Thursday 12 April 2012

Shoefiti: The Myths And Mysteries Of Shoes On Power Lines

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Shoes are basically practical objects, yet they can also be worn as adornment, for comfort, or even for pure delight. But take them off our feet, tie the laces together and toss them up into the fathomless blue sky... and suddenly those down-to-earth soles are dangling from a power line, like lonely wingless birds, steeped in mystery.

Such far-flung footwear can be found the world over - from urban centers to deserted country roads. Wherever the shoes on a wire happen to be, speculation and burning questions follow. Why are they there? What story do they tell?

12 comment(s):

J said...

Here where I live this was a common sign that drugs were available in the area

BoholstWife said...

its a sign of drugs sold near buy.

Anonymous said...

The answer is so cheerful and heartwarming... aren't you glad you brought it up?

Anonymous said...

I thought everyone knew that shoes hanging from power or phone lines represent a sexual conquest.

BoholstWife said...

sexual conquest?...i never heard of that....where are u from? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing

NotMarian said...

Did you ever see Wag the Dog?

Anonymous said...

In Brazil we do it with shoes from a friend when consider old. It's just a bad joke when we finish a football game.

Anonymous said...

In areas where there are military it meant that someone has left the service. They don't need them anymore... It was usually the disenchanted, those glad to leave the service

Lynda said...

I used to work for a US Army Military Police unit in west Germany and there were combat boots hanging on the wires outside the barracks. I was told that soldiers who were "short" (getting ready to get out and/or transfer back to the US) would toss tie the laces on their boots and throw them out there. I was pretty young and they might of just been telling me stories too!

Gareth said...

The drug thing is worldwide and it's an urban myth. The article does a pretty decent job of debunking the myth so the first two posters didn't even bother reading it did they?

BoholstWife said...

myth? tell that to the ones that are still doing it. i still see it but mostly in the bad neighborhood areas.

why do people attack other people. for no reason. you could of just came on here saying what you felt about the posting,not point out 2 people you felt didnt read it and interpreted in your same way of mind.

Gareth said...

No matter what you say, it isn't true now and it never was. As an advertisment it simply doesn't work for several reasons. Just think for a moment and you'll get it...


No?

OK then. The most obvious is that it doesn't advertise a particular property. Suggesting that drugs are available nearby is not much use, since drugs are available in every bad neighbourhood. The second is that it's difficult, if not impossible, to take the advertisement down when the dealer is out of stock, away from home or leaves the area. The real killer blow is that it would also tell law enforcement where to find the drug dealers - which is the reason that drug dealers don't advertise in the first place.

The names (not real ones, obviously) and contact details of drug dealers are passed by word of mouth. The idea being that this word doesn't reach the narcs.