During the summer of 1998 a muddy pair of Converse sneakers were tied together and hung on the backyard clothesline to dry. The low cut “tennies” hung for weeks, months, and then years. When the clothesline was replaced the shoes were tossed onto the lower branch of a nearby crab apple tree. There they continued to hang until the first shoe finally fell to the ground on August 8, 2011. The second shoe fell just seventeen days later. Throughout those thirteen years other shoes belonging to Mark Arnold and some of my own have been retired to the tree, replacing those that had fallen.
Mark has documented the comings and goings of the shoe collection with random photos that capture passing time and the seasonal effects the shoes have endured, along with the durability of the shoes. As long as the tree stands there will always be a place for all the old shoes.