Judge — June 1935 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

| | Truck Tale By George A. Paravicini N ROUGH approximation, | average two hours per diem of my driving time on the road behind trucks. The back of a truck is as familiar to me as the front of my vest; and like section 7-A apparently nothing is being done about it The point I want to make is that in this age of keen com- petition something could be done about it. Any up and coming advertising man should have realized long before this the possibilities here for billboard spz To potential advertisers wondering whether to go on the air or stay in magazines, or both, I say, do neither, Get on the backs of trucks ! I have read all the signs on truck backs for years, have speculated upon them: philosophized even. The most elegant of the more literary slogans are these two: “J have been instructed to let you pass” and ‘ Z Courtesy of the Road Is Yours.” They are almost lyric, of clegiac persuasion. Then there is the genial if blunt “Pass on Left,” with an arrow to indicate the procedure. A variety of this is “Pass on Left with Horn.” 1 have several dear departed friends who, heeding this, have passed on, with harps. “I Stop at R.R. Crossings” seems a friendly sort of con- fidence. Sort of an ice-breaker, leading on to a “Where you stopping?” with delightful conversational possibilities, and there is a downright heartiness in the bluff, “B. and Go.” Refreshingly simple and direct in an age of equivoca- tion and evasion, But the prince of truck-back salutations is the wistful, “/ Signal—You Signal, Too.” There is in it all the emotional peal of ships passing in the night, of two hearts in waltz time, In fancy I can see the driver staring ahead, his eyes “This is station WAM signing off because of financial difficulties— Take it away, sheriff.” “Hi, Mr. Gimmelman! What on earth happened to you?” filmy with reminiscence, wondering, perhaps, where all the old familiar faces are. Well may he wonder this, for in his. time he must have run over plenty of them. And so, gentlemen with products to advertise, I give you the backs of trucks. I should appreciate a few hosiery ads; [ shouldn't mind lingering behind lingerie. But I do say that Lama bit fed up on learning that the road is mine; and what sweet and swift surrender one blast of my horn will effect... Gabriel, blow your horn! Situation NOTHER trouble with giving a sucker an even break is that after a while he begins to bring his friends around. Then there's the Scot who learned the Braille sys- tem so he could read in the dark. These days a June bride doesn't know what to do with her cookbook any more than a June graduate knows what to do with his diploma. And an architect’s error today is a breakfast nook tomorrow. 9 comicbooks.com