At Bay and Vernon, Not So Long Ago
We discovered it was gone yesterday afternoon. Nyel noticed it first – if you can be said to notice something that’s not there. No flashing red light on the Bay & Vernon intersection in Ocean Park. We weren’t sure when it went missing, having been away for all of the previous week.
Later, I mentioned it to a group of people at Adelaide’s where Colleen was having a ‘do.’ “Oh, yes!” said one woman. “That’s been gone for a couple of months now.”
“Really?” said her friend. “It’s gone? The one at Jack’s corner? I go by there almost every day. I can’t believe I haven’t noticed.”
Now, An All Way Stop
I’m not sure the “couple of months” is correct, but the whole situation clearly shows that the flashing light was superfluous to our lives – at least traffic-wise. We automatically stop there and if there is a car stopped on the street to our right, we let them go first. What good did that flashing light do, anyway? Now it’s replaced by four stop signs that say “ALL WAY” just in case you can’t figure it out for yourself.
The biggest use the flashing light ever got (besides being a measure of IQ) was as a landmark to visitors coming north from Long Beach. As in, “Travel north on the highway until you come to the flashing red light; then turn right” (or “left,” or “continue on,” as the case might be). I hope replacement isn’t in the plan. I think that “at the four-way stop by Jack’s” should work just fine.
Gone! July 29, 2917 at Bay and Vernon, Ocean Park
As for IQ points – there was a saying (still viable, according to some) begun in the days when Ocean Park and Long Beach schools were serious rivals – back in the day when they were both K-8 schools. Long Beach kids razzed Ocean Parkies by saying that you lose ten IQ points every time you go north through the light. (Actually, in those days it might have been a stop sign…) Ocean Park’s answer, of course was – “We go north on the back road so it’s not a problem.” And sometimes they added, “And besides, every time we flush, Long Beach gets another drink of water.”
Small towns! You gotta love ‘em! Especially our small towns here at the beach!
I am so old, I can remember when there were no traffic lights save the blinking one in Seaview.
Me too!
The ones that really get to me are the ones in Long Beach at Pacific and Bolstad. They become blinking lights when there is heavy traffic — like during the Kite Festival. What’s with that? They should go back to a four-way stop there, too.