shoepolish

Now that peace is here once more, and the Corps is returning to its prewar proportions, our girls are being replaced by men and discharged to civilian life, where they will no longer hear the song of the DI’s cadence, the clash of GI trays, the cry of LIGHTS OUT and HIT THE DECK, KNOCK IT OFF and FALL IN, where there will no longer be the smell of shoepolish and the skivvie-clad confusion of GI parties.

1946, Barbara E. Bristol, “The Women of P. I.”, in P. I., Third Anniversary MCWR, 1943-1946, Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co.

Friday Clark had gone to the PX for a much needed bottle of shoepolish with fifty cents borrowed from Niccolo Leva. […] Besides that, he had not gotten the shoepolish he had gone for. He had spent 15¢ for an icecream sundae—chocolate which he dearly loved—and another 15¢ for a new comic book to read while he ate the sundae. That was allright, that still left 20¢ for the shoepolish, and he wasnt going to eat in the messhall anyway, and reading the comic book kept him from feeling embarrassed like he always did in the PX restaurant, and he still had the 20¢ for shoepolish.

1951, James Jones, From Here to Eternity, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 526

Whether they are or not, the publishers of newspapers, like the makers of shoepolish, may fairly claim to be governed by uniform standards.

1970, Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Powerlessness: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Migratory Labor of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, United States Senate, Ninety-First Congress, First Session on Efforts to Organize, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 696

The motor rumbled alive; there was a smell of shoepolish and gasoline as the plane turned, gathered its bulk, and headed for the broad road to heaven.

1973, Nancy Willard, Childhood of the Magician, New York, N.Y.: Liveright, →ISBN, page 194

The same smell of unwashed bodies, of shoepolish and dirty floors; the same sound of typewriters and men yawning or braying over some joke.

1974, Leonard St. Clair, The Emerald Trap, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 193