Friday, March 29, 2024
37.0°F

Journalist digs deep for sign's story

| March 22, 2018 1:00 AM

Work as a journalist for years, and you see things.

Millions.

And sometimes, what you notice is strange or unique — not in the manner of “real news,” but more like …

“Am I imagining this, or have I spotted something truly curious?”

Well, recently it’s involved an item that you see pretty much every day: a sign that states some store or establishment is open.

In my case, the key was Mexican food; specifically Toro Viejo on Lakeside, where I often have lunch with the boss, Mike Patrick.

You can understand why I might subconsciously carry a mental picture of Toro’s twinkling “Open” sign in my head.

Thus, I did a double-take when I saw that identical sign in a completely different part of the county. This one was at Moondollars, the restaurant located in the golf clubhouse at Twin Lakes Village.

But then I started seeing that same sign at businesses all over the county. Like, everywhere.

The obvious conclusion was that some local or regional company had a truly super salesman, someone who was peddling these signs at a remarkable rate — after convincing business owners that they were just perfect.

They’re not exactly spectacular, but more like catchy — displaying the word “OPEN” with red bulbs, surrounded by tiny blue bulbs in an oval shape.

At any rate, I made it a reporting mission to find out who was manufacturing these signs and, more critically …

What wizard was out selling them to everybody?

I was almost sure this had to be someone local, because I’ve lived in several places across the country and never noticed these particular signs.

Certainly not on every other block.

THE ONLY reasonable plan was to start asking salespeople and managers in various places who sold them an “Open” sign.

Of course, that strategy has a flaw. When you just walk into a store, it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll immediately stumble across the owner.

And I didn’t.

But eventually, I got some help.

Judy Brooks, the longtime office manager at Twin Lakes Village, listened to my tale (as though hearing the story of a crazy man) and volunteered to speak with the owners of Moondollars.

Judy double-checked: “You just want to know who sold them an ‘Open’ sign? That’s all?”

Yes, please.

There was another problem, though, because Moondollars caters mostly to golfers and summer folk at TLV — so it was closed except for a few special events.

But the next time I saw Judy, she had an answer.

“They think they bought the sign at Target,” Judy said. “I guess you can find them at a lot of large places like that.”

Oh.

Months of dogged reporting and shooting photos, all to discover the damn sign was an everyday retail item.

The lesson: Sometimes you don’t find exactly what you were seeking on journeys of discovery.

Sometimes you just wind up at Target.

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com.

Facebook: BrandNewDayCDAPress.

Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA