What's in a sign? Quite a lot when one looks beneath the surface. Signs can be straight forward, pointing to somewhere interesting; they can impart interesting, or not so interesting, information, or they can serve no practical purpose at all. It is for all these reasons, that photographs of signs will enhance any photographic collection, be it photos in an album or a visual presentation.
Over the years, as I have walked around a town or a city, or even in the country, I have always kept my eyes open for interesting signs. It is surprising what one sees,
Many years ago I was travelling through central Africa and had reached the town of Garoua on the Benoué River when a poster at the local Post Office caught my eye. It couldn't be, but it was; a picture of an old Maori woman with a moko (chin tattoo). It was advertising the colour film
Nouvelle-Zélande, Terre des Maoris; sponsored by Cameroon Airlines and the French Airline UTA, which then flew into Auckland. It was bizarre to see one's homeland advertised in the heart of Africa.
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A surprising discovery in the town of Garoua in the Cameroon; Queen Elizabeth stepped ashore here & a Wyoming mud flap & bumper sticker.
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On another occasion, I was walking along the coastal path from Mrs Macquarie's Seat in Sydney's Botanic Gardens, when I stepped on a worn, dusty plaque. Closer inspection told me that 'the Queen Stepped ashore here'. It didn't say when, but subsequent investigation told me that it was in 1954 and she was the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. So I can say I was following in the footsteps of Her Majesty, although I wasn't coming in from the sea!
On a later trip to Wyoming in the USA, I spotted a mudflap and bumper sticker on a local truck. To be honest I did know the owner of the pickup truck, and the bumper sticker was appropriate as he was always wearing a cowboy-style hat.
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Beware of dog sign in Port Vila; 19th century dentist's door, Blists Hill; neatly printed gas station sign in Bikaner.
In Vanuatu the local lingua franca is known as Bislama, a form of pidgin comprising a corruption of words from English, French and the local languages. Some of the results are hilarious. A Beware of the Dog sign becomes 'Lukaot wan spesil Dog' (Lookout, one special dog!). Special because it bites!!
In the Blists Hill open-air museum in Shropshire in England is the glass-door to a dentist that tells me, waiting in anticipation, that, my teeth will be 'carefully extracted'. A daunting prospect in that pre-ether era!
In Bikaner in the Indian Stae of Rajasthan I came upon a neatly painted brand new sign at a petrol station, telling me that if I doubted the honesty of the dealer, a 'duly authenticated capacity measure' was available on request.
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Sign to the 'One & Only Octopus restrauramt of the vorld, Bodrum & the Holy Water sign at churcTralee
In Bodrum in Turkey there was a sign which pointed to "The First and Only Octopus Restaurant of the Vorld' - in English, Turkish and German. I wonder if it is still there?
And in Tralee in Ireland, I rather liked the idea of Holy Water being on tap at the Church of St John the Evangelist.
The South Sea Liquor Lugger on Stewart Island & the information sign in Montana's Bad Rock Canyo
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Signs are not always of the conventional type. In Half Moon Bay on New Zealand's Stewart Island, an old Bedford truck served a very practical purpose.It was the local hotel's 'Liquor Lugger', then gainfully employed lugging booze from the Mainland ferry to the island's only hotel.
But the descriptive information on a board beside the Flathead River in Bad Rock Canyon in the U.S. State of Montana, gives an amusing local history of the derivation of the Canyon's name, painstakingly written.in the vernacular,
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A Benefaction board in St Andrew's Church, Nether Wallop, Hampshire & the Fijian Devonshire Tea sign at Rings Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Not all signs have to be outdoors. A benefaction board in the small parish church of St. Andrew in the village of Nether Wallop in Hampshire records for posterity how much local benefactors have bequeathed to the poor of the community. I wonder how far £4 per annum went in 1559?
But then, not all signs are serious. At Rings Beach on New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula, I used to pass this sign regularly. The Fijian Devonshire Teas were always going to be available 'tomorrow'!
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A sign outside of local grocer shop in Leh, Ladakh; Queen Victoria's vacation sign in Auckland & the sign to Alzon in France from Waitangi in the Chatham Islands
I have already mentioned that signs in India can be interesting. Some years ago I was in Leh, the main town of Ladakh in the Indian State of Kashmir, when I noticed this sign outside a grocery store. I know what mixed pickles and toilet paper are but what is Aji-no-moto? (P.S. just googled it - seems it is MSG - monosodium glutamate!)
A few years ago the statue of Queen Victoria in Auckland's Albert Park went missing. On her plinth a note was left stating that Her Majesty had gone: 'On Vacation for some much needed beauty treatment'. I wonder if she was amused?
Next to the courthouse in the settlement of Waitangi on the remote Chatham Islands is a sign pointing straight down, 12,800 kms, through the centre of the earth to the small town of Alzon in southern France. There is a similar sign in Alzon saying it is the Antipodes of the Chatham Islands, - Situation Unique en France..
Seems that privacy can be a necessary requisite on an island for whatever reason. I came across this ominious sign while walking along a back road on New Zealand's Stewart Island. Needless to say, I didn't trespass, if I did, I wouldn't be writing this article today!
Small, remote Islands may have their advantages, but they can also have disadvantages, disadvantages that we Mainlanders take for granted. This sign appeared on the bowser of the only fuel station on the Chatham Islands during my stay. Fortunately the weather calmed down and the supply boat, which had been delayed, arrived a couple of days later!
But I think the last word can be safely left with this plaque, in the Windsor Reserve in the Auckland seaside suburb of Devonport - On This Site in 1897, Nothing Happened.
© Neil Rawlins text & photography
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