Our puppy gets two or three walks a day, and this has afforded me more observations of the neighborhood. I noticed on my most recent walk a faux rustic sign on a front porch that said in rather decorative lettering “Don’t Let The Top Step Kick Your Ass.”
That sign had been purchased, not made by the home owners. I have a hard time understanding why people would put a sign like that in the yard. I suppose it is meant to be amusing. It sure makes me hesitant to get to know them.
We have a small, cast iron pig with wings in one of our front perennial beds. I hope it tells people we are somewhat fanciful and goofy. The Gulf War veteran down the block has an American flag along with his Marine Corps flag. He is a good guy. I am happy to say our neighborhood Trump supporters don’t have any signs up. I suppose if I really wanted our neighbors to know what we stand for we would erect a free little library by the front Spruce trees.
What signs or symbols do you have in or outside your home that could tell people about you? What messages would you want to convey to the world from your yard?
Trail Baboon 
Well, there’s the bright yellow (think school bus) front door. House has pale gray siding, and this is what distinguishes it from all the other little gray houses with white trim… makes it easy to direct people here.
And then the vegetable garden that consumes the entire side yard. And the flowers, mostly perennials that compose the boulevard at this point.
I could get some yard signs that reflect my beliefs – Love Everyone, Black Lives Matter… I would be more likely to put them in the window – since no one else on the block has signs, and I don’t really want to draw attention to our place – I don’t need people’s angry thoughts and energy aimed this way, and the people who matter will know what I’m about.
Last election, though, I did for the first time put up several signs for local and national candidates.
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I put up a political sign before the 2020 election – just one. I took it down two days before the election because I’m a believer in the old rule that you should not advertise for a candidate on or after Election Day. However, I was too late and the damage had been done. I found out after January 6 and Inauguration Day that the president of our HOA is firmly on the other side. He has been reporting me to the management company for very minor infractions ever since: trivial things like where my plants are located and bird feeders and such things. I should have known it wasn’t a good idea to display my politics here but I went ahead and did it anyway and now I feel I’m being a little harassed. There have been some other incidents but I won’t describe them here. I guess the Second Amendment trumps the First Amendment though… one has to be cautious in rural MN these days!
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I do enjoy reading signs that I consider funny – like the 2020 one that said something “Any Functioning Adult for President”.
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The Citizen’s Climate Lobby hereabouts has made signs available that proclaim us to be “climate voters”. There’s one on our yard. We also have a Black Lives Matter sign out there, because I want my neighbors to know that they are safe in my yard. All around our neighborhood, there are “Pride Flags”, which proclaim to all who pass that all people are welcome and safe in those homes. We don’t display one, because my spouse (who has no probmem with LGBTQIA folks) believes that such a display might offend her sister and brother in law.
There are neighbors around here with Trump 2024 flags (and a few with Trump 2020 flags). I just know that if I should engage them in a friendly conversation that I should stick to things like the weather.
The signs that give me pause are the “Protected by Smith & Wesson” or “No Tresspassing” with a picture of a pistol.
A few years ago, in a nearby town, I passed through a neighborhood where a lot of people had “no tresspassing” signs. The house that made me think was the one with equally colorful signs, one declaring, “Jesus lives Here” and the other saying something like “Private Property, Keep Off!”
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The current state of our yard pretty much announces to the world: “Here live two old people who seem to have given up on gardening.” It’s not particularly a message I want to be sending to the world, but I’ve been unable to find help keeping the weeds at bay.
We have a sign on out front lawn that says:
In this house we believe
Love is Love
Science is Real
No Human is Illegal
Black Lives Matter
Women’s Rights are Human Rights
I think that pretty much announces to our neighbors where on the political spectrum we are, and who we strive to be. If someone is offended by that, so be it. I’ve got more important stuff to worry about.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
I have no sign in my yard, but I think the yard screams “I Love Flowers.” Right now the peonies are fading and the red lilies that line the sidewalk are in full bloom. The subtext sign right now is “Weed Me.” I cannot bend over past 90º until August 2 which limits my weeding. Lou does a little bit, but not enough. My son was set to come over Sunday to weed, but the temperature was 101º which was too brutal for anyone to be out there. I hope he can make it this weekend.
