Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511240016
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-30 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But where do they all go?
Not every '95 candidate is so fortunate as state Sen. Madison Marye of Shawsville. He has a barn to store them in until the next election.
Jerry Olinger, who ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in Montgomery County, has a good idea: donating signs to needy families who might use the plywood to underpin trailers or insulate homes. But are there enough needy people to make use of the zillions of signs?
It's encouraging that some politicians plan to recycle their signs. They may, however, need help thinking up suitable future purposes. A few suggestions:
Many of the larger signs would make dandy under-the-mattress bed boards for people with back problems. Candidates must have some secret for surviving with enfeebled spines.
Kids could use signs in building tree houses. Though the political ads, in blue and red, wouldn't serve as reliable supports, they would add an Americana look and a touch of color.
The smaller, pasteboard signs could be laminated, jigsawed into puzzles, and given to children as Christmas gifts. See if they can connect "values" and "leadership."
Cities and counties could sell chances to the public to raise money, letting residents bet on which sign, whose and where, will be the last to come down. (On Virginia 24 near Appomattox, a ``Terry for Governor'' poster is still appended to a tree; in Richmond, a ``Durrette for Governor'' sign, vintage 1985, clung to a telephone pole as late as this past summer.)
A bonfire of the vanities? Wouldn't be politically correct recycling, but the public might get more satisfaction from it. Bring your own marshmallows.
We trust these ideas will be helpful to 1995's winners and losers alike. And, of course, to '96 candidates for the U.S. Senate and local-government offices, who already are scouting for suitable sites for planting signs.
by CNB