Word: bootblack
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Wilshire-Alvarado sleep late. But by 9 p.m., street traffic picks up around the park, where youths stand three deep, bare-chested or in ragged shirts, making deals and scouting for action. For the legitimate merchants who have chosen to tough it out, however, the terror never wanes. Bootblack Carey Smith, 77, who has worked in the district for 25 years, was robbed eight months ago of $630. But he goes on shining shoes at his small outdoor stall. Says he: "They'd just as soon kill you as look at you. You can feel the danger...
...troops who have invaded and seized control of their land. "Shoravi Padar Lanath!"cried beggars and shopkeepers alike in the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan's shabby, snow-covered capital. The curse ("Goddamn the Russians!") replaced morning pleasantries in the city's ancient bazaar. "Afghanistan is no more," lamented a bootblack in the shopping district of Share Nau. "We have lost everything...