A little known theologian named Sheldon Vanauken once wrote, "signs must be read with caution."
Timminstoday.com discovered this very wise truth recently when we took our camera around Timmins to photography some very complex and at times hilarious signs about town.
So what is in a sign anyway?
Signs are important to us because the communicate in a very direct, clear way what we can and cannot do.
It makes our lives easier and keeps us out of trouble.
But a misplaced word here or a sign taken out of context there, even people not obeying the sign - can be very funny.
The first confounding sign we encountered was the large ICE sign, fringed with snow, on the window of a local convenience store. On a day when the temperature was hovering around -25 Celsius, it seemed a tad counter intuitive that I would go into a store to buy ice.
The second sign, attached to the wall by a parking lot of a Timmins business clearly states, "Please Do Not Pile Snow In This Area." Pretty clear, right? Yet someone got confused as which area the sign was referring to and piled the snow right in front of the sign that says don't pile the snow here. Ah, Timmins!
If that is not confounding for you, the third sign we found will truly cause you to scratch your head in wonder. Judging by this sign that was affixed to a front yard with about 24 inches of snow, you would think that "snow sitting" is a very popular activity in Timmins during the winter. The sign says, "Private Property, Please Do Not Sit." I guess the homeowner just got tired of telling people to stop sitting on his snow!
One thing about signs in winter in Timmins is, it snows so much that you actually need to shovel around the sign so you can read the sign. Like this sign in front of Mount Joy United which is three quarters obscured by snow. Sorry, I didn't have a shovel with me so I cannot tell you what it said.
And our last sign really sums it up. It is a one word sign on an old gas station door in downtown Timmins. The sign simply says "Closed". But judging by the rusted-out, 1970s style gas pumps, this is one gas station that will not flip the sign to "Open", any day soon.
That's it until next time.
Remember, as the great Canadian rock group Five Man Electrical Band sang in their song "Signs" :
"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blocking up the scenery, breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that
Can't you read the sign."
