest kind of leather look like new
You feel as though you wanna dance when he gets through
He’s a great big bundle of joy.
He pops a boogie woogie rage, the Chattanooga shoeshine boy.

Traffic got off to a slow start. There for a while, I figured I’d have to get a bull horn and remind them that they didn’t need to swarm around like flies after garbage. I’d just like to  warm up my elbows, pop  a few rags.
Then, Darrell sent out some airbrushed notes, and the party began.

I put a shine on the shoes of Roy Lindsay Woods. He had sat while I shined and then said that his dad used to shine shoes near uptown Gastonia about 50 years ago. Roy, himself, is a visual artist. (704-678-7224)
Jack Spady is a long-time resident of Gastonia. We both know and love the Rev. Dr. M. O. Owens, and Jack gets to listen to M.O. preach every Sunday, and then plays golf with him when the weather permits. He said that “M.O.” (as he is known far and wide) “will sometimes play weather NOT permitting.
Martha Wilson of Gastonia had heard the music as she walked down South Street. She turned the corner and was caught. Darrell said he was going to play something special for her, something he had written himself. So, right on cue, he had that mandolin juicing up the place as Darrell sang his own “Christmas  in Carolina.” It was good enough to feel blanket-like warding off a chill.

He opens up for business when the clock strikes nine
He likes to get ‘em early when they’re feeling fine
Everybody gets a little rise and shine with a great big bundle of joy
He pops a boogie woogie rag, the Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy.

I toted up the take for a couple of hours of shines.
Forty dollars and three cents.
Heading for Crisis Assistance Ministry.
Heavy tippers, all.  Sympathetic hearts. Like springs of pure water.

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