Our county passed a sign ordinance that prohibits those tacky temporary signs along the roadway such as house for sale, open house, big sale, closing sale, 50% off sale…you get the idea.
Shortly thereafter, people started appearing on street corners. No, they weren’t begging; they were holding signs. And, boy, did they look miserable. Who can blame them? I mean, the Georgia heat coupled with a steady supply of exhaust fumes--brutal. It’s no wonder most of the sign holders looked as if they were ready to fall over.
Then something remarkable happened in our town. I don’t know if it was the result of the economy—more people willing to work and work with more enthusiasm--or perhaps all it took was the right person with the right attitude.
But one day, instead of hanging his head, one man decided he would dance with his sign. And dance he did, really “getting it,” as my dad would say, for hours and hours at a time. He made people smile, he made people wave, he made people honk, and more importantly, he made people whip their vehicles into the parking lot to buy a pizza, perhaps hoping it would give them a quarter of the energy its salesman had.
Soon other businesses were no longer content to have a sign holder who looked as if he or she would drop dead in a matter of minutes. Competition—one of the things I love the most about our country’s free market—kicked in. The next thing I know, every corner had a dancing mascot—dancing hot dogs, dancing cows, dancing pizzas. Nowadays, just dancing isn’t enough. I’ve seen clowns on stilts jamming to "Back in Black" and the Statue of Liberty followed by Uncle Sam catching disco fever while jumping on a mini-trampoline.
I look forward to seeing what's next. Though, I can’t say it’s made me patronize any of the businesses, it sure has made my commute a lot of fun.
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