Postcards from the edge

GE 3way in front of the Union church in Greenville, Maine

Possibly a Darley two color in Seattle, Washington

AGA ‘dummy’ light in Baldwin, New York (Long Island)

Crouse Hinds 4way in Colombia, Mississippi

Eventually everything good gets cancelled like a Netflix Marvel series

The American postcard.
Twitter 100 years before Twitter.
Some guy sitting at a laptop

A lifetime ago I began in collecting signals in earnest. If I was sharp and cruised the local antique places, I would pluck a gem from the wreckage of hoarding. If I surfed the web frequently I could score a bargain and usher in the sweet release of dopamine.

Image result for nestle chocolate chip cookie dough — A tube of this has the same effect.

Yet as I collected, I realized financially, even at bargain prices, I wasn’t going to be a heavy hitter. While my sights were set on great signals like the Ruleta…

Or the Crouse Hinds type D or DT…

I wasn’t going to be able to swing buying them. Not a chance. Nope. No way. I couldn’t afford that much no matter how much I’d wished I could.

Ok so I did buy a few here and there, but so many were planned as Christmas presents, birthday presents, fathers day presents (the occasional arbor day). But when I wasn’t collecting the parts and pieces or whole signals I would find another way to ‘scratch the itch’ as they say.

I could score a bargain and usher in the sweet release of dopamine.

The correct term for it is memorabilia or more appropriately ephemera. It’s a large pile of paper. Ads, postcards, press photos, etc. For a couple bucks the itch was scratched and I was able to enjoy seeing signals in service or in the case of ads the theoretical application and the expected use.

And because of the obviously strong connection to automobiles and travel I would get some great slices of Americana and the way life once was.

plus some really cool accident shots

Every photo or postcard became a window into yesterday. The details of small town USA, unaffected by big box stores. Big urban cities at their peak, thriving in a mix of productive manufacturing, vibrant retail and robust business laid out in crisp black and white or saturated colors.

Moreover, the grand experiment of the traffic light, these ubiquitous sentries of traffic would appear to evolve in both shape and function; two color or three color, semaphores, color position and overlapping sequences. Viewing photos and postcards from different era’s, one could see that as the need for stronger indications came about so to would innovation and eventually standardization.

In present day, traffic lights no longer appear in post cards and only as an incidental occurrence in the press unless they are the story but now, the traffic light is no longer unique and only a fascination when they malfunction. Their ubiquity has fostered a sense of dispassion and too often a careless disregard for the task it serves.

Even recent innovations such as flashing yellow arrow (FYA) or high-intensity activated crosswalk (HAWK) have not been as impactful as say, the transformation from the Acme Semaphore to the three color Econolites.

Purportedly the last Acme being removed after installation of new Econolite three color heads. Date and photo credit unknown.

Yet they have provoked discussion both pro and con amongst forums and associations, It would appear that both of these new styles are here to stay and while you probably won’t see them on the front page of the major dailies, you might find it in the local section or in the news at six. Perhaps someone might send you a post card .