Letter-board sign monkey mischief

Posted by TDD on 21. January 2008 - 1:05

When I was a kid, it was fun to change the letter-board signs that were in front of stores to promote something. The idea was to rearrange the letters on the letter-board sign to come up with something funny. Well, funny to the person who did the rearranging, at least.

Back then, it was pretty easy to do until they put the locked cage screen over the letter-board sign to prevent sign mischief; but in recent years, a new kind of advertising sign appeared.

I am adult now, but my letter-board sign mischief monkey is still my friend, and one day, a few years ago, my monkey and me decided to relive old times.

I came across a sign that my monkey just kept encouraging me to change. I gave in. One early morning, I left with a screwdriver, a digital camera, my monkey, and a childish sense of giggling excitement.

The sign read:

Giant Tiger
Chocolate Bars
Selected
Variety
39¢

We changed that.

I was a little embarrassed at my behavior, but my monkey was grinning at me, and that made me smile. As we walked home, I told my monkey that was the last time; and my letter-board sign mischief monkey only grinned a little wider.

Submitted by Allan1 on 26. March 2008 - 14:59.

Reminds me of a re-write of the Chicago song "Wishing You Were Here". Just changing 1 letter in 1 word in 1 key line in the song changes the entire meaning of the song.

Instead of "... and I'd like to change my life, and you know I would, just to be with you tonight baby, if I could..",

we*** made it "... and I'd like to change my Wife, and you know I would, just to be with you tonight baby, if I could.."

[*** ==> I can't take sole credit for this, as a few of us were trying to change songs' meanings with the fewest changes one day. This was the winner.]

Submitted by adlib on 26. March 2008 - 11:38.

Now I have to go mess with some signs. You've awoken the monkey in all of us.

Submitted by TDD on 24. January 2008 - 2:29.

Ha! That's the beauty of sign changing: you only have to change one or two letters and the sign completely changes. I think that was so much part of the fun about it.

I wasn't great at it, but others could sometimes look at a sign, and in an instant have the letters re-arranged in their head to ready to create something that would almost stop traffic. There was a sign that got hit in front of a fast food place - I don't recall the name - and the only thing I can remember about the sign now was it ended with "... and get a free pound of shit"

We had the rule that we wouldn't permanently remove letters, just re-arrange them. That made it harder, but I guess we had some kind of morals and standards; or we just didn't want to get nailed for stealing the letters off the sign too! ;)

It makes me wonder what the members of the old gang are doing for a living now. If anyone here knows what my nickname was back then I might just have found out. ;)

"Happiness is overrated."

Submitted by tod.brody on 23. January 2008 - 8:29.

When was a senior in high school, in the city where I grew up, someone took out the first two letters on the neon sign atop the ESSEX HOUSE on Central Park South. That caused all sorts of commotion in NYC in 1974.

Submitted by TDD on 23. January 2008 - 2:16.

The sign was changed to an all new sign the next day. I am uncertain if I had anything to do with that. Maybe they couldn't meet the demand for the 39 cent chocolate bras. ;)

No, I didn't spank the monkey. :P

It was silly, but it was fun. It was strange doing this as an adult, as the few people who happened to come across me working on the sign never paid me any notice. Quite the change from when I was messing with letter-board signs as a kid!

It was also done in the city I grew up in, so there were a lot of memories that flooded back to me as I recalled my childhood sign changing days during the few months I was living there again. Perhaps this is what made me want to do it again, but I did it for the last time; maybe. ;)

"Happiness is overrated."

Submitted by tod.brody on 22. January 2008 - 9:45.

This really cries out for me to ask if you spanked the monkey! :-)

Submitted by dabitch on 22. January 2008 - 8:41.

Hahahaha.. I wonder how many went in there to get a 39 cent chocolate bra!

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