Thursday, July 10, 2008

Life Is Good: Celebrate Life! And A Big Thank You To Springfield Public Works Department

Back in the late 1960's, my Dad had a bunch of flower stickers printed with the slogan "Celebrate Life" on them. I think it was the theme of the DDF --the Diocesan Development Fund. Anyhow, those stickers ended up in a whole bunch of places, not just on the back of automobiles.

A friend had a 1964 VW Convertible and we put stickers all over that bug. She sold the convertible to another friend who cut it up for a dune buggy. What was he thinking? Another sticker ended up the rear window of a red Ford Galaxie convertible that was owned by the old lady who ran the Brown Derby at Cherokee and Glenstone. Remember that store, it was a small store and was also the closest liquor store to our house on National and Sunshine.

When I first got the bus Plunge in 1992 or 1993 (I will blog soon on the origins of Plunge), we started putting bumper stickers from places the bus had been on the inside roof of the bus. It is pretty well full now. My Dad gave me the "last Celebrate Life sticker" to put inside the bus. He brought it over to the bus and we selected a spot on the ceiling for it, where it remains to this day. The photo above is of that sticker.

When I sold the bus to Lowell Davis (what was I thinking?) and he subsequently sold it to Sam of Precious Moments, neither of them did anything to the interior. One of those two did paint the outside and put a new gas tank on that makes it hard to put gas into it, but I am working on that. I bought the bus back in December, 2003 for what I sold it for and I will never sell it again.

"Celebrate Life". Grandson Austin wore a shirt today that had "Life Is Good" on it. Celebrate life, life is good. Be happy with what you got. The boys were skateboarding in the backyard last night as neighbor Jack and I visited with Mr. Cook and Mr. Miller.

We got to talking about the movie, "The Princess Bride" and memorable quotes from that show. (My favorite: "Never get in a land war in Southeast Asia.) Austin tells us his two favorite quotes, except they weren't from the movie.

Austin's favorite quotes:

"You will never win an argument with your wife or mother so don't even try."

"Everything tastes better in a styrofoam cup, except orange juice."

Last week we buried our Mother with our Father. John and I both took a lot of pictures. John's account, Mom's Last Bus Ride (Mom loved to ride the bus with the kids), is here. My account is here.

I haven't felt too much like blogging lately, although there is a plethora of subjects out there upon which we have an opinion: the square, county officeholders, R-12 school, "The City".

But I do need to make this comment: Public Works put up new speed limit signs on the three streets in our neighborhood. In the past I have blogged about sidewalks, public works and neighborhood meetings. (It is my experience that Public Works is a city department that works to accommodate the citizens of this city) The new speed limit sign was positioned close enough to the fence that I could not get my lawn mower between the fence and the sign post without removing the grass catcher. I called Public Works, got a hold of Dan Jesson, and he explained the reasoning for the sign placement (Public Works tries to put signs between property lines, as this one is). When I told him I couldn't mow between the sign and the fence, he said how about if the sign is moved 10' north of the fence. He must have been looking at an aerial photo of the property because I would mention a tree or a fence post and he knew exactly where it was and what I was talking about. So thanks to Springfield Public Works for listening to our neighborhood and working to accommodate us and for not once referring to "Vision 20/20" or "Long Range Plans".

I sorta like those speed limit signs that say "Kid Friendly" on them.

3 comments:

longrooffan said...

Hey bus:

This invites just a few questions.

Is speeding such a huge problem on S. New that a speed limit sign needed to be installed?

Prior to the installation of this sign, how did anyone know the speed limit in the many years of existence of this street?

What did it cost to have the sign installer come out and move it?

Wouldn't it been alot cheaper to just take this down yourself and let it become garage art?

How can it be seen around the Bus and the "B" Nest?

Finally, with reference to the kids sign, I always enjoy the
"Slow Children at Play" the best.

Busplunge said...

"The City" recently changed the speed limit citywide from 30 MPH to 25 MPH. I don't know why 1600 block of S. New, S. Ferguson and S. Weaver got speed limit signs, they are all one block long and go nowhere.

I guess we all just knew it and went slow because we know all the neighbors and didn't want to run over any of them.

Actually it was three trips, one for the 800 dig rite guy, one for the guys who put in the footing and one for the guys who put up the sign. I don't know what it cost.

I like garage art, but not city owned garage art.

The sign in the picture is the original sign, it hasn't been moved yet.

I like the children at play sign too. Most of us in the neighborhood have a good opinion of Public Works because they listen to us and seem to hear us.

Anonymous said...

Jim, I believe street art is as good as garaage art if it is on your street...as for Austin's favorite quote, he first heard that in my garage during their visit last month...it is one of my favorites and I try to share it with all young men...I am so glad to hear that he remembered it....as for the Celebrate Life sticker...I remember sticking those things everywhere back in the sixties...the car wash that is now a driveway entrace to the hospital on sunshine...the same one that we used to go put .50 cents in during the summer and spray the entire neighborhood collection of kids with...water hurt like hell but it was cold and there really wasn't much else to do in Splfd during the late sixties...glad to know the last sticker has found a worthy home...
Ed