to "spit-shine"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Wilson, for the most lucid and detailed description of modern spit-shining available in English, especially since it goes to support my vicarious experience that spit-shining was not a core military virtue during World War I.

  I'm still inclined to believe, though, that "spit and polish" originally referred mainly to items other than - though not excluding - boots and shoes.

  JL





  ay <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: to "spit-shine"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm beginning to get the impression that no one here except your
humble correspoondent has ever spit-shined any kind of footware.
Spit-shining as I learned to do it in the late 'Fifties was quite
time-consuming, so that people tried to keep one pair of boots
spit-shined for inspection, keeping the other pair for daily use.
However, this was not permitted during Basic Training. You had to wear
a different pair of boots every day, so that shining both pairs of
boots had to be done every night.

At that time, spit-shining was regarded as a Marines thing, not as an
Army thing. We GI's didn''t have to bother with it unless we just
happened to feel like it. Boots and shoes polished with Shinola liquid
were sufficient unto the passing of the daily inspection, even during
Basic Training. Unfortunately, because the military barracks life is
so boring when it's not interrupted by combat, you just begin to
happen to feel like spit-shining, for lack of anything more
interesting to do.

To do a spit shine, you take a new or a clean(ed) boot / shoe and
stick a hand into it to hold it in place. Then, with the other hand,
taking a cotton ball such as women use to remove fingernail polish,
you dab the surface of a can of Kiwi brand boot polish. Next, you spit
on the boot / shoe and rub the dab of boot polish into the spittle,
using a circular motion over a space no larger than a quarter. After
thirty seconds or so, you begin to see a quarter-sized area of leather
shinier than it was before. Repeat over the surface of the entire boot
/ shoe till it reflects light as though made of patent leather. This
takes a half-hour, at least, for each shoe. Of course, for boots, it
takes longer.

You can get the same result by wetting the cotton ball, squeezing out
the excess water, and simply using that to dab and polish. It's much
more hygienic than, and just as effective as, spitting.

Later, I dicovered that you could put a spoonful or so of water into
the cap of the boot-polish can, brush the tips of the first three
fingers of your hand across the surface of the Kiwi, and swipe the
polish from these fingers over the leather till your fingertips are
clean. Then dip these same fingertips into the water and brush them
over the area over which you have previously brushed the Kiwi until
that area begins to shine. Repeat over the surface of the entire boot
/ shoe, etc., etc. Obviously, you need neither cotton nor spittle for
this method. Interestingly enough, after you have finished, your
fingers will not be covered with boot polish. Instead, they will be
clean.

-Wilson

On 3/4/07, Jim Parish wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jim Parish
> Subject: Re: to "spit-shine"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > I agree with Wilson that the emphasis in the recent use of "spit shine" is
> > on the brilliance of the shine, not on the spit.
>
> For whatever it may be worth: one of the songs on Barry Sadler's
> _Green Berets_ album was titled "Garret Trooper". It described a
> certain kind of soldier, who talked big and looked good but wasn't the
> real deal. In one verse, describing an encounter with such a trooper, he
> sings, "Know what I saw when I looked down? A spit-shined boot." This
> would be from the mid-to-late sixties. (When did "Ballad of the Green
> Berets" come out? 1967?)
>
> Jim Parish
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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