I’ve recently noticed the fresh crop of political signs sprouting from the earth – an obvious indication that spring is arriving, I suppose. I could swear that we had finally gotten rid of these “weeds” from last fall’s annoyingly-abundant harvest only recently, but apparently there were some residual roots that failed to get pulled. These are now blooming into only slightly different flowers; “mayor” versus “president”, “Yes” on this issue versus “No” on last fall’s and so on. I did try to help, by the way. I searched the local store shelves for a brand of weed-killer that specifically said it would kill political signs – but apparently such a product is not available.
In thinking about the political weeds, (uh … signs, sorry), I started thinking about signs and their prevalence, (if not importance), in our lives. We live in a country of signs. Signs are everywhere, from billboards to banners; wooden spray-painted to the little corrugated plastic things on wire stands; hand-written paper to posters to the sides of cars, trucks and busses – signs are everywhere you look. That, I think, is one of the biggest differences between us and other countries … the number of signs. Ever look at a photo of a foreign country and without knowing where it was taken, immediately your brain tells you that it’s foreign? You don’t realize it, but I promise you – somewhere in the deepest reaches of your subliminal mind, it is the lack of signs that tells you that it’s not a local photo!
Some of the signs that we have in our lives are meant to entice us. “SALE TODAY!” “SAVE BIG!” “FINANCING AVAILABLE!” These all end in exclamation points so that we know that today’s sale is bigger than yesterdays. A couple of my own companies use exclamation points frequently. The fact is, we respond to excitement. If there is a sale, it’s exciting.
Of course, enticement signs can also be misleading. Imagine if you are an average guy driving down the South Service Road on your way to pick up a Mickey-D’s Sweet Tea and you see a giant sign that says “CHICK DAYS!” Well, it’s very possible that some men would whip into the parking lot and run inside the local Farm & Home store with a handful of dollar bills – only to find a tub-full of baby chickens, of course. “CHICK DAYS!” It’s all in how you interpret the message. I mean, we just got our first stoplight – I guess the possibility of a “Red Light District” isn’t such a stretch.
Speaking of misleading signs, I’m sure that there are a number of weary travelers who cross beneath our new Elmont Road overpass and quickly exit – drawn by the beauty of the rust-covered “SUNRISE MOTEL” Sign. It even promises AAA Membership, by the way. Much to the chagrin of those misled travelers, of course, they’ll find only an empty lot – the Sunrise went off into the Sunset many moons ago. And yet, just to ensure that we don’t suffer a shortage of signs in our lives, the sign remains, kindly implying that Sullivan is a town of beauty and growth, (with our new overpass), but still a good ‘ole down-home kinda’ place. Sort of like an old refrigerator on the front porch of a mansion. We’re like the Beverly Hillbilly’s and pretty soon, they’ll finish up on that new “concrete pond” over off Winsel Creek! (That’d be the new sewage treatment facility for those who aren’t familiar).
Of course, we’re not the only offenders when it comes to out-dated signs. The Stanton FINA – a booming little gas station when I was a kid – has been nothing but a pile of rocky debris for what? 20-years or so … something like that. I’m pretty sure that there is still a sign standing there offering gasoline at 79-cents a gallon. At least, there was at one point not so long ago. You wanna’ talk about getting the attention of Interstate travelers last summer – if THAT didn’t get people to pull off the highway, nothing will. In fact, I wonder if there was an increase in accidents near that exit last year, (people scrambling across the lanes to exit for cheap gas)?
And of course, Meramec Caverns probably has more signs standing on the face of this planet than any other business in history. It’s kind of neat, really. Remember when they used to put them on barn roofs? It seems like no matter where you drive in America, at some point along whatever Interstate you’re traveling, you’ll see a sign advertising Meramec Caverns, Stanton, Missouri. I’ve always thought of that as my personal reminder how far I was from home. To be perfectly honest, I think that at some point in the future, the little NASA Mars Rovers will send back a picture of some Martian farmer’s barn and on the roof will be a giant Meramec Caverns logo with “just another 225.70-Million Miles” underneath. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
I guess the most interesting aspect of our sign-addiction, however, is that we’re now accustomed to seeing signs advertising signs. “RENT THIS SPACE”, “GET NOTICED – AD HERE”, “THIS SPACE FOR RENT” … these are all signs advertising signs. Some of these are up forever, too. If you look along the South Service Road near the fairgrounds, you’ll see a couple of billboards that have had a “rent-this-space” message for so long – they date back to when Sullivan was part of the “314” area code! (I’m quite certain I remember them painting over the “314” at some point). You gotta’ feel bad for that guy – sitting by his phone for nearly 30-years, just waiting for someone to call and rent his sign. I’d think that he might want to consider a different line of work at some point. I mean, no ads for 30-years is probably not a good sign.
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