TBW Daily Diary

Happy birthday to Bill Grace . . . PennDot wants to put paid advertising on its electronic road signs. I know we are all trying to hustle a buck in these bad economic times (The Bare Wall has a new pile of used books for $2 each) but this seems like a bad idea to me. Heavy fog ahead; slow to 30 mph; try the new dollar menu at Taco Bell . . . I was all for the elimination of billboards along roadsides back when the government decided to beautify the Interstates, but I must admit that I quickly missed those quirky messages. As children we always looked for them, especially when the trip began to tire . . . Coming from the western part of Pennsylvania we looked for “Only ?? miles to Knight’s Candy in Highspire.” (Does anyone remember Knight's Candy?) There was one every five miles or so, and it was a great way to count down the length of the trip. Lodging places provided the same type of info. Many of us will remember the billboards that said BREEZEWOOD, TOWN OF MOTELS and then gave the distance. There were advertisements for all sorts of tourist attractions en route and we often screamed when dad wouldn’t pull off at a snake farm, a cave or an ice cream dairy . . . As kids we found the Coppertone billboard with its bare-butt little girl quite erotic . . . And then there were those wonderful Burma-Shave jingles: GRANDPA’S BEARD/WAS STIFF AND COARSE/AND THAT’S WHAT CAUSED/HIS FIFTH DIVORCE; DON’T PASS CARS/ON CURVE OR HILL/IF THE COPS/DON’T GET YOU/MORTICIANS WILL . . .