Historical May 1980 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
“I don’t know . . . it doesn’t bother me much anymore, but it was a real shock.” This was one reaction to the sudden fall of the Shoe Tree, a tall maple that once stood between 6132 and 6138 Kingsbury, dangling with old shoes.
A snowstorm during the early morning of April 14 overloaded its branches and sent it toppling toward the gangway between the two houses. Eight-year-old Isaiah DiLorenzo saw the tree fall from the 2nd floor window of 6132 Kingsbury, probably at 3:30 a.m.: “It was up straight,” he relates, “and it started crashing down. I.got up and watched it fall . . . and a lotta shoes fell down.” The Shoe Tree’s origin is debated. Matt Shea, 17, remembers a prank played on Paul Wilmering during a game of corkball. Wilmering, 16, now of 57 Pricewoods, agreed that his shoes were the first in the tree. Other sources remember fooling around with old discarded shoes on the end of a garden rake. A trend did begin, though, in the summer of 1970. With a strong arm and a good eye, a pair of old tennis shoes or school shoes could be hurled up and lodged firmly in the Shoe Tree’s branches. It was a neighbor. hood landmark, immortalized by John Auble for Channel 5 News.
The passing of this institution was mourned by residents. Mary Gioia called the final chopping and sawing “irreverent . . . horrible.” Her son Steven, 6, was disappointed also. “I think I feel pretty sad,” he remarked, adding that he had been saving a pair of Battle Star Galactica shoes for the tree.
Original photograph caption
The fallen shoe tree. Photograph by Mary Gioia. The Paper, May 1980, page 13.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1980.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1980_05.pdf, printed page(s) 13; PDF page(s) 13.
