Seen in San Diego, on a stretch of expressway formerly part of US-101, an exit sign reading:
“Roadside Business”
At Disneyland: “Speed Limit 14MPH”
In front of a middle school in Chula Vista CA (south of San Diego):
“DEAF CHILDREN NEARBY”
Also in Chula Vista is a major arterial street called Telegraph Canyon Rd. When driving eastward along said street one comes to a right turn marked “Old Telegraph Canyon Rd”, but which is in fact a driveway leading into the parking lot of some sort of meeting hall (Elks Club, maybe?)
Driving north on I-5 at the northern edge of San Diego county:
“Dust Clouds Next 27 Miles”
Oddly enough, the southbound side of the road lacks a corresponding sign.
Down here in Fort Myers we have alligators. Sometimes really close-up alligators. Just about every apartment complex or subdivision has lakes and water retention areas that the gators occasionally get into. I’ve seen all sorts of signs arning residents not to walk their dogs near the waters edge in order to prevent snacking by the gators.
But the best one was at a single-family house that was next to a little water retention pond. There was a little (4"x9"), carved wooden sign at the side of the house. It was it was only a foot off the ground and didn’t have words. Just a black alligator silhouette on a yellow background. I love the discrete suburban sensibilities. Nothing garish, just a little reminder: “Oh, We have an allligator.” Spoken in the same way as Sybil Fawlty saying, “He’s from Barcelona.”
There’s also the problem of citrus canker around here that is killing off our orange trees. It can be spread from the soles of shoes walking from infected areas to new places. Therefore, several fields have signs along the lines of, “If you walk in here, we WILL shoot you!”
In a book published in 1968 titled How to Avoid Automobile Accodents!, it said "A pedestrian could be knocked flying while a motorist is puzzling over the [abbreviated thus cryptic] meaning of PED XING.
“(It might be better if the PEDS did their XING at JCTS!”)
I went to college in Santa Cruz, CA, where the local government is fond of making laws and resolutions about things they can’t control and ignoring the things they can. When you enter city limits, you are treated to the following sign:
NUCLEAR FREE ZONE
Oh darn, I guess I’d better leave my warheads in Watsonville.
My senior year of college, the town gained a certain amount of notoriety for trying to make Santa Cruz a “Hate Free Zone”. It ended up not getting on the ballot due to a technicality, but I understand that the city council eventually did it on their own. I’m not sure if they have a sign indicating this under the Nuclear Free Zone or not.
There was a sign near my university in Jerusalem that said, in Hebrew:
WARNING: SENIORS
with an accompanying picture of an old guy, dressed in ultra-Orthodox Jewish costume, crossing the street. I always called it the “Haredi crossing sign” (haredi = very orthodox Jew). I even took a picture of it. Hee!
That reminds me, I also took a picture of a sign posted to the entrance of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of J’salem during Pesach, explaining (in three languages) that you were entering a bread-free area.
I think my most favorite sign ever was when my friend and I went to Sinai. You go through Israeli customs, and then you walk about a quarter of a mile and go through Egyptian customs. Since the path that goes along the border is guarded and fenced, it’s impossible to lose your way, but just in case, there are signs that say
EGYPT
----------->
We loved it. We got a guard to take a picture of us in front of the
Berkeley, CA has one of those too (but with the three-triangles radiation symbol, not a mushroom cloud). Someone put a sticker on the sign (the one on College Avenue near Alcatraz Avenue) so it now says “Nuclear Weapons Research Zone”, or it did for a long time until the sticker faded.
Reminds me of the program(dammit can’t remember his name)'s Secret Map of Britain about things that exist(like bunkers) that aren’t on maps and are apparently secret…or so you think.
Classic moment was calling a government installation…
‘Hello.Is that the Command and Control Center.I’m calling from Channel 4’
‘How did you get this number?This is a military base and the number is on a strictly restricted military list for authorized personnel only’
‘I rang up directory inquiries and they got it out the Yellow Pages’
Good to know Britain is protected as long as our terrorists don’t know how to deal with Directory Inquiries…
San Francisco. Handmade sign on a telephone pole, put up by the workers at the metal shop at the corner. The road does a sharp right turn around the metal shop, directly onto a freeway onramp. I guess they got tired of helping people out of their wrecked cars.
Driving on South I-95 towards DC once, I saw one of those big, over-the-road digital light up-signs (where you can change the message). It said: “Batteries need charging.”
