Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Urban shoe trees?

Something strange is happening on the west side of Salt Lake City.   I first suspected something was up when I saw a solitary pair of shoes hanging from the power lines near a certain intersection in the Poplar Grove neighborhood.  Now shoes are hanging from the power lines all over the place. 



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At first it was just a single pair.  Then a second pair showed up.  Then a third.  Last week I counted twelve pairs on my bike ride home.  Somebody is trying to tell us something.



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They are spreading too.  I’m starting to see them at other intersections.  There’s even one pair above a particularly busy intersection I pass through every day.  Have you ever tied the laces of a pair of shoes together and thrown them into the air?  It takes a bit of luck and a lot of athleticism to hook them over a power line.  Considering the number of shoes I’ve seen lately I’m pretty sure we’re not dealing with amateurs.  These people are serious.



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At first I thought somebody was trying to start an urban version of the classic western shoe tree.  I’ve been interested in shoe trees ever since Mags and I stumbled upon one on our honeymoon in Oregon.  I tell you, just looking isn’t enough.  You’ve got to throw a pair of shoes into the tree yourself to fully appreciate the singularity of this populist form of art.





Shoe_tree_2Since then we’ve found several other shoe trees in our travels across the west.  One Cottonwood in Nevada has at least 1,000 pairs of shoes adorning its branches.   A Doug-Fir in Washington has shoes hanging 80 feet above the ground.  I hear there’s a shoe tree in Park City, but I haven’t seen it.  I will stumble upon it sooner or later.   



Shoe trees are a little understood, always under-appreciated expression of the American Spirit.  They occupy a lonesome niche in modern Americana.  They have been the purpose behind many otherwise purposeless road trips. Shoe trees come in all sizes and species.  Some are sparsely populated with shoes and others are so heavily laden that branches break with each rain storm.  But they are always miles from nowhere on a back road traveled more by cows than cars. 



I’ve never seen an urban shoe tree.  And shoe trees don’t spread across neighborhoods like the shoes in Poplar Grove are.  So I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. 



Another theory is that shoes hanging from power lines is a sign of gang activity in the area.  But that theory has been scientifically debunked.  Besides, if you were a gang member, would you hang up a sign notifying police where you operate? 



So what is going on here?  Is it a bunch of bored teenagers looking for something to do?  Meddling hipsters trying to drum up material for a cover story in City Weekly?  Fifth grade bullies reigning in terror?  Have you got a better theory? 



I don’t know what is happening here but somebody’s got to find out. 



1 comment:

  1. I personally like the bra and panties trees you see at finer ski resorts.

    ReplyDelete