Keeping Our Street Signs Safe: Low-Tech Tactics

What is Amherst, Massachusetts’ most purloined street sign? Ten years ago, it was Gaylord Street—you decide why.  It’s a diminutive road on the Amherst College side of town with mostly rentals to students and townies.  Since then, I’ve passed by the street over the years—sometimes it’s sported the Gaylord sign, other times an unconsummated pole.

Kudos to the town for a savvy, low-tech solution. Several years ago, Amherst replaced the standard 7-foot sign pole, with a phi slamma jamma 12’ model.  It’s been a slam dunk for the town. No way, for example, that your blogger, in the accompanying photos, could comfortably negotiate the longer pole. Not, of course, that he would try.

My discovery brings to mind an earlier brush with signage. In the 1980s, I lived on the corner of two streets in Amherst.  One evening, from our living room window, I observed an intruder jiggling the   the side street's sign. Quitting my easy chair, I confronted him—advising that he visit some other venue. Noticeably stoned, he offered this brotherly insight: “It’s High Street, man; it's High Street.” After he retreated, signless, I reported that he was just an amiable hippie. “A harmless hippie with a magnum wrench, you mean,” my partner retorted. My response to her: “He had a wrench?”

A photo of the High Street sign was supposed to go here.

Alas, no sign to photograph, only a pole.