We live in a little subdivision called “Dunbarton Oaks” that is one of the first ones built in Aiken when the bomb plant went in down the road in the mid-fifties. I’m not sure if the sign has been there since then, but it was there when we moved in in 1989.
About 5 or 6 years ago the sign disappeared. Pranksters, college initiation, giant oak leaf haters, no one knows, but Police Chief Clancy Wiggum was stumped. After a month or so when it was apparent the sign would not return, the neighborhood took up a collection to buy a new one. The original sign was painted brown with white lettering, but when we got the new one, the lady with the nicest yard for miles and resident subdivision entrance-way gardener painted the leaf green with cream lettering.
About a year ago, sometime after the bars closed, a drunk ran the stop sign on the other side of the intersection and plowed into the sign, smashing it into little pieces. There were no skid marks, but the little dip at the edge of the road in front of the sign was scraped pretty good from the bumper or whatever. The residents of the two houses at the corner heard nothing. Police Sergeant Lou is baffled as to who the perpetrator might be. A friend of a friend of the gardener lady fixes the sign and it is hung back up after a couple weeks.
About a month and a half ago, poof, the sign is gone again. Stolen. Police Officer Eddie has no leads or suspects. For a while there it looks like this is the straw that breaks the gardener lady’s back. When we ask about the sign she just says, “Thieves and drunks can get away with anything.” A couple weeks later when we ask if she is going to take up donations for a new sign, she tells us that a retired gentleman in the neighborhood is going to make a replacement and wants no money. Yesterday afternoon when we turned onto Boardman Road on the way home from work, the new sign is there.
Tonight when I went rollerblading I took my camera. No telling how long this on is going to last…