shoe tree Archives - PicklesINK

You probably haven’t noticed in my previous posts…I mean, I try not to make it too obvious…but I do have a slight tendency to make a certain type of joke.

Growing up in my family, there was no way of avoiding it, and as Ian, as well as others who have had the ~~mis~~fortune to become involved with members of my family, can attest, there is a definite indoctrination process and it can be a punishing ordeal.

As such, it came to pass that yesterday evening we drove home past the shoe tree, and naturally as we approached it, there was some shoe-tree-related wordplay. “Are we going past the shoe tree?” “We shoe are!” “Was that a tongue-in-cheek statement?” “Be shoe to look out the window!” etc.

And then Ian said, “Ben, are you watching?” and Ben replied:

“Yes. *pause* I mean – Yes, SHOE-ree!”

I teared up.

~ karyn

About a year ago I was detoured on my way home because of an accident and drove past a very odd sight: a large tree by the side of the road festooned with hundreds of pairs of shoes.

©PicklesINK 2012

I had never seen anything like it before and went home and consulted my friend Google, who also had no idea. Since then, the good people of Wikipedia have been hard at work and there is now an entry that would have answered some of my questions, but at the time I had to muddle on in ignorance.

It has since suffered some damage as we’ve had some pretty severe storms in the last year but the most of the shoes seemed to have come through pretty well…at least you wooden know weather or not they were the worse for the wear.

©PicklesINK 2012

A little while ago I showed it to Ben and Molly and ever since Ben has been eager to add a pair of his shoes to it, so we decided that today was the day. We gathered up a hammer and some nails and two pairs of worn out shoes (Ben’s favourite, worn right through the soles, Thomas sneakers, and Molly’s out-grown and well-scuffed “pretty pretty pink shoes”) and drove out to the tree, where Ian handily nailed found some space and nailed them on.

©PicklesINK 2012

Ian managed to find room for Ben’s on the trunk

©PicklesINK 2012

but for Molly’s he had to go out on a limb.

You might think we’re barking mad, and perhaps that is the root of the issue… (okay, I think I’m done now. At least I guess it’s time I leaf it alone. Heheheheheh…) Anyway, now Ben and Molly’s shoes have a place in local history along with other footwear both large and small (Hey, if the shoe fits…).