Beneath the words of wisdom and the slogans of despair, someone's gone and written "I'm Sorry" there

[venta]

For some years, the M40 has sported one of my favourite locations for graffiti. I'm not sure when I first noticed it - travelling on the coach from Oxford to London, or when I started driving, I imagine - but there it was, plastered across a fence just before the junction with the M25.

It's a pannelled fence and in childish writing, one letter per panel, it read "Why do I do this every day?". Further along, in block capitals, was possibly my all-time favourite graffito "EAT MORE PEAS!". I don't actually like peas, but something about being given dietary advice by a motorway fence appealed to me. Later someone added in glossy, white letters "Jesus, Prince of Strife".

Then a few years ago, it all changed. The question was replaced with the insistent "Why do I still do this every day?", in the same childish writing on a grass-green background. It obliterated the peas, and ate into the edge of Jesus.

For a long time, I thought it was sad. The persistent plea of a tired commuter, sick to death of the M40 but tied to a job that required it. Then I realised that actually, there must be thousands of such weary commuters, and only one with the time, energy and resources to lug a large quantity of paint up a hill and trumpet his (or her) dissatisfaction with the status quo. Maybe others had thought about it, but none had actually done it. The determination in itself transforms them from the humdrum commuter they claim to be.

The other week, though, it was all change again. A new slogan adorns the fence. In giant, bulgy 3D capitals it now reads "NEW TEAM SUPREME". I'm sure a different hand has been at work; maybe they're just announcing their claim of the fence. I look forward to developments.

Comments

"I'm Sorry"

[zotz]

I never fail to think of that line when going from the A14 onto the M6 at the M6/M1/A14 junction, which for obvious reasons I used to do fairly often.

Also, I can't think of any songs the M6 is mentioned in apart from two by NMA. Something wrong there.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

Noooooooooooo! Have they painted over the old one?

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

But what if that was not writen by a harrased commutor - but by somebody else mocking/attempting to awaken in them the sense of "why are you still doing this". Is that better or worse?

[a-llusive.livejournal.com]

I'm rather fond of the old ones there too.

[triskellian]

I love that graffiti, too. IIRC, there was a period between the original "Why do I do this every day" and the replacement, "Why do I still do this every day", during which there was no graffiti in that spot :-(

The reason I remember this is that smiorgan texted me from the tube not long after the new one appeared to tell me it was back, because we had been sad when the original disappeared.

I love the "eat more peas" and "prince of strife" bits too, and I'm fairly sure they developed over time from some slightly different originals - I think "peas" might have been "peace" at one time, possibly in connection with "Jesus", but sadly I didn't make a note of the different ones although I remember seeing it change every time I went past for a period of several months.

[chrisvenus]

I have to admit I alwyas thought of it in the more meta sense of "this" being painting a slogan on a fence. I guess I've never commuted down there or even driven down there in commuter sense. The only thing that I knew about the author was that he painted signs on a fence so that's what I assumed he was referring to. Though I did consider it unlikely that he painted it fresh every day....

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Is Jsus still there, or has he been obliterated too?

(I'm sure you knew this already, but my current journal title "one in ten go mad - one in five cracks up" is taken from a graffito further down the road, the A40 around Ladbroke Grove.)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

The other interesting M/A40 graffito is the Crow Aptok one, which has been there for at least 30 years to my knowledge and has never been satisfactorily explained...


The fence with the paint on will always be "the burning fence" in my mind [memories of 1976] and the cutting at J6 is "Chickenshit Gorge". All this newfangled paint stuff just doesn't cut it. ;-)

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. I just assumed that mr "why do i do this" was referring to the acted of graffitiing the fence...