Re: Mounted gloves & hanging shoes

Posted by ESC on April 03, 2002

In Reply to: Re: Mounted gloves & hanging shoes posted by R. Berg on April 03, 2002

: : : : : : : This isn't a phrase. But it's the type of thing the
: : : : : : : inquiring minds at Phrase Minder might ponder.

: : : : : : : Have you ever noticed the sets of three crosses dotting the U.S. landscape? Here's information about their origin:

: : : : : : : "A Mississippi nonprofit organization wants to repaint hundreds of wooden crosses erected by The Rev. Bernard Coffindaffer. Before his death in 1993, Coffindaffer, a Nicholas County coal entrepreneur, started the first three-cross cluster about 65 miles north of Charleston (W.Va.). The clusters, like this set on Gatewood Road in Fayetteville, eventually numbered 1,780. Standing 25 feet high, they were painted light blue and 'Jerusalem gold' and dotting interstate highways in 29 states."

: : : : : : : April 2, 2002
: : : : : : : Register-Herald
: : : : : : : Beckley, W.Va.

: : : : : : I haven't seen them in my part of the country. Heck, you can hardly find a set of BurmaShave signs anymore.

: : : : : It is probably a Southern thing. I'd paste in the picture if I only knew how. You can view a photo at the Web site below. Page down.

: : : And I suppose ya'll have never seen a single brown cotton glove stuck on a post along the highway.

: : Or, perhaps, a pair of high-tops, tied together by the shoelaces, dangling from the telephone wires in the alley, representin' the homey that got wacked.

: We have shoes hung that way in my area too (also urban), but I believe they're not memorials--they're up there as testimony to somebody's accuracy in throwing.
: What's with the brown glove on a post?

I wish I knew.