Snark: Season Two!

I have resumed my writing duties over at The Snark, so be sure to check out today's entry! At least somebody is doing some writing out there!

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Also, check out this letter I received last week from new friend of CCS Darcy Plymire:

I don't have a new church sign to share with you, but looking at your list of most-often submitted signs, I could not help but remember the first time I saw such a sign. It was April or May of 1969 and my family had just moved to the little town of Linville, NC. It was our first time living in the South, and we were completely unaccustomed to southern ways. So, imagine our delight when we came across a roadside church sign, in the little hamlet of Foscoe, NC, (a place that does not show up on maps but rests along NC 105 between Boone and Linville). The message was simple, and quite familiar, now. Yup, you guessed it, "What's missing in CH_____CH? UR."

I am writing not just to share that nostalgic moment but to suggest that an cultural history of church signs might be interesting. Has anyone else shared with you early memories of such signs? I would love to know where and when the tradition began. I am guessing it originated in the South, because my first memories are of the sign in Foscoe. However, I could also construct a persuasive hypothesis that he signs derived from a more generalized rural culture, spanning north and south as well as west. For anyone who has lived in Southern California, for instance, there is something vaguely "Hollywood" about the practice, immersed, as it is in grass roots promotional culture.

So, readers, what do you say? Do we have it in us to share our first/earliest Crummy Church Sign stories. Perhaps with our combined efforts we can triangulate exactly where and when this phenomenon started.

Feel free to post your responses in the comments below, or send me an email.

More crumminess tomorrow!