Looking at the photo now I notice that balled-up little wad of paper. Perhaps it was a clue as to why the owner of the shoes had hot-footed it out of there. Maybe he was watching from a window or doorway waiting for someone to pick up the clue he'd left and discover him. Or maybe it was a prank, or a candid camera set-up, or just some random person whose feet were hot and sore. It's possible they intended to come back for the footwear, I suppose, and that's why they'd parked them in such an obvious place.
One of Life's Little Mysteries.
It could be as simple as :
ReplyDeleteAn old drunk wino was weaving his way down the street when he spied a bright red fire hydrant and thought, "ah, perfect, just the place to take a good long leak".
So, he was in the process of answering nature's call, as evidenced by the wet trail in the street, when a large, mean looking dog, who had already marked that hydrant as HIS territory, came dashing out of the underbrush with fangs bared...
The poor old wino, scared half to death, leapt right out of his shoes, before hightailing it down the street, suddenly sober as a seventh day adventist in the pulpit... and he didn't dare come back for his shoes...
And if that doesn't do it, perhaps another explanation is that this is the start of a new cult, where fire hydrants are worshipped as great red deities, and offerings are left to appease their fiery tempers... ?
And yeah, I think you should've read the note, you might have found the answer to the meaning of life ...
:-)
Or maybe, Owen, he was taken by aliens and the teleporter shorted out when it got to his shoes. Or maybe the aliens don't allow shoes on their spacecraft.
ReplyDeleteAnd, clearly, the note would have read "42".
By the way, aside from on Mt.Royal, there is no underbrush in Montreal. But other than that, your theories are definitely worth considering, though it does sound like a lot more research, and perhaps personal experience, went into your first proposition.
Oh, an old dog like me, when not in toadskin, has had plenty of experiences with fire hydrants...
ReplyDeleteI once lost my favorite pair of biker boots out on a bender one night... but that is another story entirely, and no fire hydrant...
And yeah, aliens, I didn't think of aliens...
Which reminds me of :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rFgdz2ufic
And the line where it says...
"All you got to live for
Is what you left behind
Get yourself a powder charge
And seal that silver mine
Lost my boots in transit babe
A pile of smoking leather
Nailed a retread to my feet
And prayed for better weather..."
I particularly love the "Lost my boots in transit babe, A pile of smoking leather" lines. Excellent song to go with my post. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAnd, Owen, one must never forget the possibility of aliens.
Have you been reading David Icke also ???
ReplyDeleteI think it was @eloh who was going on about aliens recently.
I'm getting worried now...
i am fascinated with the little notes, folded, lost, torn papers one can find in the streets, in the park - to read those fragments of words which had their own meaning but now wander across time, no longer able to tell a story, a whole story, about a moment in someone's life...
ReplyDeletebut here we have your photo, Lynne, and it tells us all the stories we can, we want to imagine... wonderful!
(looking with my eyes half-closed that red hydrant seems to be a giant leg, ready to jump into those shoes :-)
Owen,
ReplyDeleteUntil you mentioned the name here, I'd never heard of this icky-achey fellow. I've just now, out of curiosity, read 2/3 of a write-up on him in Wiki and that's about as near as I'll ever go to his rantings, thank you very much.
There was a period in my life when I did read a fair amount of sci-fi, for a good yarn, not because I believed in ET. I also really enjoyed the X-Files, more for the humour/drama/good yarn again. And I watched all the Star Trek incarnations, except the first one. Thus, you see, I have and do consider aliens in a certain manner.
Hi Roxana,
ReplyDeleteIt seems that little note fragments left here and there across the surface of the earth are getting harder to find, with all the texting/phoning/e-mailing going on these days. What we can pick up, though, are speech fragments as we walk down the street, sit at cafés, ride transit. My daughter told me of someone who jots down these thought fragments in a little notebook. For all I know, there's a blog or a book that's been published of them. It's amazing what people will say in public while on their cell phones, or put on their blogs, for that matter.
That impression of a leg jumping out of the shoe in the picture is even more noticeable in the second version (the one printed on a potato sack, as described by Owen).
Another probability is that a guy stepped into some doggie do, tried to wipe it off with a piece of paper, said, "To hell with it" and left them there, not wanting to create a stink when he got home.
ReplyDeleteShirl,
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely another possibility. I'm glad I didn't get close enough to sniff out the truth of that one, though!
Wow, and you were upright taking this photo or crawling along the foot path after a late night Tipple session?
ReplyDeleteSaj,
ReplyDeleteBroad daylight, upright, and stone cold sober, but probably en route to a place to remedy that last bit.