2.12.2010

on the side of the road

[dedicated to Aunt Linda who shares this bewilderment as well]

On the way home from work today I saw a boot on the side of the road. A boot. ONE boot. A SINGLE boot. One ... of A PAIR.

I see this a lot. ONE shoe, sprawled in the ditch, or helplessly laying in the median, or maybe even lifelessly laying barely off the interstate.

How in the world does this happen?

Could someone possibly take just one shoe off and accidentally let it fly out the window whilst going 70 mph down the road? Or maybe there was a marital spat, and the wife reached down and ripped of her husbands shoe...just one...and to spite him threw it out the window.

Or maybe, just maybe, a man was just finishing a long day of work. He quite possibly was taking off his work boots when the guys he carpooled with that day began to start up the truck. He knows they will drive off without him, so he simply has no choice but to jump in the truck, leaving the one shoe he managed to take off on top of the cab. This inevitably flies off.

I don't know. I really don't get. How could just ONE shoe end up on the side of the road?!?!

Just think about it. It's strange.

How do YOU think it happens?!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain, Kels. Oh yes, I too have puzzled over this for many years ... inventing many stories in my head. Like someone arriving at a wedding with only one shoe and wondering if the other one could have possibly flown out the window. Kind of like socks that disappear somewhere between the washer and dryer. Some things we may just never figure out. But I've decided that I must use my aging brain for other things.
a.l.

Lyricality said...

it confuses me as well... but I just wanted to comment on your use of the word whilst. I just like the word. that's all. Enjoy your Saturday! Someday we'll be friends again ;)

Kyle Bridgman said...

Actually, I am glad to see one boot instead of two. I tells me a lot about the mental and emotional health of the owner.

Let's assume a boot was accidentally dropped out the window. I think it would be a defeatist attitude to just throw the other one out too. Wouldn't the natural response be to cherish the one remaining boot, giving it an even higher value than it had before the first one had been lost. Like the old saying, "You never appreciate a pair of boots until you lose one of the boots!" (Calvin Coolidge, I think)

Or let's assume the marital spat scenario. I like to think that half-way through the argument, there was a reconciliation and the second boot was saved, perhaps held tightly between embracing couple as they continue down the highway.

When I see a pair of boots, I think that either situation has resulted in a terrible outcome.... I just say to myself, "they've given up!" and I continue driving in silence.

(sigh)

Sharon said...

That's why Kyle B is always oblivious to everything around him when he is driving....he's thinking about boots!

Anonymous said...

In the thirties people used to hitch hike, very, very few people do today...can only mean one thing, alien abduction.

Anonymous said...

I have always wondered about the one shoe thing myself. There are a lot of other things that come in pairs that you don't see orphaned along the road like you do shoes like, say ....gloves.

Dad

Anonymous said...

interesting read. I would love to follow you on twitter.

Carrie Mathison said...

In the situation of my husband, he carelessly throws items into the bed of his pickup truck. Add in curves, high speeds, and wind and you randomly loose items out of the back end of the truck. They just suddenly fly up the edge and out. Usually this is just garbage that he argues is bio-degratable, but one day while we were dating i asked him what he did that day and he said he spent quite a bit time driving and looking for something. it turns out that on this particular day on his drive home from work his weed whipper somehow was the victim to the up and over the edge fall into the ditch. His weed whip was never found, but somehow i am amazed that he has never lost a shoe this way. I am fairly positive that some of those single gloves along side the road are his though.