Blogging is a strange communicative form. Most of my posts get a handful of views but some like the one I wrote about the
Shoetrees of Kinmount have steadily drawn eyes to this blog week after week.
Kinmount Shoetrees circa 2008
I got an email from a reader advising me the shoetrees were destroyed.
On the orders of one local town councilman the trees were cut down. There was no public consultation just a man and his opinion and his ability to get the job done. The trees now only exist in photographs and memories. Here is a recent picture of the shoetree site:
Kinmount, where the Shoetrees were, 2011
There, that's better right? Right??
Shoetrees, like authentic farmers' markets, spring from the zeitgeist of the community. They just
start and someone else comes along and says
whoa and they add their two cents and then the thing becomes a Thing and people love it because it is Real, not commercial, not "planned" but a space people feel is theirs to add to and to participate in. I was one of the tourists who parked on the side of the road to see the shoes. I guess I contributed to the worsening of the asphalt, one of the reasons given for getting rid of the messy eyesore. I never did get to add my fuzzy slippers or my flip flops to the tree.
It seems to me this is a missed opportunity for the local town. They should have sold postcards and t-shirts and had some local artisan create "make your own shoetree" kits instead of just destroying them. When I drove to Florida this spring we came across a site that reminded me of
Kinmount. In South Carolina they celebrate their local version of the shoetree called
The Mystery Tree on Edisto Island. The site made it into Roadside America which directs people to areas to see interesting things when they are on a drive aka tourists, tourism, a local economic boost in these difficult economic times.
More background info here:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/steven-w-seal-photography/the-edisto-mystery-tree/10150249590389912
But I suppose the Kinmount trees were an eyesore to those who had to see it all the time. Many people don't like anything messy or disorderly or spontaneous. That's all risky business that. In fact is it downright Troublesome. Better to have peace, calm, flat, empty, open space...
nothing to see here folks...move along...
More about the Kinmount shoetrees and their demolition here
I'm attending the Xmas Potluck and Not-So-Silent Auction of the Richmond Hill Potters and Weavers Guilds. I am bringing Cucumbers with Hummus and Yogurt,
I know others rely and the tried and true but I look at it like this: my contribution will be one of *many* items on that food table. If it's not very good, well, I tried and people can choose something else. To me, this is a great environment for experimentation.
