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Chapter One: That One Shoe in the Road

Of the different things I have considered, contemplated...ok, spent too much time on, is the one shoe in the road. You've seen them. It. Only one...which is the whole point. Why only one? Where's the other one?? How did that one get there? Did somebody loose a box of clothes...no, it's just one shoe. No socks, no second shoe...nothing else. Just a shoe.

I have seen all sorts of shoes by themselves over the past few years. It might be sensitivity awareness, like when you buy a new car then suddenly you see that model of car everywhere you go. I started noticing shoes by themselves and asking around. Ever since, they're everywhere. I see a new one at least once a week. I started taking pictures, but didn't have a good way to catalog them just yet.

I have heard that a pair of shoes tied together and suspended from a power line is indicative of one of two things; either someone in the area sells drugs, or someone in the area was the subject of hazing. Either way, when you see a pair of shoes hanging over a power line, you think "Oh, that poor kid," or "how did those get there?" But what about that one sneaker on the shoulder...what did you think then? You didn't think about it. One shoe is just debris. Litter. A pair of shoes--oh, what a waste of a good pair of shoes! Poor kid! But wouldn't the kid with only one shoe be just as sad?

I've lost a sock from a pair more than once; the sock monster lives in my laundry room as it does in most households. But I don't have a shoe monster, for the most part.

So when you next see a single shoe in the road, consider it. Maybe take a picture. See if you can figure out how it got there or whether you can reunite it with its partner.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 20, 2018 at 4:35 PM

    I know where those singles come from...harried mother's trying to keep up with kids and all their belongings. Something inadvertently gets misplaced and on occasion I have been lucky enough to find a single sock still on my running board after a trek to the dentist in the pouring rain and I'm assuming single shoes have found themselves on the running board or back bumper more than a time or two and then lost forever in the middle of the road somewhere.

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