Signs

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign                                                      

Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind

Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?

-“Signs”,  5 Man Electrical Band, 1970.

Ah, the famous ode to the evils of over-regulation. A song most people in this county, the oldest in the country, remember well from their teenage years.

But here in Lunenburg County, in the heart of our “Ocean Playground”, traffic signage on public highways can’t compete with the crushing authority the song so thoroughly admonishes.

Road signage here, if damaged by age, weather, or road accident, is not routinely replaced. A key intersection of the 332 and Hwy 3 leaves one baffled as to the competence of provincial road sign maintenance.

Take the rather large green highway sign at the corner of the 332 and 3, opposite  Frank’s Garage. 

This sign, announcing Lunenburg, Bridgewater to the west, and Riverport to the south, was torn in half from a bus accident, 3 years ago last September! For the last 41 months, tourists (and the unfamiliar) have been left with directions to “Luner”, “River”, and my favourite, “Bridgewa”!

It’s just a tad ironic that public works has a few screws loose when it comes to prioritizing a repair that might have taken a small crew one sunny afternoon on any day over the past three and a half years?

This lack of awareness and alacrity wearies the soul, as we must conclude that provincial public works can’t have much pride of place or purpose, to neglect so obvious (does the province read its own traffic accident reports?) a mandate to maintain a key South Shore “signpost”.

I wish the old lyric were true, and at least one local sign was, if not “blockin’ out the scenery”, at least pointing the way towards it.