Fallen Soldiers on America's Homefront

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 21:03.

I was over by Glenville High School today and I asked my friend Snag what was the meaning of the shoes hanging from the powerlines. He said "Fallen Soldiers". I asked if he meant people from around here who were killed... a sort of memorial... and he said basically so. He said they did it in the army, too, and the three pair in the header today are probably for the people killed the other day over by St. Clair...

I didn't bother asking which people, there have been so many recently.

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Pulitzer

Can you win a Pulitzer for blog photos?  Excellent header and somber reminder.

These four pairs of shoes are hanging on E 52nd off of St Claire

Shoes on the Wire by you. 

I posted this picture on my blog a few weeks ago. Over the years my students have told me very different things about the shoes one sees hanging from wires in the city. I've heard the symbolic memorial explanation, as well as shoes overhead are marking a location for drug sales, and finally kids have told me they sometimes will throw shoes over the wires simply because it's funny... especially when it's somebody else's pair of shoes.