Comments on: Tin Signs

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:28:52 +0000

Whoops, forgot to add a bit about Belgard pavers...pavers is what the landscaping world calls stones. Their website. If you watch any HGTV, you'll see a half-dozen of their commercials in 30 minutes.

By: Brent

Brent — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:23:54 +0000

Castaway’s final scene was filmed in Texas. My original guess was actually Oklahoma (“where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain”). According to this bit I found, it was at “intersection FM 48 and FM 1268, north of Mobeetie, TX in Hemphill county.” and I guess this answer was brought to us by the Texas film commission. “Texas has a film commission which provides those answers”.

Just didn’t want ya heading to New Mexico to look around and come to realize that “hey, this doesn’t look anything like the scene in Castaway”

By: spygrl

spygrl — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:18:20 +0000

None of the island’s names around here have apostrophes in them…. Sullivans Island, James Island, Johns Island….. I can’t remember if it’s a postal service thing or a grammar thing.

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:18:27 +0000

Nice thoughtful post (yet again)

Here in NZ those signs are definitely not that common. There is a “Corner Dairy” (think Quik-e-mart for you US bods) in Taradale, Napier, and they change the sign almost daily to have a quote, joke, or just something interesting. Occasionally they even advertised a special in the shop (crazy!!) They must have had a huge pile of letters, as they could spell out numerous and varied sentences (and this was back before txt-spk came into being). Always used to make me think of America when I drove past there, as that was the only other place I has “seen” those signs (on movies like you)

By: Kris in Hawaii

Kris in Hawaii — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:25:37 +0000

You’re lucky, in Hawaii there is a church for every five residents, as it has a strong missionary history… Repent thy evil ways!

Observation: The excessive amount of signs and posters in the Tube walkways and along escalators and on the trains might make up for the lack of signs elsewhere in England.

To the Trains: I loved learning that some of the tiled signs (such as at Piccadilly Circus) are of original Victorian vintage.

I also loved learning that all the various and sundry pub signs give a pictorial history of Britain–Few pubs were named by accident and have been inspired by royalty, religion, lust, war, ambition, heroes and the odd villain. Between them they tell quite a colorful story.

Geoff I see you are saying “parking lot” instead of “car park.” Do you also now say shopping cart instead of trolley?

By: Chucker

Chucker — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:22:59 +0000

Hey Geoff,

Didn’t know that you had moved off the mainland to one of our islands.

FYI: The paper actually announced about 4 years ago that it would stick with the accepted local spelling and dropped the apostrophe from Johns Island. It’s named after the Johns family.

Nice post.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:00:08 +0000

So do you get advertising billboards (the sort of things you typically see in the UK) in your part of the States? And if so, do you get the ones which rotate and loop through three different adverts every minute?

By: Mum

Mum — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:14:37 +0000

Very interesting Geoff, are the letter made from tins then? We just get paper flyers stuck to lamposts in England. Have you counted the number of different churches on Maybank Highway as well? Considering it’s quite a sparsely populated area, I think there must be one church for every 10 residents!

By: Kristy

Kristy — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:07:18 +0000

It still amazes me that things like these signs, that us Americans assume are a natural part of every day life, don’t exist in other places.

The other day, I asked a friend of mine from Russia what he was getting his mom for Mother’s Day and he said they don’t celebrate it. And I had to stop for a minute and think about it before I realized that yes, I guess that makes perfect sense.

It is amazing the things you notice when you’re not used to seeing them.

P.S. Belgard Pavers are used for landscaping – to build patios and edge lawns and such. Basically, the little cement “bricks” that make up things like that. Belgard is just a brand name.