Black Croc, Robert Springs Road (Forest Acres, SC)

A great find at the Forest Acres Recycling Center at Covenant and Robert Springs Road. I bet some well-meaning resident left this, thinking like so many people do, that if it's plastic, it can be recycled. Nice try, but only plastic bottles and jars in this neck of the woods!

Black Pump, Germany Street (Columbia, SC)

I spotted this one on the way to work. I take a bunch of small back streets; this was on Germany Street. It was in front of a small church, Union Baptist Church. I surmise that someone was a little too caught up in the spirit and had to be carried out, kicking and screaming in the name of the Lord, when her shoe came off. They probably haven't let her back in, hence the shoe in front of the parking lot every day for the past several weeks.

The Shoes That Started It All (Pittsburgh, PA)

I came across these shoes in downtown Pittsburgh in September, 2008. Sister and I were walking from our hotel to the Pirates stadium. These shoes were neatly left on the sidewalk. On one side of the sidewalk, there was the busy thoroughfare and Convention Center; the other side was a grassy incline that led to the river.

To me, these shoes represent a choice to leave the every day monotony behind for the adventure on the other side. Perhaps this man was working 9 to 5 in the daily grind, and when stopped to cross over to the convention center, chose to leave behind the expected, the safe and kick off his shoes to walk barefoot though the grass to the cool, beautiful water.

That - or perhaps they just gave him one heck of a blister!