A pair of shoes hanging from a power line.
I see them all the time around here.
Some old coots try to tell me its gangs marking territory, but I’m positive it’s just kids putting their old sneakers to good use when they grow out of them.
There’s a power line in my neighborhood that has a swim fin hanging from it. I see shoes all the time, too.
I saw it on the bus on the way home from school. The line in question is only about a few hundred yards from the school.
I’m thinking maybe you don’t live in a college town? I see it around campus just about every week. Maybe some dumb rite of passage?
I hope this thread lasts for quite some time, as it has lots of Sequential Thread potential.
I do live in a college town, but it’s just a small community college, and the line with the shoes was on the other side of town.
There used to be a “shoe tree” on US 50 in central Nevada someplace. There was also one on CA 62, but somebody burned it down.
Odd that you should mention that – I saw my first pair of shoes over a streetlight today. (Not quite the same as over a power line, but close.)
They’re all over Sydney. There are three pairs within twenty feet of line a couple of streets over. It’s all in the last six months.
Prior to that, I only saw two pairs. The first was in 1982 when, as a schoolboy, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. The second appeared a day or so later… um… outside my house.
Mum was not impressed. 
Shoes on a power lines meens you can buy drugs there. Well atleast it used to, or atleast there is an “old wives tale” that says it does.
I once saw a house that had a computer mouse over the powerlines. I remember me and my mates where cracking jokes about the guy who lives there is selling illegal computer parts or maybe its meens he is selling illegal wireless internet!
Here is Snopes’ take on it.
I’ve seen the shoes and boots. I saw ballet slippers with a bra tied to them. I saw football spikes with panties tied to them (right after homecoming. Hmmm).
Here’s Cecil’s take on it: Why do you see pairs of shoes hanging by the laces from power lines?
When I was in High School, back East in the late 50s, we’d throw our gym sneakers (Converse High Tops) over the phone lines on the way home from the last day of school. Just because it was fun.
This concurs with my own personal experience. I can’t say it’s a great statistical sample, but I’m unconvinced of any of the opposing theories just the same.
At Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, it’s customary to throw your knotted-together boots over the wire near the main gate if you’ve worn them out during your hiking there.
Not to mention a fabulous topic/username juxtaposition!
Bump.
I see your shoes over a power line and raise you a pink bra over a street sign.