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Health & Fitness

Graveyard for Forgotten Signs

There are signs everywhere. They fill our streets, but only through deep travel can we see the ones that have become invisible.

When you take time to explore your neighborhood in deep travel (the state of truly being aware of all of your surroundings), there are so many new things to experience. Recently, I set off for another deep travel journey, and it led me to seeing signs, lots and lots of street signs. There was nothing special about the signs except for as my grandfather used to say, "if it was a snake, it would have bitten you." These signs have been there each day on my drive to school, on the way to church, and as I traveled through the neighborhood. 

I'm sure that we have all been in a place where we didn't know the speed limit even though we had driven by ten speed limit signs, and this led me to realize that signs that no one sees have no impact or purpose anymore. Certainly someone "sees" these signs everyday, but I would bet that the more exposure that we have to a sign, the more it blends into the background (ever rolled through a stop sign because you just didn't see it?)

The most important piece of this deep travel experience was the realization that every sign has a story. At some point, a group of people made the decision that the sign was necessary, because common sense and the general rule of order were no longer good enough to govern the space. I drove through the area looking for the space that may be home to the largest graveyard of signs in the area. It led me to Yale Avenue, which has a unique collection of signs that I am certain that no one sees anymore. I have included a number of them with the post.

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The one that first caught my attention was "No Trucks, $1000 Fine." I've never seen this type of sign before, but I'm sure that it was put in place by a band of furious car owners that despise Ford F-150s. There is also a "No Outlet" sign on a road that you can clearly see the end because it is 10 yards from the sign. There is a "Caution Driveway" sign that clearly should be facing the other way into the driveway saying, "Caution Road." Finally, there a "Dog Waste" sign. We have all seen these signs, but it is the construction of sign with the picture of a dog and a person with tons of 10 point type that truly makes this sign invisible.

Look for a new old sign today, and you will be on the road to more deep travel in your own neighborhood.  

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