- Joined
- May 11, 2010
- Messages
- 20,703
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
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Snorting his way across the USA
Okay so my standard burger ride has me heading north from an older neighborhood into a huge, recently being overly developed urban sprawl residential area. In other words, California's rice fields now growing entitled yuppy offspring, and not at a large yield given the land mass involved.
Well that's here nor there. I like going there because they have nice wide lanes with bike paths, a few nice fast food options with Burger Girls, and the hood is not sketch. As you might imagine, when you build huge masses of tract homes, you have to sell them. Enter the sign girls.
A sign girl's job is fairly straightforward. Stand at a street corner in the vicinity of a new residential development still under construction, wave a sign, and dance around and wiggle your little bottom as oncoming traffic is passing by. Well in my case a bike, and every time I pass, she senses my intense animal magnetism and becomes horrified and feigns a phone call so she doesn't have to make eye to eye contact with me. But that's not the point. That is sign girl #1. Despite our personal differences, I respect that she is doing a good job, and has a good work ethic.
Now a little bit about sign girls that I've learned. They aren't hired by the developers, at least not directly. They are hired by companies such as Pride Industries that excels in placing otherwise unemployable individuals in productive environments such as janitorial services, usually in places other than in schools and day care facilities. I think you see where I am going with this. Let's back up to three or four years ago. There was a sign girl along the route that I would regularly engage in conversation with during intersection stops. She seemed slightly hardened, called me 'sir' and spoke with formalities. I actually had her pegged as ex military. In fact I asked her. Her response was, 'no, I just know how to respect people.' No, she didn't learn these things in the military. She learned those things in 'the system.' She was a product of 'the system.' And as such, pretty much didn't have too many other job opportunities. Exactly what her issues were I don't know. Drugs possibly but she wasn't so far gone she had sunken eyes, missing teeth and track marks. Maybe prostitution but she didn't have the demeanor of a very good ho. As in successful. I'm guessing probably more likely violence. But who knows, I may be overanalyzing things.
Okay that's the backdrop. So we know that sign girls are either 1) former criminals, or 2) developmentally disabled. Since they are placed in autonomous positions, the former is generally the case. So let's talk about sign girl #2.
Sign girl #2 has a post on a fairly new intersection in a remote part of the road separating the right side of the tracks from the wrong side of the tracks by a good stretch of open space. It's open space for now, anyway. She has... the worst work ethic I had ever seen. I would hate for her to be in my employ. For starters, she stands there like a tree stump. And sometimes she has the sign propped up horizontally, but most times she's just leaning on it. And the kicker, she's facing the wrong way! Yeah. passing traffic going south couldn't possibly read the sign. Hell, last weekend she spent the afternoon on a chair under a tree fifty feet from the intersection.
I mean I sort of get the logic. If the traffic is going south, they probably already live in the new area and they likely aren't shopping for a house. But the northbound traffic can't really see her either, and how would they notice, she acts like a telephone pole. C'mon, girl, have half a brain. I get it that you don't want to cross the road - it's a T intersection and you have no shade or sidewalk protection. I get it. At least TRY to get the attention of the southbound traffic. SG1 does it. I mean, I know that calling out a 'person of the sign' is a bit nitpicky, but it's just one of those recurring sights that gets one thinking.
Well that's here nor there. I like going there because they have nice wide lanes with bike paths, a few nice fast food options with Burger Girls, and the hood is not sketch. As you might imagine, when you build huge masses of tract homes, you have to sell them. Enter the sign girls.
A sign girl's job is fairly straightforward. Stand at a street corner in the vicinity of a new residential development still under construction, wave a sign, and dance around and wiggle your little bottom as oncoming traffic is passing by. Well in my case a bike, and every time I pass, she senses my intense animal magnetism and becomes horrified and feigns a phone call so she doesn't have to make eye to eye contact with me. But that's not the point. That is sign girl #1. Despite our personal differences, I respect that she is doing a good job, and has a good work ethic.
Now a little bit about sign girls that I've learned. They aren't hired by the developers, at least not directly. They are hired by companies such as Pride Industries that excels in placing otherwise unemployable individuals in productive environments such as janitorial services, usually in places other than in schools and day care facilities. I think you see where I am going with this. Let's back up to three or four years ago. There was a sign girl along the route that I would regularly engage in conversation with during intersection stops. She seemed slightly hardened, called me 'sir' and spoke with formalities. I actually had her pegged as ex military. In fact I asked her. Her response was, 'no, I just know how to respect people.' No, she didn't learn these things in the military. She learned those things in 'the system.' She was a product of 'the system.' And as such, pretty much didn't have too many other job opportunities. Exactly what her issues were I don't know. Drugs possibly but she wasn't so far gone she had sunken eyes, missing teeth and track marks. Maybe prostitution but she didn't have the demeanor of a very good ho. As in successful. I'm guessing probably more likely violence. But who knows, I may be overanalyzing things.
Okay that's the backdrop. So we know that sign girls are either 1) former criminals, or 2) developmentally disabled. Since they are placed in autonomous positions, the former is generally the case. So let's talk about sign girl #2.
Sign girl #2 has a post on a fairly new intersection in a remote part of the road separating the right side of the tracks from the wrong side of the tracks by a good stretch of open space. It's open space for now, anyway. She has... the worst work ethic I had ever seen. I would hate for her to be in my employ. For starters, she stands there like a tree stump. And sometimes she has the sign propped up horizontally, but most times she's just leaning on it. And the kicker, she's facing the wrong way! Yeah. passing traffic going south couldn't possibly read the sign. Hell, last weekend she spent the afternoon on a chair under a tree fifty feet from the intersection.
I mean I sort of get the logic. If the traffic is going south, they probably already live in the new area and they likely aren't shopping for a house. But the northbound traffic can't really see her either, and how would they notice, she acts like a telephone pole. C'mon, girl, have half a brain. I get it that you don't want to cross the road - it's a T intersection and you have no shade or sidewalk protection. I get it. At least TRY to get the attention of the southbound traffic. SG1 does it. I mean, I know that calling out a 'person of the sign' is a bit nitpicky, but it's just one of those recurring sights that gets one thinking.
