Roadsigns

Yesterday we drove across northern Wisconsin, from Marinette to Hudson. Charlie noted that the scenery along the road could put you almost anywhere in the US. (Except maybe in the dry western states like New Mexico or Utah) I thought about that and previous discussions we had had about rural america being pretty similar, no matter the state. (Charlie and I have lived in Georgia, California, Colorado and Minnesota. I also have lived in Wisconsin).
But what makes rural Wisconsin more "comfortable" to me than rural Georgia? I have a theory.

Road signs. Yep. Road signs.

Here's what I am used to road signs looking like in Wisconsin:

The county roads are named letters of the alphabet. We even saw a highway MMM yesterday. The county roads are labelled with a plain white rectangular sign, with rounded corners. Not every state has county roads labelled like this. Minnesota? Blue shields. With numbers.
The state highways in Wisconsin are labelled with numbers. With a white sign. With a shield type shape. I didn't get a good picture of one of these, but on this overhead sign with the ubiquitous Interstate Shield (I-94) and US Highway Shield (US-12), is a sign for a Wisconsin state highway (Wisconsin- 29). Michigan state highways were M-35 (or whatever the number) on a diamond. Minnesota state highways? Rectangles, I think. With a gold bar at the top that says Minnesota on it. And a blue field below with the number.



I know that smell is a strong sense, and can really make us feel at home, or like fish out of water. But for me, I think roadsigns and highway signs are also significant. I grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin, and my mom's family was 3-1/2 to 4 hours away in West Salem (near LaCrosse). We would make that trip at least once a month when I was young. We would take US Highway 14 from Madison to LaCrosse (I think). We would go by A&W rootbeer stands (another strong memory for me), farm implement and machinery dealerships, country churches surrounded by old cemeteries. The road was mostly 2 lane, so another strong memory invoked this weekend was the sound of the car kicking into overdrive when you passed a slow moving vehicle (often a farm truck). Sometimes passing was kind of scary (at least to a young kid sitting in the back seat). Other memories are wide open windows (no AC in cars, and who even KNEW about gas mileage?) and the lap belts like on airplanes. (Of course, we didn't wear them. And there certainly were no car seats for kids).

Minnesota road signs also evoke memories. We used to drive highway 14 from West Salem to Winona to Rochester 5-6 times a year (my father's parents lived in Pine Island, near Rochester). Signs changing from white to blue meant we were closer to Grandmas. (The big corn in Rochester meant you were really almost there!)The ride from West Salem to Pine Island was 3-1/2 hours back then.

Now you can zoom from Beloit to West Salem in just under 3 hours on I-90. And in another 2+ hours, you are in Pine Island. No A&W rootbeer stands on the roads. No need to kick it into overdrive to pass a slow moving vehicle. No drive along the river from LaCrosse to Winona. No big corn water tower. No open windows.

I enjoyed my time this past week on rural roads. We even had windows open for awhile. It just seemed right. I do like the fact that it is Interstate all the way from our house here to my Mom's house in Beloit. Only the first three blocks and the last 3 miles are off the interstate. Much safer. Much quicker. But I enjoyed my nostalgic drive this past week.

Here's some farm sights that remind me of my childhood.



Your challenge for the week? (should you need a challenge?) Recall the roadsigns of your youth. Scrap them. Or write about them. Or use them as an inspiration for a page layout or poem. I had a great time remembering mine...the memories were as near as a drive across the open roads of Wisconsin.