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08/21/2004: "OF PINK MAILBOX PIGS AND HISTORY AS FENCE MATERIAL..."

"Everything not expressly forbidden is mandatory!" would be an appropriate addition to this vacant lot sign in Prescott, Az. I pass it on my morning walk or bike ride and keep meaning to look up where I read that phrase; probably one of those dreary future society novels I once read. It speaks volumes about the author's view of life and our times just as if it had been a series of paintings or an "installation". The aging material and added types of warnings suggest a long standing anxiety over transients possibly setting up camp, people dumping trash or stealing the ground itself. The use of printed warnings tells us of a person in late middle to old age since it's been at least a generation since anyone paid any attention to signs of any kind other than tall fences with razor wire and large dogs. When I see this sign I think of the painting, "The Scream". CLICK ON ANY IMAGE BELOW FOR A LARGER VIEW
How can you not like a mail box fahioned like a pink pig and all the while saying a silent prayer that they don't catch on like the "Hula-Hoop" once did. The smaller older one above on the left is just up the street from the larger newer version shown above on the right. Well, offspring often turn out larger than their parents, no? It may not be apparent in the photos but the ears, snout and feet are made from food cans. I admit to smiling when I pass them in the morning and have never had either suggest anything but a nice feeling that people can still laugh and take the time to share it with others ... a worthwhile thought to have at the start of a day... I don't get nearly as many as I'd like.
My walk often takes me down an alley in back of stores where deliveries are made and the trash containers live. The photo above on the left shows a property line fence made out of sheets of metal used once to print a 1964 edition of our local newspaper "The Prescott Courier". Without going into the details; what was once the offset printing process involved making these sheets with areas etched with acid where the printing ink would adhere later to be deposited on the paper. Surprisingly, being outdoors, the printing shown in the closer view in the photo above on the right is still clear and readable after 40 years! I have tended to share the interpretation of history of Ambrose Bierce, "History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools." Here at least is one example of where history is instead serving well as a fence building material and judging from the look of it, for a long time.
The photo on the left is of then US President, Lyndon Johnson. This was only a year after the murder of JFK and the nightmare of Viet Nam was yet to fully develop. The food prices shown in the ad in the photo on the right are roughly a fourth to a tenth of today's so you can compare them in your own country's currency. Oddly enough the prices on the washers are not that far from today's or at least not so wildly lower than current prices. I think those machines were probably made here in the US by US workers while today's are all imported like so many other goods. There is even a small item low to the ground which was too muddy to photograph about Maria Oswald testifying before some committee in Washington. For you younger folk she was the widow of JFK's alleged murderer Lee Harvey Oswald. This particular year, 1964 has a lot of personal signifigance for me. It was a time frame of huge change that has been written about and documented ad nauseum. In a way this fence is sort of like the other "wall" memorial in Washington. At least that's what I feel. It's setting is just seedy enough to denote the nature of the decline whose beginnings it marks; the unraveling of our national culture that began with JFK's death. Yes, it too reminds me of that painting, "The Scream".