Our sour pie cherry tree has a full crop coming on, but it is also sick. I don’t think it can be saved which makes me sad. I love these cherries.
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Energy Solar (because I have their panels on my roof)Swedish Dala horse “Welcome” sign (because I’m part Swedish) on my screen porch entry That’s all… Cynthia “Life is a shifting carpet…learn to dance.”
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Afternoon. I kinda like the Top Step sign, it makes me laugh, as in what’s wonky about the top step that people must be tripping?
We have pink plastic flamingos at the end of the driveway, and some of the tiny fairly lights on the gates. (I tried solar LED tape on the posts, but it didn’t look quite as cool as I expected. And one got broken shortly after installation. (Winter snow or snow plow or something).
Beyond that, no signs as no one can see them.
Neighbors would put a sign out in a field by a main highway. It got kicked over several times.
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Apparently the Trail’s sign to the world is Stay Away!
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12,800 followers… just very quiet followers today
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I’m not sure what my front yard screams except maybe “what happened to the grass?” We do have a Black Lives Matter sign and during political campaigns where I have strong feelings, which is pretty much all of them, I put political signs in the yard. We also have two decorative flags, a smaller one out in the yard and another one that hangs on the house. These change up on a fairly regular basis because YA is opinionated about the flag matching the season. I’m sure that shocks all of you.
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I don’t have yard signs. I don’t wear shirts with mottoes or button proclaiming anything. My car doesn’t have bumper stickers. I am more complex and nuanced and contradictory than any sign or slogan could represent and frankly I don’t know why I would want or need to proclaim any of my opinions to anyone—and especially prepackaged opinions or stances. I don’t see the point.
I live in a neighborhood so uniformly liberal there’s no need to identify my house as a refuge from discrimination. I doubt that declaring with a yard sign that I am opposed to climate change or oil pipelines or that I value black lives or LGBTQ rights carries any influence. I sense that it’s a sort of competitive thing—that failing to have a sign implies you are not with the program.
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I’ve never bothered with signs in any of my other homes but I like the idea that all the people driving by on the busy thoroughfare on which I live these days are subjected to my opinions.
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I live in a uniformly liberal neighborhood also, but nothing is ever 100%. There is a house about a block from me where they’ve posted a sign that says, “All Lives Matter”, and then, somewhat later, a sign that says “Let’s Go Brandon”. There are ample other signs in the neighborhood that express opinions more in line with mine, but seeing the opposing signals does tend to make me want to stake out a position. Even if I’m only piling on with a bunch of other liberal types.
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Sometimes I don’t know about you, Bill. Of course you’re more “complex and nuanced and contradictory” than any one bumper sticker, t-shirt, yard sign or flag can express. It thinks it’s fair to say, most of us are. I can guarantee you one thing, though, I steer clear of anyone sporting a MAGA hat.
It really doesn’t matter to me whether or not you, or anyone else, displays their “colors” anywhere. I also don’t necessarily make the assumption that because someone has yard sign supporting a political candidate, that they’re necessarily well informed about what their candidate stands for.
I don’t interpret anyone’s lack of bumper stickers, yard signage or flags as a lack of being with the program. When I do see such signs or flags, however, I do notice. Not that they influence my way of thinking about the issue they represent, but they’re at least an indication of where my allies on issues might be. I’m sure that someone flying a rainbow flag, a Black Lives Matter flag, or a Confederate flag for that matter, doesn’t sway anyone on the issues, but they are a pretty good indication of what kind of conversation you might have them. I see them more as someone with a strong commitment to, or opinion about, that issue, whatever it might be.
I’ve done some door knocking to help register voters, and also on behalf of a couple of candidates for St. Paul City Council. For me that’s stepping far outside of my comfort zone. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t believe that it could make a difference. Believe it or not, yard signs were a pretty good indication of how we’d be received.
