PEOPLE THINK if you write something on a sign, that others will heed it. If that were really true all the time, the police would never need to issue a ticket, everyone would soon be sold out of all the goods and raffles that they are pitching, the post office wouldn’t have to worry if we were mailing something dangerous, workers would know all the state and federal regulations that govern employment as listed on those gigantic posters hung in the coffee room. We would all know what time each building opens and closes.

If we read every sign, we might all be healthy, wealthy and wise. And never in violation of anything. Of course, we might also be overloaded, distracted and even cross-eyed. It is our suspicion that we simply cannot read every sign.

Some signs are ones we don’t read or care about unless we’re actually looking for them, such as street names, restaurant offerings or business hours.

These signs are hanging around town, all observed on one single morning: “This dumpster closed…. Building for Sale or Lease (several such signs)…. Planet Aid: clothes, shoes…. Turn your change into cash…. Vine Street Northfield Schools…. Norwich University America’s First Private Military College….”

This request was stuck on a car bumper: “honk if it falls off.”

There are scads of “NO” signs: no smoking, no parking, no entry, no exit, no dumping. No, no, no! Or all the street signs that tell us how to proceed

Yield, for instance) and at what speed. Many are ones that we may take for granted. We barely read them because the words form a picture in the mind--we know what they say, close enough.

We did not notice any signs that read: Yes or Please or Thank You. Some signs are nice: “OPEN” or “Free Supper Friday Night” or “All are welcome”.

Our favorite sign, stuck in a box of books, there for all to read, right on the Common:

Free, though you could leave a donation in the yogurt container.”

At the edge of the Dog, near the Laundorama on Water Street, there is an invitation carved into one of the granite blocks that holds the river in place: At Rest.

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Here’s an icon you all should have memorized by now: commontalk@ trans-video.net. We hope you heed it.