Signage for Brooklyn
I notice many Nova Scotia communities have these blue place name signs by the side of the road, usually with some cutesy little motto or syrupy aphorism to lure the tourists into stopping. You know the sort of thing: Middleton’s “Heart of the Valley”, or Mahone Bay’s “A Treasure Since 1754.”
I’m thinking our own little Brooklyn should have something along those lines, but I don’t really like “cutesy.” I think it should be something a little more truly representative of our circumstances, culture, and recent history. Sadly, the last includes ongoing fights about unwanted, inappropriate, and obviously destructive commercial developments.
So here’s a few suggestions to get the ball rolling. I suspect the Departments of Tourism or Transportation and Infrastructure, or whoever else decides such things, will prefer to come up with their own, but I bet they won’t be as pithy.
How about “Brooklyn - Don’t Mind The Road; It’s Due For Paving In 2048” or “Brooklyn - It’s OK; That’s Just The Mink Mill You Smell” or perhaps “Brooklyn - The Gall Bladder of The Valley” (well, Middleton claims to be the Heart, so the only good organ is already taken). Then there’s “Brooklyn - Come Clearcut Our Forests - It’s the Nova Scotia Way” (this deserves a lot more letters to the editor just by itself). And then there’s “Brooklyn - We Think There’s Something in The Water,” “Brooklyn - We Dont Need No Skool,” the slightly ominous (but true) “Brooklyn - Armed and Ready,” “Brooklyn - Struggling Towards Secession,” and my personal favourite “Brooklyn - Resisting Bad Governance Since 2009.”
Personally, I live for the day when we can have one that says “Now Entering Brooklyn - All Vehicles Stop For Border Inspection,” but maybe I’m a little hardline.
But don’t get the wrong idea - this is a great little community to live in or to move to - but, like any other small rural location in Nova Scotia, preserving a clean and safe environment, with healthy forests and waterways, is an ongoing struggle in the face of this province’s (and particularly Annapolis County’s) nearly non-existent, archaic and utterly inadequate land use and forestry regulations and environmental safeguards. The message here is: If you want to have a nice home anywhere in rural Nova Scotia, and keep your property value, you’d better be prepared to fight for it. And keep fighting. You never know who’s going to buy the property next door and try to toxify it one way or another. And, trust me, the government’s not here to help you.
Residents of Brooklyn who may disagree with my signage suggestions or (somewhat) unorthodox opinions in general, are, of course, welcome to come up with their own ideas. In other words, “Brooklyn - OK, You Think of Something.”
Frank Thomas Brooklyn, Annapolis County