What's Your Sign?

Every day I drive by a middle school. At the edge of the property stands a thirty foot tall sign. It's an old marquee style sign that boasts the schools name. Divisadero Middle. Home of the Trojans. I love this sign. Whenever I pass it I take a peek at it, just to see the Happenings of the school. It really takes me back. The school dances that i never attended. The upcoming Holidays that I couldn't wait for. Each spring, the best of all: See you next year!

Sometimes I see students standing beneath the sign with a giant pole, rearranging and removing letters, letting the other kids know that they are IN THE KNOW. They are the keepers of the information until the sign is finished and reveals to the world when the next Sadie Hawkins dance will be. That would have been a great job. Sometimes there are misspellings or upside-down letters. I wonder how that happens. No proof reader? I like to believe that some little social deviant did it on purpose.  A big F-YOU to the man!!!

Today I drove by and the sign was gone. It's been replaced by a brand new digital sign. Programable. Probably has spell check. It's awful. It's completely impersonal. Today it only said that it was currently 3:15 PM. Except that it was 2:35 PM. Awesome. I'm sure that this sign will do so much more than the old one, but it will never do it as well. With any luck, maybe...just MAYBE, the perfect allignment of bulbs will burn out and we might still get a big F YOU up there once again. That would be a message I could get behind.