How To Use Shoes To Score A pair of shoes hanging lonesome off a power line is (I assume) a quintessential piece of the American landscape. As a youth I used to wonder a great deal about what it was that caused so many pairs of shoes to be strewn about the upper reaches of my town. The first couple of times I saw it, I wondered if it wasn't some sort of prank that the kids were into. You know, steal the new kids shoes and hurl them irretrievably up towards the heavens. Then make fun of "shoeless-fatty-McStupid" until he either ran home crying or started a shooting spree. I even went so far as to briefly romanticize, in a way, the presence of such shoes. I wondered if perhaps people around town were simply adding their won shoes to a pair mysteriously placed in order provide balance. A spontaneous art project borne of community spirit. One person adds a pair of shoes, then another and so on until others begin to toss their shoes around other parts of town creating a veritable blank of shoes keeping shoes company. I thought this mostly because my town had a way of sucking the excitement out of life, and also because I am not very bright. Still, it was a nice idea. Until one day when a friend of my sister mentioned to me in passing that shoes hanging off power lines generally indicated neighborhoods where one could acquire meth or speed if they so desired. I still prefer the tormenting a helpless child theory.
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