230 Signs of the Times #1

The national (and international) news is too annoying and depressing, so I thought I would open up my collection of “sign” pictures and see what I could find which amused me a bit.  Since most of these pictures are fairly recent, a lot of them, but certainly not all, touch on our recent (and on-going) pandemic.  However, even that doesn’t mean that they still aren’t worth a second look.  So, anyway, here you go!  I hope you enjoy them.

When I saw THIS sign picture, I thought that it just MIGHT be the perfect, all-occasion sign for any and all yards.  After further thought, I’ve decided that it probably isn’t quite perfect, but it’s real, damn good!  I especially like the fifth one down!

As I was thinking about this post, my dim, old memory came up with an image of a sign which I know I saw probably 40 some years ago.  I’m quite sure it was sometime in the 1980’s.  I have a clear recollection that Bonnie, the girls, and I had gone somewhere (Tryon, NC, I think, but I won’t swear to that) for some sort of regional Girl Scout thing one fall weekend.  While driving around town, we ran across a perfectly proper, legal, official “No Parking” sign along a street which said, “No Parking Between This Point” with the arrow  below the printing pointing in BOTH directions and NO other signs in sight!  That incident MAY have been the start of my fascination with signs.  I have no recollection of having taken a picture of this sign, but I remember the sign clearly, as does Bonnie, so I DIDN’T make it up!  I HAVE looked through our old photo files, but I can’t find a picture.  Still, I remember it clearly as one of the most amusing things I have ever encountered.

​Anyway, that MIGHT explain my love of odd signs, so here’s a few more examples from my collection.  This one I like because it’s so obvious and suggests that we don’t always REALLY mean what we say; although, perhaps, we should.

One of the most frequent complaints which I have heard in relation to the recent “health concerns” of the nation (I’ve heard that it’s not “politically correct” to call it a pandemic, since it’s really a Chinese/Democrat plot) is how this “fake”illness has impacted employment and how NO one wants to work anymore at all of those “high-paying, service jobs” which require constant close contact with the public, but only get one a small salary since the “tips” are SO good.  I suspect that this situation is what produces signs like this:

The numbers say that unemployment claims are down, but the demand for low-wage workers  IS definitely up.  In some cases, employers have become SO desperate that they have had to really lower their expectations for hiring, since people are so “unwilling to work.”  This has led to occasional moves which can only be described as extreme:

Actually, I sympathize with both the businesspeople who just want to get back to having a functioning business AND the people who would like to get back to being employed (in spite of the fact that there are all too many jobs which do NOT allow one to actually earn a LIVING).  Still, I’ve been hearing, and witnessing, the fact that there ARE cases, especially in retail, where it’s not easy to find employees who are trainable, reliable and willing to recognize that their job is to ASSIST the customer, not annoy them by being too “hovering,” nor to wait until the customer DEMANDS attention prior to offering it for the pittance retailers pay.  I’ve worked retail, I KNOW it’s not always easy, and the pay is, usually, not much, but it is the job you agreed to do when you accepted it.  Then, there’s the boss’s desire for competent employees.  Competence is not reinforced when one encounters signs like this:

It IS amusing, of course, (at least it can be) when people misunderstand each other, but, while I enjoy the chuckle, it does make me wonder about the effectiveness of our parenting and educational structures when I see signs like this, (even though I THINK it was intended to be humorous):

On the other hand, then I see something like THIS,

and I’m not quite as sure that things are really as funny as all that.

Oh, well, I suppose that the human race will continue to survive in spite of itself.  I hope so, after all, the alternative isn’t very appealing.  We HAVE had an interesting last couple of years, though, and I’m far from sure that it’s anywhere near over, in spite of what the “elect ME and things will be wonderful!” politicians insist.  I confess that, given what they say about each other, at least during primary season, I am forced to wonder why any of these “upstanding, GOOD people” (just ask them) would want to have any association with “those people” (their opponents, even in THEIR own party).

Maybe, we’re just caught in some sort of nightmare and we’ll soon wake up and everything will be rosy.  That would let THIS sign be a truth!

I’m still thinking about this, but I’ll be back in a couple of weeks, still trying to keep it light and bright (like a good lighting design for the comedy of life).

🖖🏼 LLAP,

​Dr. B
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic; capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”                                                                    ―Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows