Signs of the Times

While the entire population of Sugar Land, Texas was at the First Colony Mall today taking advantage of the sales tax holiday, Don, Charles, Bryan, and I put up campaign signs in strategic locations in Richmond and Rosenberg.

I’ve never done anything like that before, so I was curious to find out about the process. One thing that did not surprise me was that when you do that kind of physical labor outside in August on the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain, you sweat a little. Well . . . you sweat a lot, more than when you go block walking.

We were able to hit ten sites.

The process, Don told me, is much easier than it was in times past. Before, campaign signs were set in wooden frames and mounted on fence posts that were set into the earth after digging a deep hole with a post hole digger.

Back when men were men.

Today we use “T-posts” and plastic ties, you know, the kind that the police use when they run out of handcuffs. Tools: Door keys are good for poking holes for the ties, and big 20-pound steel drivers to ram the “T-poles” into the (thankfully) soft grass-covered earth. We all took turns with the drivers. They really eat your lunch.

I had trouble with the plastic ties at first. I kept putting them on backwards, don’t know why. But I finally self-corrected.

We started off slowly. The first site on 90A near the Rosenburg-Richmond boundary took a long time. I multiplied the time it took us to put that one together and figured we would be out all day. But it got better as time went on: we molded ourselves into an well-oiled efficient machine, anticipating each other’s moves. The work went very quickly after awhile.

At one point Muse came by with the Muse Camera and snapped a few shots of us putting up the “Had Enough? Vote Democratic . . . for a change” sign, and the combined campaign sign for Veronica, Neeta, Rudy and Albert. They were put up on land owned by a Democrat-owned fast food place. One of the photos is on the right. If you look very closely in the background you can clearly see another sign on the white building announcing the offices of Gillen Pest Control. Yes, that’s Gary Gillen’s place. Gary Gillen, as you know, is Fort Bend County Republican Party Chairman.

So you could say that these signs are in a prime location . . . as it were.

Juanita tells me that these prime location signs will have a special place in her “Adopt-A-Sign” Campaign. Go here and see if you can be there first to adopt them. They’re bound to go fast.

By the way, the word is that the “Adopt-a-Sign” Campaign has been a huge success. People are calling in from all over the country to get their names or their high schools and mascots written on the signs.

So now I sit here in the comfort of my air-conditioned blog portal, and am slowly rehydrating, although I have a long way yet to go. I got a cramp in my left index finger a few minutes ago.

Need more electrolytes.

And yes, I’d do it again. It’s not as fun as block walking but you do get this weird sense of satisfaction when you drive by one of the sites that you helped to create.