Birdwatchers keep note of thebirdsthey spot and wagon train enthusiasts keep track of the various types of trains they see . But nobody ever seems to write down when they see an onetime brake shoe dwell on the side of the route .
We ’ve all seen it , though — perhaps hundred of times : one shoe , on its own , somewhere a lone brake shoe has no concern being .
It seems to make no sense . Of all the mistake to make while by chance preoccupied with other things , accidentally kick one skid off while saunter down the street and failing to notice it seems absurd . There are over200,000 nerve endingsin the average adult ft , so you would 100 per centum realize if you ’d absent - mindedly flung off a bum .
woefully , as with so many thing , the truth about this errant footwear is somewhat mundane : sometimes people just lose a shoe .
As aReddit screw thread from several years agodetails , there are more ways of misplace a shoe than you might retrieve — particularly once a vehicle is need . base on the hundreds of responses from Redditors who have lose a horseshoe , one of the most third estate reasons seems to be that people frequently utilize the roof of the auto as a temporary resting place … then get forgetful .
Say , for good example , you ’re changing out of a pair of quaggy tennis shoe after a run , and rest your horseshoe briefly on the cap of the gondola before make some space where they wo n’t get the car dirty . It ’s apparently very easygoing to forget all about them and accidentally drive none the wiser . Yes , you ’ve technically lost a pair of shoes , but it ’s improbable that someone is going to find them both in the same place ; the more potential scenario is that each one of the two shoes will end up in different spot , allowing at least two masses to experience the so - called “ one - shoe phenomenon . ”
shoe can be eject from incite vehicle , of grade . According to Lifehacker : “ People also tend to throw away their shoes for some reason , specially Kyd . ” Several parents share similar news report about tike regularly throwing thing out an open car window , shoe included . In some cases , Redditors shared tale of one car passenger throwing a shoe at another rider out of frustration , and it accidentally finding its way out the window .
Anyone who has ever pack aNational Lampoon ’s Vacation - style trip where a family and all their belongings are crammed into the back of a automobile for nine or 10 hour at once will be intimate with the phenomenon of opening a threshold at a petrol station and having a pile of your belongings tumble out — shoes possibly include . likewise , a loose piece of footwear beingcarted around in a garbage truckcould find its fashion overboard .
But motorized vehicle are n’t always part of the par when it descend to a dropped shoe . A sleeping child being press in a stroller can easy , albeit unexpectedly , jettison a shoe without pull in it , as can the recipient of apiggybackor the denizen of a bicycle seat . Someone walk down the street with a twosome of shoe in their not - fully - closed backpack or bag could also lose one without noticing .
However , there is another moderately consistent reason why you only ever see individual shoes in the road , and not yoke . Depending on how many the great unwashed see them , a distich of shoes might very in all probability be picked up by a passerby — to wear , sell , or even donate . A unmarried shoe , however , is useless to most hoi polloi . So there it bide , for masses to go and say to themselves , “ Is n’t it funny how you only see single shoes by the route ? ”
