Back when 15 cents meant a lot to his family

“After the murder of my father’s dad, John A. Sivek, in 1934, times were very hard. My father, John S. Sivek, was younger than 5 years old at the time. At the age of 10 or 11 in 1940-41, he built a shoeshine box and, near his home on Pine Street, started cruising the bars along Harbor Street for customers.

“Once, in one of the bars, a drunk snatched his money. The gentlemen in the bar caught wind of this and were no longer gentle. Having seen a child’s hard-earned money stolen, they took matters into their own hands. They caught the guy outside and knocked him about. When the assemblage came back inside and returned my father’s money, most everyone in there lined up to have a shine.

“It was the most money he had ever made in a single day. He went home and proudly placed the money on the table in front of his mother. She couldn’t believe it, and the first thing she seriously wanted to know was where he had stolen all the money from.

“Our family still has that shoeshine box — 15 cents a shine.”

— Steve Sivek