ABSENT MINDED THOUGHTS

WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

Some mayor of a small town in the Netherlands is upset because local farmers are making some money advertising a large hotel on their sheep.

It doesn’t seem to be hurting the critters, and the farmers are getting compensated for it. So, what’s the problem? It seems that there’s a local ordinance pertaining to “roadside” signage.
Sounds a lot like what’s been going on in many communities throughout our own country. Jacksonville Florida has had a sign ordinance for sometime now. Our ordinance pertains to those little portable signs that used to be so prevalent next to the roadway in front of the multitude of strip malls that dot our landscape.

My guess is that the ordinance in the Netherlands has similar roots, namely environmentalist who (either rightly or wrongly) want an unobstructed view of the countryside as they tool along releasing harmful emissions into the ozone. Our ordinance was even stupider, because the elite seemed to think the little portable signs in front of the strip malls all over town…made the strip malls look trashy. There’s irony in there somewhere.

Anyhow, the little news story made me think about those road trips I used to make with my mom and dad when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. My grandmother lived in Tennessee, and on the way there and back, we’d see these signs painted on barns throughout our trek through the foothills of Georgia and Tennessee, pointing the way to Lookout Mountain. Most of these are gone now, for very much the same reason that the little portable signs are gone from in front of the strip malls.

posted by Mrite @ 5:28 PM