Silly Friday poll: Shoe lore

[prog]

[Poll #1446981]

Comments

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing something about it. I think it might have been drugs, not sure.

[ex-colorwhe.livejournal.com]

hey, is this poll about *points to icon*??

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I believe what it means is "heh heh your shoes are stuck up there now". Either that or "bring home Sergeant William Schumann".

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

Kevin got his ass beat down by Gramm, again.

[jadelennox]

I was just told that it was a general gang thU.ng.

[keimel.livejournal.com]

When we went to Philmont in New Mexico (1983??), some people would toss their expired and dead boots over the gateway to hang there for others to see. I kept my boots.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

There was an outbreak of shoes-thrown-over-phone-wires in my neighborhood when I was about ten, a new pair showed up every couple of days for maybe three weeks.

IIRC, the official Big Kids Who Knew Everything [tm] swore that they knew Some Kid who knew Some Other Kid who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors but right before that they heard Yet Another Kid say that he knew some kid who got killed by a drunk driver and someone threw shoes over the wire with the dead kid's name written on them. Or something like that. Stuff that makes total sense when you're ten.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Urban legend near me was that gangs did it to mark their territory. And if someone crossed them they'd kill 'em and throw their shoes over the wires.

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

If you wanted to know what other sources had to say about it, you would have, and perhaps did, look it up yourself (rather than simply being curious what other people in your friends list had read or heard) but just for fun:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1177/why-do-you-see-pairs-of-shoes-hanging-by-the-laces-from-power-lines

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/shoetrees.html
("*They* were looking for it, too, but *they* weren't good enough!")

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

There is an N64 controller hanging from the wires in my neighbourhood. Dunno what that means. Game got cancelled in the area or something?

[grr-plus1.livejournal.com]

I'd always assumed it meant a bully had stolen somebody's shoes and flung them where they could not easily be retrieved.

[cortezopossum.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was something kid did to other kids ... knock em down -- grab their shoes -- tie em together and sling them over power lines. Kid then gets to trudge home in his socks and have to explain to parents where his shoes went.

There was some movie where they were using the 'shoes over the power lines' thing to promote some political idea ... saw it once on cable but don't remember and don't care.