While I was walking down the street earlier today, I saw a sight that is not uncommon to the city dweller. A pair of sneakers hanging from a power line. For as long as I can remember I wondered why they were there. I mean, the questions always plagued me… did someone have to walk home without shoes? Were these an extra pair? Were they so worn and tattered that this was just a more artistic way of throwing them out? It seems to me that all those pairs of sneakers must have a story behind them.
But country dwellers have their own unique sneaker phenomena. This is the single sneaker in the middle of the road, or off the shoulder. These have always troubled me more than the pairs hanging from the power lines. I mean, who loses ONE shoe? Again, I’m picturing someone walking home with one shoe on (diddle diddle dumpling?).
I have never actually known anyone whose shoes wound up on a power line. I have never known anyone whose shoe wound up on the side of the road. Everyone that I have ever had this conversation with has had the same questions as I do – namely, where do these shoes come from? I have seen kids throwing them onto power lines in movies. I’ve seen it out the window of a car, but never when I could ask about them.
It’s like a mystery. Those shoes have stories, but I wonder how many people actually know them.
Here are some interesting theories on sneakers on power lines.
~FG };^>