Shoe shiner works on more than 1,000 shoes every rodeo
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Ernerld Vaughn knows a thing or two about shoes.
"If your boots shine, I halfway feel like you're telling the truth, whatever we're talking about," the 65-year-old RodeoHouston shoe shiner laughed. "If your boots ain't shined and your hair ain't combed, you might be lying."
Vaughn first started shining shoes as a child. Now he shines about 1,000 pairs of shoes every rodeo.
"It started with my older brothers," he explained. "They used to go uptown on Saturdays and make 25 cents. This was 30 years ago. They'd make 25 cents, they'd come up, they think they done make money!"
Charging $8 for a shoe shine, Vaughn makes about $8,000 at the rodeo every year.
"You ain't going to throw these boots away," he tells his customer, "because every time you put them on, you're going to think of an old senior citizen down at the NRG Arena who fixed your boots for you."
