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10 Amazing Places For Footwear: Shoe Trees, Power Lines, and Other Oddities

Discussion in 'Break Room' started by Paulo Silva, Apr 30, 2008.

  1. Paulo Silva

    Paulo Silva Active Member

  2. Craig Payne

    Craig Payne Moderator

    Articles:
    8
    I guess that given that Wikipedia have recently surpassed the 10 million article stage, they are bound to have topics like this one!
     
  3. Cameron

    Cameron Well-Known Member

    netizens

    The podologist in me marvels at the social anthropology of these matters and to that effect I have collected one thousand and one short anecdotes and funny stories about feet and shoes posted at http://foottalk.blogspot.com/. The sum total will mean, read this and you will never trust yourself alone with a pair of shoes again.

    Why the solo shoe?
    I suppose you are like me and when you pass a solo shoe left on the roadside you cannot help asking yourself , "How did that get there and under what circumstances?" A colleague of mine from California, when she moved to WA was staggered to find wherever she went within the city she came across single socks and oranges abandoned on the pavement. Intrigued by the phenomena and after some detective work she discovered it was children in a rush to get home from games. Carelessly carrying their sports bag they lost a sock and at the same time jettisoned the ubiquitous orange given to them by mum for after sports. A little more difficult to explain is the story of the ladies fashion shoe found 25,700 feet up Mount Everest. In 1960 a Chinese mountaineer discovered oxygen gear and tent poles from a previous climber's camp. The equipment dated back to the 1920's & 30's and the gear was thought to belong to the ill fated Mallory & Irvine expedition of 1924. Amongst the effects was a single ladies fashion shoe beautifully crafted in brown leather. No explanation was ever given. Experts are convinced the story is impossible since at these altitudes no climber would dare carry anything that was not vital to the expedition. Perhaps it was the lucky charm, tragically overlooked in their desperate desire to reach the summit. For many years all over North American cities, training shoes have been tied together and left hanging over telephone wires. These sometimes remain for years. Many suggestions have been advanced to explain the practice but none have been satisfactory. Last year the Los Angeles Times were sufficiently concerned to bring a group of experts together to try to explain the habit. The general consensus was teenagers were responsible and it was thought an action of defiance. Leaving school, the celebration of a sexual conquest, or the result of a drunken adolescent challenge were the main justifications but experts also considered meaningless copycatting was the real motive. One other sinister possibility was the way street gangs marked out their territory, memorize a fallen comrade or simply torment someone being bullied. On close inspection, the shoes were well-worn, in-expensive and certainly not worth keeping. The expert group conceded the habit may reflect our throwaway culture. In truth was no-one really knew how the practice started or what it meant. I did some research myself and asked a resident of Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields, WA. Shamefully she admitted as kids, she and her friends used to do it just to see the sparks fly. Ornithologists in the Netherlands and Shetlands monitoring dead birds have logged footwear washed up on the shorelines. In Holland more right shoes were washed up, while the Shetlands were inundated with left foot shoes. Stranger still where only soles remained, there were more left-footers on the east coast of Shetland than the west. And just to bring it home, a recent environmental report documented the concerns of a coastal town in WA, alarmed at the pollution caused by abandoned thongs.

