Have you ever wonder why anyone would throw shoes up at the telephone cables or power lines?
When I was a kid I once saw a movie that showed a bully stealing someone’s shoes and throwing them up at the lines. I thought that was the answer but then I grew older. I figure it was someone’s way of marking their territory like graffiti artists tagging a wall in a certain location.
But it wasn’t until recently that I actually started thinking more deeply about it. So I looked it up and I realize that there really isn’t a solid answer as to why people do that. It happens nearly all over the world and the answer varies from each individual that throws their shoes.
A drug dealer might do it as a way to signify that they are nearby.
Someone might do it because it’s a time-honored tradition to throw your sneakers over the power lines on the last day of school.
Some just do it for fun and like the challenge of trying to get their sneakers up there.
They are a gang sign — sneakers hanging over telephone or electrical wires were to designate gang turf.
Bullies beat up their victims, steal their shoes and usually toss their victims’ shoes up to the power lines.
Soldiers leaving the military often paint a pair of combat boots yellow or orange and toss them over a power line or telephone wire near the barracks or unit to which they were assigned.
In some neighborhoods, shoes tied together and hanging from power lines signify that someone has died. The shoes belong to the dead person. The reason they are hanging, legend has it, is that when the dead person’s spirit returns, it will walk that high above the ground, that much closer to heaven.
It is just a way for someone to make a mark on society, just as those who do graffiti.
 DamnBlackHeart · Tue May 14, 2013 @ 04:25am · 0 Comments |
