Brake emergency

"What does Polishing rust off shoes (bearing pads) mean? "
The places where the shoes touch the backing plates after they have been mounted, are little bearing pads. Over the years,those pads get worn by the constant scrubbing of the brakeshoes. If the car sits for long periods of time, those pads rust up. These two conditions lead to brakeshoes not returning properly. Those pads need to have the rust wire-wheeled off, and the bearing pads inspected. Sometimes I have had to hard-braze them up and level them off with a grinder.

I'm a little confused;
In post #1, you say "the front brakes work great". Then
in post #15, you say " But man it is hard to stop. Impossible to get it to lock up. "

I'd say your brakes work like Cr.....