Shine boys revive trade in Cape; travel with kitsBy JERRY ROMBACH“Shine, Mister?”This is an oft-repeated question these days directed at many male shoppers and patrons of downtown stores and other establishments by enterprising shoeshine boys in Cape Girardeau. The boys, about five of them from 9 to 13 years old, have taken up the revitalized, once popular trade within the past few years since the number of shine boys in barber shops has declined. Older boys who make the best shoeshine boys can get better and higher paying jobs elsewhere, and younger fellows are not dependable when they have time to work, during non-school months. With this realization, the enterprising youths have rekindled a practice once a common sight on American streets – the shoeshine boy. These boys admittedly cannot shine shoes as well as the professionals still working in a few of the city’s barber shops (one barber said the roaming shoeshine boys are “poor” shiners compared to experienced boys).