Monday, September 1, 2008

Mixed signals

Earlier this evening on my way to the hose, I came across this odd sign.

Excuse me for coming off as an Anglocentric knucklehead, but is this the international symbol for "no children allowed?"  Traditionally that message has been depicted by a bar across two children running. What's up with the circle around the kid's head?  If this child is an angel who lets a parent hold his/her hand, then what is the problem?

Perhaps these gardeners have had issues with toddlers not respecting plot boundaries while their parents have their backs turned.  I have seen that happen but not too often.  I'm just curious to know if any youngsters who are too young to read have encountered this sign and successfully interpreted it.

2 comments:

Jim said...

I can understand how this can be misinterpreted. Your first problem is assuming that it is a parent with a child. For those of us "in the know," it is clearly a baseball catcher (the circle around the head is a catcher's helmet) trying to guide a blind giant. Neither one of them has eyes, so this could be a disaster for a small garden. I'm sure if you look closer you will see beanstalks in the plot nearest the sign.

I hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sally! It was nice meeting you and glad to know my passive aggressive attempt at keeping kids out of my garden made its way into your blog. There are a few things you should know about the sign to help you understand it... one is that I was drinking when I made it, so please excuse its poor craft! I was complaining to some friends about how much damage youngsters were doing to my garden while we were sitting around one evening and the sign was born. The second is that the adult was simply added for scale. Lastly, the kid's not depicted as an angel but as wearing a baseball cap. Of course, it was passive aggressive because the sign wasn't intended for kids but for adults who seem to mistake any fenced-in area as a great place to let their kids roam free. I'm not sure if it actually worked since I moved the at risk plants away from the path around the same time.

-Jordan