Make yourself comfortable and get ready to hear a story you'll never believe. This is knot a joke. What I am about to tell you is the unheard of, completely abridged history of Shoe Corner. Yes, the very same shoe corner located on 109th and Calumet in Hanover Township. Tales may change from tongue to tongue, and this is just one of the many histories. Get ready because I'm about to sock it to you.
You've heard the story of the little old woman who lived in a shoe, right? That very same woman is the only reason for Shoe Corner. All her life she found herself in an old boot. Rumor has it that she even raised a family of "many children," by herself, if you could believe it. After many years of continual births and still living in a shoe, this woman felt tied up. It seems she found herself in a rather tight situation. A shoe is hardly big enough for a foot let alone a family of many children! This shoe home was just knot working out. One day she decided that something needed to change, so she bared her sole to the universe.
"I need more room!" she probably cried out loud to the nearby highway.
Keep in mind that you would shout out loud often, too, if you lived in a shoe with many children. And so she proclaimed to the universe her need for more room, and the universe returned with an answer. Before she even turned back around to waltz into her shoe to make more sole food for the children, something happened. With the twist of a tongue, another shoe had been left on the corner. At the blink of an eye, shoes soon began to drop all around. The old woman's housing issue was no more! Just like that, the beginning lacings of a legend had been born.
The little old woman with many children could hardly believe her change in fortune.
"I can't believe this fortune," she said to one of her sons, aptly named Tieler.
Just like that, mountains of shoes began to appear with no given reason. Wary travelers can recount tales of shoes far as the eye can see! From hole-patched Chuck Taylor's to size six red Christian Louboutin open-toe shoes, each passing day brought a new home for the woman and her children. The shoes continued to fall even after the old woman found enough room for her kin. To this day, hundreds of shoes line the corner. New sneakers wait to be discovered by a passerby at any given moment.
Some people may tell you a tale of a rickety old man carrying a cardboard sign asking for work and shoes. You might be told that the goodwill of the community covered his poor bare feet tenfold. While the employment status of the old man remains a mystery, everyone can agree that the sneakers kept coming. So the story goes...
Others may paint a tale featuring the woe of a lone boot perched perfectly within the middle of the road on 109th and Calumet. Billowing wind, passing cars and loose debris were said to be unable to knock the boot down. In an ode to the boot, community members began leaving their own shoes. "It's for companionship!" they cried. "The boot needed some more strapping young bucks to join it."
Could any shoe be as courageous as a lone boot in the middle of a road? It all depends if the shoe has a sole or not.
One thing that always consistent with these foggy-eyed tales is the presence of shoes. Who's leaving them? What's their purpose? Do we need to call Veronica Mars? All these questions remain unanswered.
What's known is that every weekend, a pile of random shoes will mount up along the road only to be removed come Monday. Shoes keep arriving on the corner. No one claims to be the guilty party of leaving their shoe. Sightings of perpetrators are regarded like sightings of Big Foot. It's true that these of gentle, and presumably misunderstood, giants are sometimes seen, but nobody believes the story! Instead we speculate wild stories that may or may not be nursery rhymes.
"It's got to be the shoes!" Spike Lee once said to Michael Jordan.
While the context may not apply, Lee is completely right. It's about the shoes and how it's unique to the region. Whatever the reason may be, we all have our own stories of how Shoe Corner came to be. Whether it's an old man, a lone boot or the legend of an old woman in a shoe, Shoe Corner is here and it's ours. Where else can you find such an anomaly shrouded in mystery? There are only three wonders that come to my mind: The Origins Of the Moon, The Loch Ness Monster and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Put these up next to Shoe Corner and you'll have scientists and skeptics busy for months.
I'd like to hear from you. How did Shoe Corner come to be? Is it a lone rogue stranding shoes by the hundreds? Take a trip for yourself and uncover the secrets we're all waiting to discover! Bare your sole. Shoe Corner is located at the corner of 109th Avenue and Calumet Street. The shoes are collected weekly and those in proper condition are donated to the Salvation Army and AMVETS.