....a countless time when driving up to our son and family in Bobcaygeon. On.
Here is the story taken from the Internet:
Hundreds of tired, old shoes
dangle from overhead hydro
wires, hang from branches and
have been nailed to a tree trunk
on a nearby twisted old maple
tree on the east side of Durham
Rd. 23 between Port Bolster
and Beaverton.
Why there and why that
tree is shrouded in mystery,
for no one seems to
know—albeit the tree is
close to the roadside and is
quite visible as it sits on a
gentle bend in the road.
Shoe trees, as they are
appropriately called,
and the act of hanging your old
shoes on them, has become
a pop culture ritual common
throughout North America.
The folklore on
how they got started covers
everything from a disenchanted
bride throwing her shoes away
on her wedding night to school
graduates to military war heroes
to people who just think it is a
cool thing to do.
One explanation deals with the
discarded shoes being a tribute
to all of the lost soles that travel
along the roadway where the
tree is located.
While initially thought to have
started in the U.S. in the 1970s,
shoe trees have been sighted in
Britain, Australia, New Zealand,
Argentina, Ecuador and Sweden.
“I don’t know how this tree got
started or why, but it has been
there for a very long time,” said
local resident Mary Hodgson.