Shoe Shine

Why don't men polish their shoes anymore? Or is it only me? The ritual of shoe polishing seems to have gone out of fashion over the decades. When I was a boy my father, who was quite fastidious, taught me how to polish my shoes,, telling me that brown shoes go well with light or dark clothing, but warning me not to wear them to a funeral. When I was at school I made a shoe-shine box in woodwork, a box to hold the brushes and polish with a flat handle that could be used to rest the foot on whilst polishing. He kept and used it for years.

I notice there is a trend, mainly in London railway stations, though that maybe only where I've seen them, for seats similar to barber chairs being used by enterprising people to polish, for a fee, other people's shoes, maybe this is the return of the tradition?