Speak Out: Planes and Bulldozers

Replies (21)

• Good looking women.

  -- Posted by We Regret To Inform U on Sun, Aug 22, 2010, at 9:03 PM

• The teller at the bank counting out $100 bills.

  -- Posted by voyager on Sun, Aug 22, 2010, at 9:32 PM

• Just about anything, but perhaps that's just the A.D.H...ooh shiney thing. But I digress.

  -- Posted by mynameismud on Sun, Aug 22, 2010, at 10:01 PM

• Driving recklessly while looking at an accident.

  -- Posted by almighty on Sun, Aug 22, 2010, at 10:04 PM

• Not if you live on the diversion channel.

  -- Posted by voyager on Mon, Aug 23, 2010, at 8:23 AM

• I'm distracted by all manner of things: People, animals, vehicles. I have to have the television off when visiting or being visited, as items on that annoying box are always drawing my attention away from my hosts/guests. I'm pretty lousy company, it seems...

  -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Mon, Aug 23, 2010, at 8:47 AM

• Children laughing.

  -- Posted by Red_Rhino on Mon, Aug 23, 2010, at 9:23 AM

• Strange new sounds that are not supposed to be there in machinery, especially an automobile I am driving.

  -- Posted by Have_Wheels_Will_Travel on Mon, Aug 23, 2010, at 10:37 AM

• Realist, The diversion channel was on the back of our farm where I lived until 6 years old. I remember the Spring floods.

  -- Posted by voyager on Mon, Aug 23, 2010, at 5:03 PM

• I thought someone would mention trains.

  Something else I find is that when I drive the same road for years, I develope a pattern as to what I notice. I tend to look toward the same stuff. When asked if I know where a certian thing, place or house is on that road, I sometimes have to admit I don't know. I have past it a thousand times never saw it.

  Here's another thing I can't help but notice. People on the job.. the highway crew with twelve people looking and two working. And this is not to single out the road workers. Many times my attention has went that way at resturants and retail establishments.

  -- Posted by Old John on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 1:11 AM

• silence. Because that is when my grandchild is up to something.

  -- Posted by Skeptic1 on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 9:43 AM

• Old John I am drawn to looking at old hay barns, especially those with silos. So many old barns had character unlike the cookie cutter pole barns of today.

  I also love it when I see an old barn that still has faded advertising painted on it. In days gone by, people were paid to advertise on their barns if the barn could be seen from the highway. The painting was very accurate and professionally done. I wonder if anyone is still around who painted barn advertising. That would make an interesting interview.

  I have dozens of photos stored somewhere that I have taken all over the countryside. The most common advertising I have seen is Morton Salt. After that, it is various brands of cigarettes, chewing tobacco, or soda pop.

  -- Posted by Thought Criminal on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 12:13 PM

• Infowarrior wrote:

  "I wonder if anyone is still around who painted barn advertising. That would make an interesting interview."

  Smithsonian Magazine had an interview and story about a man that painted signs for Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco. He wore overalls and drove around the country in an old pickup, with his paint supplies in the back. When he would find a suitable, barn, he would stop and chat with the owner, sometimes all afternoon. When they finally got around to talking about the sign, he said he could usually get them to let him paint it in exchange for painting the whole barn.

  The article ran in 1980.

  -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 12:20 PM

• Infowarrior wrote:

  "The most common advertising I have seen is Morton Salt."

  It's not "See Rock City"?

  -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 12:21 PM

• Wasn't there some sort of ban or restriction of advertising on barns that stopped that practice? Maybe Ladie Byrd's beautify America thing?

  -- Posted by Old John on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 12:40 PM

• Shapley, the most advertising I personally have seen and have pictures of is Morton Salt. There well could be more Rock City barns across the country, but that is not my experience.

  -- Posted by Thought Criminal on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 12:45 PM

• This writer says Mail Pouch Tobacco is the most prevalent advertising in his book. I believe I have only a couple of Mail Pouch photos. Old John, Lady Bird was the main reason the barn advertising stopped. http://www.roadtripamerica.com/read/Advertising-Barns.htm

  -- Posted by Thought Criminal on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 1:00 PM

• I remember seeing Meramec Caverns , Jesse James' hideout advertised on many many barns.

  -- Posted by howdydoody on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 1:15 PM

• I think Meramec Caverns was a local thing, though. We had a couple such barns in the New Madrid area when I was young, but you didn't see them once you got far from the Midwest. 'See Rock City' is all over the Southeast, East Coast, and Mideastern US. I believe they may also be out west, but I've don't recall seeing them. Then, again, my driving out west was mostly Interstate, since many of the Blue Highways were in disrepair out there, so I may have just missed them.

  -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 1:45 PM

• I only remember seeing one set of actual 'Burma Shave' signs, in Northern Arkansas, although I've seen several spin-offs.

  -- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 1:46 PM

• Old John- I too tend to look at the same things when driving on familar roads. Wonder why that is? Because we are creatures of habit, maybe? At any rate, it sure gives one pause when for some reason you suddenly notice something that has been there all along that you never saw before!

  -- Posted by jean-louise on Tue, Aug 24, 2010, at 3:03 PM