My father's career was as a traveling salesman, driving five states selling electrical equipment to local utilities. So when our family went on vacation, it was by car, not by plane. We drove from Minnesota to visit family in Pennsylvania or Florida or Nevada, and on those seemingly endless days on the highway (most of them in the pre-interstate highway era) we played games, including the "alphabet game" which required one to find the letters of the alphabet consecutively on signs, license plates, etc. Those with similar memories will appreciate this modern billboard posted by the Sign Appreciation Society on Facebook.
At some future time I want to write a post about Burma Shave signs.
I look forward to the Burma Shave post. I remember seeing them driving on summer vacations in Minnesota, the first (and last) state to have them.
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I saw Burma Shave signs 50+ years ago on a rural US highway in Texas. A few times I've seen attempts at recreating the Burma Shave idea with something local.
ReplyDeleteWe play Cows and Cemeteries. If you see cows on your side of car you get 1 point, if you see a cemetery you lose all your points.
ReplyDeleteI think in our car there were also 2 points for horses and (maybe to end the game sooner in Minnesota) about 5 points for silos.
DeleteWe still play the alphabet game to distract us from the endless ads and previews before the movie starts at the theater. My current twist is to do the alphabet backward: z, y, x.... to get the 'hardest' letter out of the way first. They are actually surprisingly easy to find on the screen.
ReplyDeleteToday I learned that some people still go to movie theaters. :-)
DeleteFree Free a Trip to Mars for 1,000 Empty Jars
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ReplyDeleteThe last car game we played was counting the number of dead deer seen along the length of the Pennsylvania Turnpike = 14.
ReplyDeleteI learned about a different car game from the UK, where you pass pubs with names like "The King & Stag". You get the number of legs implied by the pub name (for the example, 6) or shown on the pub sign. A fish loses you all your points.
ReplyDeleteSo, the left side of the car vs. the right side?
DeleteOut of curiosity I found this: "The Millipede Micro Pub is a cozy, dog-friendly pub located in the heart of Stapleford, Nottingham, UK (at 15 Derby Rd)." Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!
Every so often, some company ought to include on their billboards "The quick, brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
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