I've often wondered when I'm walking with the dogs, the stories behind various discarded items. Yesterday, I passed a white pair of flowered pumps that looked as though they may have once belonged to a teenager. The sole was torn out of the one and then, several feet away, lay the other in a small glass bus shelter.
What's the story there?
And why was the sole totally torn out of the one, yet the other was perfectly intact?
Did the young girl hop on a bus barefoot to get herself home? Or did she have a new pair for emergencies in her bag?
Further along was a man's blue hooded top discarded in a hedge.
A few weeks ago I even noticed a pair of Y-Fronts draped over a bush.
I'm even more bemused when I find one odd shoe. Like a red stiletto, discarded. Did someone lose it in the dark, or perform a Cinderella act at the stroke of midnight? And why leave one shoe behind? It must be mighty hard hobbling home on one five inch heel.
One day I was in the town and noticed a pair, of what looked like designer shoes on a flight of stairs, at the back of the shopping centre. Had someone tried them on and ran out of the store with them?
Who knows!
Lately I've been seeing odd rubber gloves on my travels. Usually blue. All sorts of explanations have come to mind regarding those! My son thinks it's more likely to be a dog walker cleaning up after their dog. But if that were the case, why clean the poo and leave the rubber glove behind?
The mind boggles...
7 comments:
A thought provoking post!
There is something sad about discarded shoes.
The rubber gloves are weird though! And the pants in the bush!!
Yes, I think there's something sad about discarded shoes as well, Teresa. Do you think it's only writers who think this way lol?
I've often been curious about the pairs of shoes, laces tied together, and slung over telephone wires. There is an urban myth that they mark out the house of a drug dealer. Clearly a myth because the local minister and his wife are definitely NOT drug dealers, but have a pair of trainers slung over the cables at their house. It would make the police's jobs much easier too.
But who puts them there? How long did it take them to successfully throw them? Why?
I've seen the Y-fronts in various places and always assumed they were a stag-night prank.
How about the broken umbrellas? There is always at least one lying twisted and mis-shapen, bits sticking out. Who got wet then?
Yes, it's all a bit of a mystery. I remember hearing about this story about thousands of shoes appearing on a Miami freeway:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010202326.html
At least it sounds as though they were going to be put to good use.
I never heard so many reasons. Once long ago the local high school won the last game of the season. The talk was how great that was since so many seniors would be graduating. The conclusion seemed to be that there would be a lot of shoes over the wires that night. I just thought that meant the graduating seniors having worn out their need for the shoes would fling them over the wires in celebrations much like mortar boards are tossed on graduation or hats at West Point.
I've never heard of that tradition before, Jim. Who knows perhaps this shoe throwing thing goes back a long way in history. I have heard of Wellington boot throwing competitions over here though.
The graduation tradition makes sense, so maybe it is something that is becoming fashionable over here, in the same way as school 'proms' have taken over the end-of-term-discos. I live quite close to the UEA, and there are a lot of student lets around here.
Post a Comment