10:50 a.m. - 2005-01-15
Advertise Here

Sites, Sounds and Passing Thoughts

During my lunch time, I have been driving around getting acquainted with the area I work in. I was driving down North Avenue in an unincorporated section, meaning that it belongs to no town but is located in a townless part of DuPage county and therefore not subject to the countless rules and regulations of living IN a town, and I saw a small white, Cape Cod style house that appeared to be a 1940 or early 1950's architechtural style. In the front yard was a sheet of white painted plywood hung on two 4 x 4's sunk into the ground and it resembled a bill board. Painted on the white surface of the plywood were the words: "Advertise Here".

I realized that it was a home made bill board. If I hadn't have been going by so fast without a pen and paper in hand, I would have written down the phone number just to inquire how much money this townless homeowner would charge to allow me to paint my sign on his billboard. Going through my pea brain was the thought that maybe I should look for a home in an unincorporated area on a busy street and put up my own home made bill board as an additional source of income. Would that make me somewhat of a hillbilly?

In my desire to have a parcel of land for which to grow a proper heirloom vegetable garden, I am open to any suggestions to help make that reality, even if it means living with a billboard in my front yard.

There would be other advantages to having a bill board in my yard. If someone who had never been to my home before wanted to come over, I could tell them to drive East or West on such and such street, until they pass Whatnot Avenue and then look for the billboard that advertises "Bud's Auto Body" or who ever my advertiser would be.

I could incorporate the billboard into my heirloom veggie garden and run pole beans up the 4 x 4's. I could then erect a little hut and sell the product of my little garden on the weekend, enriching myself even more and drawing more attention to the bill board for which I could rent for even more money because people who stop to buy my veggies would get an even better look at the advertiser's message.

Does this make me a hillbilly?

If the property were big enough, I could put a trailer out in the yard on blocks and rent it out as a bed and breakfast...cheap. I could even go farther and paint the side of the trailer white with lettering advertising to business owners to "Advertise here", you know...in the same spirit as the old "Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco" signs that used to be on the sloped roofs of barns along America's highways.

I saw a city bus yesterday painted bright red with Mc Donaldland slogans and characters all over it. Seems like they allow bus companies to whore out their rolling stock as a rolling billboards, the county certainly should have no problem with me painting the side of my trailer.

Does this make me white trash????

Some people have fantasys about living in splendor. Me....I just fantasize about ways to make a living without having to get out of bed in the morning.

What do you think?

ADDENDUM: spritopias says that I would not be a Hillbilly as I am not Appalachian. Selling advertising on my trailer would make me a Redneck.

P. I. Yarnsmith

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