I remember when I was a kid, when I was first learning to read, there was an occasion when I was walking with my dad, and we were in a part of Sheffield by the steel works, and I looked up at a big yellow sign, full of text, black on yellow and advertising Hillfoot Steel as I remember, and I stared at all those words and said to my dad, ‘I’m never going to be able to read all that.’ He did his best to put my mind at rest and said I’d learn soon enough. And I suppose he was right.
One way or another, I’ve made my life out of words, and today when I walk through a city, I love the fact that I’m surrounded, beset, by language, by signs, by names, by advertising, by instructions, by warnings, by prohibitions, telling me what I should and shouldn’t do. Of course there are also graffiti but I think that gets enough publicity.
Some of the words may be on street signs, for instance, though it seems to me there are rarely enough of those. Here's an exception:
Some of these words express opinions, enthusiasms, philosophies, belief systems, though inevitably most of this isn’t very nuanced.
Some of it is downright inscrutable, which is perhaps to say that it’s not intended for everyone, such as me.
Some of it, of course, is only directed at drivers.
As a walker I particular enjoy those messages that are directed specifically at pedestrians, some of which might make you think that walking is a hazardous, risky and confusing business. And you know, sometimes it really is.
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