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I’ve generally been unsure that yard signs did much to convince anyone of anything. Lately, though, I’m starting to think it’s important to show your stripes. So many diehard Trumpers insist that Biden couldn’t have won the election because nobody voted for Biden. “I don’t know anyone who voted for Biden.” Trumpers don’t trust the vote count because they’re delusional about hacked voting machines and who knows what else. But if they see yard signs, they can’t say those are fraudulent.
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I have a pig. I call him Walt. He doesn’t have any wings, though He’s an earthbound pig.
I don’t remember where I got Walt. I didn’t set out to acquire a pig, he just somehow happened to me.
There is a thrift shop in St. Paul called the Flying Pig….https://theflyingpigthrift.org/our-story
I don’t usually post signs, although I did post one a number of years ago asking people to vote no on voter restriction when that was an issue here. This summer I’m considering putting up a sign inviting people to pick the cherries – it looks like there are going to be a lot and I won’t use them all myself. They are very small cherries.
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Sweet or sour cherries, Linda?
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They are pretty tart.
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Probably good for Rødgrød. Let me know when they’re ripe, and if I’m up to it, I’ll swing by and pick some. Does it required climbing the tree?
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They are Nanking cherries. They’re not trees, they’re shrubs. The cherries are small enough that they’re frustrating to bake with, because they’re mostly pit. They are fine for snacking, though.
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I have a Frank Loyd Wright stand up statue that was meant to be the spindle underneath the garden handrail on one of his projects it’s gorgeous and Sam’s to the right of my door on the left I have a kneecap hi figure of a golfer putting it reminds me of my dad and on the front of the house I have a rusty piece hanging metal trinket that’s 3 feet long
Funny how are you doing on your house take limited ownership in the property even though I’ve been here seven years
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I guess I had never thought about putting up signs to convey to the outside world where my perspective lies although it would probably be pretty easy to steal quotes from Bob Dylan and Buckminister fuller and Khalil Gibran and ROM-DOS and Kurt Vonnegut and it makes me realize that I should go into the “ sharing mode and switch them out that would be really fun Denver us
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Denver us???
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Wow, who would have thought there’d be this many different perspectives on lawn signs and art?! This is getting me to rethink some of it… I do realize that when I’m walking in the neighborhood and I see a sign in yard or window that says “Kindness Changes Everything” I think to myself “Some of my people live here – I wonder who they are.” And vice versa, of course, if I see the dreaded “Trump in 2024.”
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I try to prevent myself from covering my car with bumper stickers or putting lawn signs up. I certainly won’t ever put a political sign up while living in this condo association again. I do have two bumper stickers on my car right now. One is an image of RBG and the other, right next to RBG, reads, “WE WON’T GO BACK.” I had a magnetic rainbow-striped peace symbol but it was stolen.
I think there might be more residential neighborhoods in the metro area that lean left. In rural Minnesota there are a lot more Trump signs and flags. There are also lots of the flags that support the police – the one with black and blue stripes is common. Yesterday I saw a truck with decals emblazoned on the back window. The black and blue flag was the background and a decal over to the left was an image of an AR-15 with the name of the current occupant next to it with a hole shot through it side to side and red ink coming out the other side. Horrifying. It read, “We will never forget 2020”. Unfortunately this is common. I am more careful about what I say and who is near me than I ever have been, especially in Faribault. It’s like rabies in some places and honestly, truly scary. Frightening that so many people believe this.
I have a rusty metal heart-shaped whatchacallit with little bells hanging from the oak tree in front of my front door. I guess I’m not supposed to do this but the president’s wife hangs things from their tree so I have developed an attitude about it. I have lots of flowers in planters and pots, collections of rocks, and a small concrete toadstool. You can see more plants on my deck when you look up from my driveway. On the deck I have petunias; zinnias; my small patio garden thing which contains herbs, a tomato plant, a pepper plant, spinach, kale and chard; an ivy, two potted rosemary plants; one potted sage, and my succulents. I have a concrete Buddha up here too. I often have a glass jar on the deck rail brewing sun tea. I hope people think I love plants and animals, whimsy and art.
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