ShoelessJoeJackson

I have lived in and/or visited quite alot of cities across this great nation of ours and I just can't quite figure out where they come from????? (Recent sighting this morning on commute to work made me once again ponder over this issue...)
Where have all the shoes come from?

Dr.Schols

Quite obvious, the shoes come from peoples feet. The smelly variety I might add.

ShoelessJoeJackson

but Dr. Schols, that 's what I mean, from people's feet where????? Are there really people out walking on the interstates, and they just accidently drop a shoe like Cinder-frickin-rella?

Chicken or

Shoeless: The shoes spotted on the ground are those that have fallen from the electrical or phone wires overhead.

Jenna

I've wondered about this phenomenon myself. One vision/theory I have is that of late-night partiers careening wildly down the highway, and in a further show of their high spirits, gleefully tossing their shoes out of car windows. My other, sadder, theory is that single shoes are one thing that remains after a traffic accident with fatalities.

J Correa

When I was a kid, my mom threw my dad's shoes out of the car onto the highway during a family vacation one year.

Maybe all those shoes belonged to men who had pissed off their wives one too many times while on cross-country trips.

Jenna

I was thinking that kids probably toss them out of windows too, probably on cross-country trips so their father will FINALLY take a rest stop!

dan woodlief

I don't have a theory, but this is funny. I was just commenting on the same thing last weekend when I spotted a shoe on the street. Any sock sightings? Maybe socks that get sucked into the great dryer vacuum end up out there in the world somewhere.

Louis

They come from victims of car crashes.

ShoelessJoeJackson

Was laughing at J Correa's post, and Dan's (thought about the sock things too, and yes I have been a witness to both lonely shoe and sock) but then I read Louis' post and it made me sad. They can't all possibly be from car crash victim's-I like the other's theories better.

ShoelessJoeJackson

p.s. Perhaps this could tie into Jerry's "you are traveling across the country" post. Possibly these are bored travelers just trying spice things up??????

Hillard

Didn't any of you see National Lampoon's Vacation? They are from when Clark Griswold half ass ties the luggage to the Griswold Family Truckster. The luggage flies off the roof, explodes, and throws shoes everywhere.

Qwerty

I love this post! For YEARS I have been wondering about the single boots that I see on an on-ramp, or just off on the shoulder, or sitting next to the rail on a bridge. I see shoes less frequently, but sometimes.

I suspect the actual explanation is that a workman tosses his boots in the back of a pickup and it bounces off, but that lone boot always provoked all kinds of speculation..... assassination? one-legged man getting rid of extra? annoyed wife getting even? Catch-22-type hit-and-run with leg amputation? Etc. etc. etc.

Steve

This thread has reminded me of a very real question that I've wondered about.

What does it mean when you see a pair of shoes, laces tied together, hanging over a phone line over a street? I've seen this in some more "urban" areas and often wondered if this is some sort of gang thing, or some kind of delinquent kids rite of passage?

yikes

I would hope ALL the shoes on the roads are not from accidents! But would that include the shoes on wires! Poor people flying through the air??

Two Shoes

Shoes tied together and slung over telephone wire got there because someone -- 98% of the time a male between the ages of 12 and 32 -- felt compelled to try to sling them up there so that they would stay.

Sometimes they are old shoes that need to be discarded. Sometimes they are someone else's shoes, and the boys involved are playing a prank on that person.

But it's mainly a matter of meeting the challenge of getting two connected projectiles to fly up and back down in such a way that they are caught on the wire. Big whoop, IMHO.

x

Wow, who knew that there were so many young men with so little on their minds!

Kristin

Wow, this is so weird 'cus I JUST asked my husband the same question!!!! Why wouldn't we also see other articles of clothing???? Why just shoes??? Why not one sock, one glove, a bra, a shirt, why shoes? (I refuse to believe the accident story)

J Correa

These shoes could be an alternate life form trying to infiltrate our civilization. They just disguise themselves as shoes on the side of the highway in an attempt to blend into the landscape.

X minus 1

J. Correa, I was wondering when someone would catch on!

If you take one picture per day of a so-called abandoned shoe by the side of the road, you'll see that they actually move. You know those signs on off-ramps that say "McDonald's 24 hrs. 1.5 miles?" They are actually telling the shoeboot beings how long it'll take them to get to the McD's if they really hop it.