At just 10 years old, former Hartford Mayor Mike Peters was shining shoes at the state Armory.
It was during the 1950s, and a shoeshine cost about 25 cents, Peters recalls.
His father worked for the state’s unemployment unit, which was hosting a convention at the Armory, and the group needed someone to shine shoes for the event. Peters remembers jumping at the chance to earn some money.
But, as Peters recalled, at 25 cents per customer, he had to shine a lot of shoes to earn his first dollar.
Peters also discovered something from the experience. “I learned that I didn’t want to make shining shoes a profession,” he said.
His next venture into the work force was as a paperboy. He delivered the defunct Hartford Times daily newspaper to between 50 and 60 customers in the South End neighborhood where he was raised, and still lives.
At age 12, you weren’t somebody unless you had a paper route, he recalls. “You had to have that. It was money in your pocket,” he said. “I walked the paper route. If I was lazy, I’d hire some other kids to do it for me.”
His early jobs taught him how to save money, he said. As a child, another defunct institution, Society for Savings, encouraged school children to save their money. It provided children with a cardboard booklet where $3 worth of quarters could be inserted into appropriate-sized slots.
“I put my quarters in there,” he said. When he filled it up, Peters brought it to the bank and deposited the money into his own bank account.
“Then I blew it all on a ring for a girl,” Peters said. “I was 16 or 17, and I went to Bill Savitt [a former jeweler on Asylum Street]. I only had $20, and the ring cost $25, but Savitt sold me the ring for $17. He told me to keep the other $3 and said to take the young lady out to lunch. He was a nice guy.”
Did either of his early work experiences shape his decisions to one day run for public office or become a city firefighter?
Not really.
Peters, who was the mayor of Hartford from 1993 to 2001, said he didn’t grow up wanting to be either a firefighter or the city’s mayor. But as he matured later in life, he thought the city needed new leadership, so he ran for mayor. He was elected four times.
Today, Peters, still a cheerleader for Hartford, can be seen at various nonprofit fundraising events or at Mayor Mike’s Restaurant at 283 Asylum St., which he co-owns with family and friends.
