Dear Cecil - I drive the Eisenhower daily between Oak Park and the Loop. It’s not a lot of miles and yet a day almost NEVER passes that I don’t see a SINGLE SHOE laying forlornly along the side of the expressway. How does such a thing happen?
I’ve put some real thought into this. For one, the shoe in question is almost always a male adult size sneaker. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman’s pump alongside the Eisenhower, nor have I seen, say, a single Clog or a lonely Snow boot.
At first I thought “car accident”. But digging deeper, I would think if there was a car accident powerful enough to blow off someone’s SHOE that:
it would probably be fatal and that would mean there’s a fatal car accident several times a week on this short stretch of road - which would be on the news, right? But if they exist, I’m not seeing these stories on the news, and I do watch local news each morning. <???>
wouldn’t an accident of that severity probably blow off BOTH shoes, not just ONE?? But it’s never a PAIR - it’s always just ONE single shoe.
My other thought involved perhaps a couple arguing. While driving down the expressway, one rips the other’s shoe off in a moment of victory and tosses it out the car window, thereby ruining the entire value of the pair of shoes (because Air Jordans and their ilk are certainly not cheap). But that would take some serious gymnastics when you think about it and I wonder if it’s even physically possible.
So that leaves me with…no real clue…the mystery of the Single Expressway Shoe haunts me and I can’t even imagine how it makes its way there so often.
Please let me know if you think you know the answer to this or can shed any light on the subject.
Note for the uninitiated: This apparently refers the Chicago area’s I-290, specifically the easternmost part (known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway - thus “the Eisenhower”) that connects I-294 to I-90/I-94.
This baffles me also. I can’t think of any reason why a pair of shoes tossed on the side of highway would not stay right next to each other so that people wouldn’t be wondering why they only see one of them.
Wow I loved the article - didn’t even know it existed! And yes Eisenhower refers to the 290 in Chicago. Sorry but I didn’t realize the Straight Dope exists outside of Chicago - sorry bout that!
Thanks for the replies - I will be watching for shoes that may come flying off of automobile roofs (rooves?)popping out of windows of over-stuffed cars, and being tossed out by blacked-out drunks. NEVER would have thought of any of these scenarios I must say. The one where the dog had excreted on the shoe, which was then discarded out the window, was another good one. I’m just glad to know that # of fatal “shoe blowing off” car accidents is not the main reason!