Ask Vance Blog

Awhile back, I wrote about "sidewalk signatures" — those names pressed into sidewalks years ago by the contractors, who were so pleased with their work that they actually signed it. If you don't remember my original column, then that's really a shame, but go here and try to pay more attention this time.

These names were impressed into the wet cement with a mold or a stamp and have survived for decades, so it was a pretty good system.

But today I was stumbling around in Central Gardens (please don't ask why), and happened to glance down at my feet as I moseyed along, and I noticed an entirely new — and considerably fancier — form of these signatures. As you can see, they are fancy embossed markers, cemented into place at various locations along Central Avenue. I really like the design of these things. "Miller Maker Memphis" is an especially fine one, with its triple use of a large "M." And I'm sort of intrigued by the interlocking "paperclip" design of "Koehler Brothers & Franklin." I assume that Franklin joined the Koehler Brothers in the concrete company and was determined to get proper (and equal) credit for the sidewalks they poured around town.

My only complaint — why didn't everyone DATE these things? I guess it would have been expensive to create a new plaque every year, but still ...