I See Ghosts!

Whenever we drive into a new town or city, we always look at the buildings.  They give us an idea of what the town is like now and what it used to be like. They tell us a little bit about their history, they tell us a bit about the people who founded the towns and what they did.

    It isn’t so much the new, shiny glamorous buildings that have recently been erected; it is the older buildings, the ones which aren’t streamlined, dull and boxy or looking just the same as the others around them. We look for the buildings in-between the new ones, the ones still remaining. Those with ledges complete with nice patterns carved into them, false facades crowning their fronts, fancy brickwork, maybe even gargoyles. Its things such as these that set them apart from the newer creations. It often seems that an older, dilapidated building has more class as compared to a new sleek building that was planned complete with a tight financial bottom line in its plans.

    Driving past these older buildings we often spot painted signs on them. If we are lucky, a complete sign will be visible. A sign advertising a company that used to occupy the building or maybe a product such as candy, flour, chewing tobacco or a soft drink. Coca-Cola and Mail Pouch Tobacco signs can be seen all over the place! Some signs are so faded that you can only guess what they might have said while others appear as if they’d been painted yesterday. Many of these signs have been painted over with other signs, making them even harder to read!

    They are called “Ghost Signs” The men who painted them, called Wall Dogs or Barn Lizards used oil and lead based paints which helped the signs last longer. The men who painted them did it by hand, they were true artisans!

    Many of these signs are found near the centers of towns or in the commercial districts. They are also seen near railroad stations and places where newcomers might congregate. In some cases, a new building was built beside a sign, hiding it from view and also the damaging effects of sun and weather. When the building was demolished, the sign became visible again. There may be many you pass daily and never notice, they have become part of our background. Further out from the cities, in the country side, Mail Pouch tobacco signs decorate barns in over 20 states. Between 1891 and 1992 thousands of barns were painted with their ads. A pair of skilled men could do 2 barns in 12 hours!

    The signs may be for Banks, Savings and Loans, Tailors, Machine Shops, Shoe Stores, Drug Stores and Grocery shops. They advertised the things that the people needed. The signs are a part of their history! A lot of communities are still using these signs though now they are more as a tourist attraction as compared to a selling device. Some have restored older signs and some have painted new signs. To someone who looks for ghost signs, these aren’t quite the same as finding the older, original signs. They consider re-painting a sign sort of like re-touch a piece of artwork. These were done by masters of their craft and by re-touching it, you might be possibly damaging it. The new signs, while they look nice, aren’t quite as exciting as the originals!

    Here are a few of the signs we have come across in our travels. Most of them are original but there are a few that are reproductions. When you’re out on the road, keep an eye out for these old pieces of artwork. 

I don’t know about you, but I believe in ghosts! Keep watching for them, you’ll see them sooner than you think!

Signs

                On my way in to work yesterday, I stopped and found a geocache. It was located on land that once was a State Hospital. The land has now been appropriated for housing, among other things. It is a cookie-cutter community. Every house the same, all the mailboxes match, so sweet. There are still a few foundations and reminders that something else once occupied these grounds, if you look hard.

                One of the remnants is a cemetery where the patients of the facility were buried if they didn’t have family members to take their remains. It is a sad location, hidden by weeds and trees. The only mention of these people is a small cement block with a number on top of it. No names, no dates, just a number.  The stones are laid out in long lines, one after another, unseen unless you are looking for them. You could be standing beside them and not even realize it. Mother Nature is very good at taking back what is hers!

                A year or so ago, the local government cleaned out the woods, cutting back the vines and saplings and exposed the graves.  Unfortunately this needs to be done yearly. There is a stone marker at the edge of the woods with the name of the cemetery on it and the dates the patients were buried there. A small path leads into the brush, taking you to the final resting place of these poor individuals.

                The cache was near-by, another grave hidden in the woods. This patient had been buried where Rt79 was going to be built and before construction could continue, the grave needed to be moved. It was placed a few hundred yards away from the busy highway and over the years, this gravestone was covered by the brush and lays forgotten. A geocache has been placed near-by and it brings some hardy adventurers (well, not really) to his grave and brings him to mind for awhile. Gone but not forgotten.

                After I stopped by his grave site I continued on to another near-by site I had wanted to visit. Driving south on Rt79, I daily pass a wetlands, a depression beside the highway where at one time a power plant for the State Hospital once stood. All that remains is a towering smoke stack and a few walls built into the hillside.  Months ago a local artist had painted a Covid germ on one of the walls. I’d see it as I drove by and wanted to get a picture of it before it disappeared. Since I still had time before I had to be at work, I took a walk down to the site.

                There is a gravel road that goes down to where the power plant once stood. High weeds grow on either side of it and are valiantly trying to take over the road. Butterflies and grasshoppers flew around me as I walked down the uneven path. The road drops into a bowl beside the highway and the housing plan situated on the other side. The area is a wetlands, a stand of dead trees sits in a watery plot, I often see hawks sitting on their branches, keeping an eye out for something to eat.

                Coming down the trail I came across a sheet of paper. I picked it up and found that it was a satellite picture of the area with notations printed on it. It was a plan for a road to be put in leading to the far side of the depression where a new billboard would be built. Since this area is a wetlands, an environmental study had to be done before any construction could be started. This paper, which had been laying on the road for awhile showed where they planned on building roads to access the site.

                I was thinking, just what we need, another billboard along this highway. No doubt it will be an electronic one, flashing its lights out to the road. I remember when Johnson was president, oh so long ago, how his wife, Lady Bird, instituted a program to clean-up the roadsides of America. (The Highway Beautification Act) It cleaned up all the ugly signs which littered the highways among other things. Sadly, advertisers only built larger signs further away from the roads and now with the wonders of electronics, we have huge billboards which flash their various messages to us as we zip by. Usually without giving a person time to fully read their message.

                Driving home at night I see them all along the various roads I frequent. A few are turned off at midnight but most shine on through the early morning. I find it so refreshing to drive along back roads that are free of signs, free of commercialism, nothing to see except the beauty of nature, the trees, pastures, farms and lakes.

                Looking at the map I found, I couldn’t help but think of Edward Abbey.  In his book Desert Solitaire he wrote about his time working for the Federal Government in Arches National Monument. The park was wilderness, desert without any paved roads. Surveyors came and put stakes in to mark where roads would be bulldozed and paved. This would allow cars and campers filled with people who just wanted to get a quick snapshot of the scenery and maybe a visit to the john and something to eat at the refreshment stand. He felt as if people should work to see these wonders, he wanted to avoid the commercialism of the parks. So, he went out at night and pulled all the stakes out.

                The roads were still built and the tourists came but he had that one night of feeling as if he helped stop them. He went on to write The Monkey Wrench Gang, a work of fiction which promoted sabotage to protest against things which harmed the environment.

                Now don’t get the idea that I might do anything this drastic. My extremes are writing about how it upsets me to see another bright electronic sign standing alongside my ride to work.  Commercialism, that’s what runs our world, what can we do about it? I’m just happy that I can still find places that are free from it.

               Now the question is, how long will they remain there for us to see…