Somewhere, Footwear Association Executives are smiling. Ka-ching Ka-ching :yelgreedy

Shoes on powerlines don't always suggest gang activity - sometimes they just suggest a poor kid has been bullied on his way home from school (shoes on the top of bus shelters are common here too).

But potentially useful info for travellers all the same.

cool! saw this just the other day on tv...'twas this very tree too! Apparently this particular tree is simply a 'wishing well' couples tie 1 shoe each together and lob em up for good luck in their relationship ... singles do it themsesles ...apparently :lol: the ditch behind the tree is full of old shoes that have missed and fallen over time. Cant remember where it was though other than to say it was in the good old US of A :D

Well, I guess I'll be the first (only?) to say I think this is kind of stupid. I think it's rather ugly myself, but apparently am in the minority.

I'd be pissed if it was my tree. It's like TPing a tree, except more permanent.

The gang thing is an urban legend. Shoes do not mark gang territory. Bullet riddled bodies surrounded by shell casings (more casings than bullet holes in the body, homey can't shoot for shit) mark gang territory. The shoes over the powerline thing has two possible origins ... one is the end of school year joy of throwing your own sneakers over the power lines ... esp. parochial schools won't let students wear sneakers to classes other than gym. The sneakers are carried over the shoulder by tying the laces together. (In some places it might mark the end of the summer as the old pairs are tossed up when the new pair is purchased during the back to school sale.)

If it's not done by oneself in a celebratory gesture, it's the result of bullies stealing your sneakers and tossing them up into the powerlines.

No gangs, in the West Side Story sense of the word involved at all.

Dad (old time NYer) said it started back at least in the 1930s - back then, you got 1 new pair of sneakers/year - typically either end of school year, or beginning (I can't remember which - but I believe END) - you took your old worn out pair, and threw them up on the wires near your corner - it was bragging you could afford a new pair - remember, it was the depression

Here's a nice tree we could use to start one. The little tree in the front yard. :)

http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL205/...6/59798307.jpg

From someone who lives in an area of DC where shoes are seen on power lines fairly often...they represent someone who has died recently. Street way of honoring a person....though its easy to see where the gang legend might have sprung from, seeing as more people die in gang riddled areas....

You know, I count on you people to give me the straight dope on these things but you all can't seem to agree on what the hell this means and I'm getting upset! if you guys don't have ONE theory on what this...---***i'm sorry! i'm veklempt!***

Anyone can throw shoes, so it can mean whatever the thrower intends. Everone's probably right. :grouphug:

At the back gate of Camp Pendelton ( in CA ) there is a tradition of when you get out , if you were a GRUNT ( rifle and pack toting Ground pownder ) as you were leaveing the bace for the LAST time ( as in you had gotten discharged ) , you would exit the gate and pull to the side of the road , you would then grab your Humping boots ( the boots that you had walked MANNNNNNNY miles in ) and Bolo them over the power line there .
I did it as did MANY others .
I knew one of the MP's that maned that gate , when they saw a car pull over after leaveing the gate they dove for cover ,
evedently some of the folks wernt THAT good of a shot :eek: !!!

Our high school's marching band used to do this with their uniform shoes at the end of every year. Or maybe it was just the seniors, I wasn't in the band. At any rate, the school would have them all down by the beginning of the next school year.

I saw that very tree.
 

On a road trip....don't even remember exactly where now. I think maybe eastern Nevada or southern Utah. I do remember that it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, save for a couple farms in the general area, but there are some cliffs around, and a long, long road. NOSTALGIA!