from what i understand, dozens of shoes hanging on a tree can damage it, break branches and limbs and eventually destroy the tree. that is what happened to the one on route 66 near amboy. and it was a lovely old palo verde, planted in the early days of the road.historik951 wrote:I thought the story had a great ending to it... A husband and wife argue after JUST being married, the wife says she's leaving, and the husband says you'll have to go barefoot and throws her shoes in the tree ( 1980's ). Goes to the bar and the bartender convinces the husband to go back to his wife and apologize...... One year later they come back with their newborn child and threw the child's shoes into the tree as well.... I can remember being in the Army back in the mid to late 70's and it was tradition to throw a set of one's boots into the trees when your time was up... Graffiti is wrong, but this seems a bit harmless to me... It's just a shame that someone had to cut it down, even the people in town were very upset. People came to see the tree and that brought business... and now this will cause people financial burden...
Historik951
on 62 near rice, the shoe tree was more or less destroyed and so a shoe/underwear fence was created. as well as some other interesting "things" like a large heart made from nails found on the abandoned property. i am not sure if i see this stuff as temporary environmental art or simply trash. i suppose it can be both until it is cleaned up.
And its not just trees that seem to attract shoes