Wednesday 30 November 2022

One Old AA/RAC Road Sign That's Had A Tough Life! ("Any old iron?")

 "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"




So the saying goes.  Well I bought something the other week from a car boot sale ("where else?") that people would probably sneer and laugh at and others would find it ethereal, nostalgic and beautiful in a strange kind of way like yours truly thinks so.

You have heard of Arthur Guinness.  Well what about half an AA/RAC sign? It's had a tough life.  Haven't we all?  I don't want a return ticket do you?

I reckon it's from the 1920s and it's  a mileage sign directing motorists to Limerick and Rathkeale. It says 2 and half miles to Rathkeale and 20 and half miles to Limerick on the reverse of the sign.

The AA and RAC are  road side assistance companies that have been going since Victorian times in Britain and also in the Republic of Ireland.

If the sign was intact it would be worth up to 500 Euros/Pounds.  I don't suppose it's worth very much in it's present state? But it caught my eye and I like it in a strange kind of way.  

I'm going to hang it on the front room wall and look at it and think about what it like travelling on the roads and boreens of rural Ireland way back when.  It must have been so much easier to see a mileage sign rather than stopping and asking the brown horse in the left field for the wrong directions?  That's an old joke.😊  The American tourist who was amazed that a horse talked to them. 

8 comments:

  1. That is certainly a piece of local history and I can understand your appreciation of its uniqueness.It is probably just a tad rusty for me, otherwise I would quite like that on my wall.



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  2. I think it's Automobile Art JayCee. I like the rusty patina similar to which I often see on old corrugated iron roofs on farmhouses and out buildings on my walks and travels. It's had a life. Perhaps it was hit by a car or a bullet in the war of independence in the twenties? If Warhols Campbell's soup cans are art then so is my old damaged road sign. Perhaps I should frame it? It's definitely a curiosity and Convent piece. Thanks.

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  3. That sign would have also appealed to me Dave. So don't worry - you're not mad - unless of course I am mad which would then make you mad too!

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  4. You take me back to walking rather drunkedly under a pack horse bridge and I said "Isn't it beautiful and my friend said " It's a thought Dave ."

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  5. We were knocked out with the awesome beauty of the drystone arch. You don't need to be intellectual to appreciate beauty. Like a Robin nesting in an old paint tin in a hedge.

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  6. My husband found an old sign on our property, a big huge thing advertising that a pay phone was available.It was in horrible shape, shot up and rusted. He fell in love with it and it is hanging in his garage. I often look at it and smile to think of a time when people didn't walk around with a phone in their pocket. How the world has changed!

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  7. Sounds like a good subject and photo for your blog Debby. That phone sign could be worth a lot of money. Thanks for telling us about it.

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