    Shoe finds in houses
    Whilst in Perth (WA) , we grapple with the conundrum of shoes left hanging from telephone wires and their meaning, American families have discovered a trove of old shoes hidden in house walls. Not quite an epidemic but none the less puzzling. During the Middle Ages it was commonplace to leave old shoes in roofs and attics for good luck and to ward off evil. More than a thousand concealment shoes, some dating back to the fourteenth century, have been reported in Western Europe alone. In North America concealment shoes have been reported in New England, but there have also been finds of buried shoes as far south as Virginia and far west as Missouri. Very rarely are pairs of shoes found, usually solo shoes, but many caches contain footwear from different people. Almost half the shoes concealed belonged to children with more female footwear found than males. Almost all shoes were well worn. Talisman is not restricted to shoes alone although they are commonplace. An old custom, where I come from, was to scatter coins under the carpet for good luck. Which of course meant as kids, every time mum and dad moved house we lifted the carpet. How many sceptics among us would deliberately walk under a ladder just to tempt fate. If I do I always have my fingers crossed, same goes for when you allow a pole to come between you and a friend, bad Karma, easily undone by saying “bread and butter”. First utterance on the first of the month always is “White rabbits” in our house and so it goes on. Back to shoes though. The penny loafer is a robust moccasin type shoe which had a luck penny caught in the snaffle bar just like any new purse given, as a gift should have a lucky penny within. A rare find reported recently in the US, concerned the demolition of an 18th century house where they discovered a baby's white, ankle-high shoe, some small wooden toys and some ears of corn. Since 1750 the house had undergone many additions and experts remain unclear whether the shoes were hidden at the time the chaise house was built or in a later renovation. All such shoe finds are reported now to the Northampton Shoe Museum in the UK and there they keep a register of concealed shoes. No-one has been able to explain why shoes have been used in this way. Some speculate the tradition stems from an ancient custom of killing someone then building the house over the grave, later in more enlightened days, shoes became a substitute for human sacrifice. Unlikely I think simply became shoe wearing in the very distant past was a minority sport and unless the person was fairly affluent then the chances were they went barefoot. More than likely shoes were selected because they reflected the personality of the wearer. By the Middle Ages, you still had to be pretty well off to have shoes and wearing them was status. They incorporate the spirit of a loved one and their shoe may have been kept as a form of Fen Sui. (or old shoey really). Shoe finds are usually reported near openings in the home eg doors, windows, chimneys etc. To the believer of the occult these are all places in the building that are vulnerable to evil. These finds indicate shoe concealment was widespread and long lasting yet it was not recorded in writing until references began to appear in mid-twentieth century archaeology literature in scholarly journals. Men being more secretive than women about such matters it fuels the theory hiding shoes was a male superstition, kept secret almost out of fear that telling about it would reduce its effectiveness. Another reason why this may not have been spoken off was it could have been construed in less enlightened times as a pagan ritual carrying severe punishment. It is likely here in Australia the same superstition was observed and for anyone out there involved in home renovation that involve removing walls especially around windows and doors, under roof rafters and behind old chimneys, be alert to the possibility of turning up concealment shoes. While most are found in Eighteenth and nineteenth century homes, a find hidden as late as 1935 has been reported. If you are lucky and find concealed shoes tale a photograph as they lie because this information is as important as the shoes themselves. Then you might like to get in touch with Northampton Shoe Museum.

    Insults
    It is difficult to not have seen the pictures of Baghdad where there is ceremonial shoe banging of images of Saddam Hussein and President George Bush. In Iraq this is an insult similar to two fingers elsewhere. The origins of both are quite intriguing. The ‘2-finger salute’, is where the first and second fingers are spread apart and then, with the back of the hand facing the viewer. The hand is then raised towards the sky sometimes fast or slow depending on whether it is done in anger or as a taunt. The Up Yours salute is thought to have originated in the 15th century when Welsh archers at the Battle of Agincourt(1415), demonstrated to the French how devastatingly effective they were with their new bow-and-arrow technology. The strong bowmen used the first two fingers to draw the bowstring back before releasing the arrow with pin point accuracy. The French were so intimidated by the power of the Welsh long bow they threatened to amputate string-pulling fingers on any archer caught. In defiance bowmen responded by waving the two fingers in the insulting ‘V salute’ to aggravate their foes. Feet and shoes were imbued with considerable significance in the Middle East and shoe banging holds two meanings depending on whether you are in Jewish or Islamic sectors. Traditionally, the Jewish custom, of shoe banging was used to seal a deal like a gable at an auction. In Islamic tradition, culture determines feet occupy the lowest rung in the bodily hierarchy and shoes are considered unclean. Hence it is commonplace to remove shoes before entering a place of worship; the gesture is to maintain the purity of the place of worship. The same custom is extended to entering a private home because the sole of the shoe is considered the most contaminated. To point a shoe at someone or hit them (or their image) demonstrates a deep insult and means to direct impurity and pollution in their direction. The action is not to physically harm the individual but to remind all there is a greater judgment and the object of scorn should suffer the indignity of the most demeaning punishment possible. The shoe as an insult is used in other cultures too for instance in India unpopular politicians are regularly garlanded with shoes and paraded down the streets. The term “Jooté maro!" (hit him with shoes) is common enough phrase.

    toeslayer
     
  4. twirly

    twirly Well-Known Member

    Hello Toeslayer,

    This appears to be quite common in Yorkshire too.
    I asked my daughter, (then age 15) what was it all about.

    She told me that it is for the benefit of local 'dealers.' It signifies an area of 'trade.'

    The other activity which is popular locally is setting fireworks off at odd hours both day & night. This I am told tells the locals 'The drugs have arrived.' :cool:

    Urban myth or truth? No idea but I've no intention of standing under the dangly trainers to find out. :eek:

    Regards,
     
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