Signs of progress

When we first moved to Woodhaven, I remember being behind a truck advertising something completely bewildering: "Mobile Meat Dressing!" Although I understood each of those three words individually, I had no idea what they meant when put together like that. Why would I put dressing on meat? Why would I need someone to come to my house to do it for me? Why was it so darn exciting as to warrant an exclamation point?

An amused local patiently explained to me that it was a truck that would come to my house and "deal with" my freshly hunted meat. After I had the thrill and excitement of stealthily tracking and killing my prey, this truck would come and do all the dirty work to make it edible. The dirty, icky, down right disgusting, thank-you-I'll-be-a-vegetarian-now work. And this, I quickly understood, was indeed very exciting not to have to do oneself.

On our way into town, if we go the "long way," we pass what looks to be a home-based business providing this vital service. Until just a few days ago, the company's sign nailed to the fence was hand-painted, faded, and very authentic looking. It didn't really grab attention well enough to be used as a landmark, so we would tell folks to look for the church across the street so as not to miss the turn.

Sadly, you can't stop progress. That old, homey, "we're too busy dressing meat to fuss with silly advertising" sign has been replaced with a bright, shiny, font-based, graphic designer inspired one. Meat dressing, custom slaughtering, pork processing -- one-stop shopping for all your carnivorous needs, proclaimed in pretty blue lettering with a border and everything.

The sign "improvement" reminds me of a classic point of Advertising 101 that I learned in my Marketing 101 class in college. The professor showed two signs advertising "Fresh Picked Strawberries" for a farm stand just up a road. One sign was handwritten with paint drips on a big piece of ply board. The other one was a very neat, precise, professionally created sign with carefully drawn strawberries decorating the corners. "Which stand would you stop at?" the professor asked. Everyone said the one with the messy sign. Why? Because it looked authentic and genuine, giving the impression the farm stand was run by farmers busy picking strawberries, not city-slicker business people busy making money. So, yes, I'm sure The Meat Guy is very pleased with his new sign and is proud that his business has grown to afford and require something so established and spiffy. Me, I miss the faded paint drips.


ADDENDUM:

After reading my post, Rob tried to correct my misunderstanding. Apparently, "mobile meat dressing" is NOT a service for hunters. Instead, it's for all your at-home slaughtering needs. You know, for the soon-to-be tri-tips, t-bones, and filets you have grazing in your pasture. He tried to go into some clarifying detail but honestly, I stopped listening after he said "Slaughter your cows." Having personally named all the neighborhood cows while also loving a good juicy steak, I try very hard to ignore the fact that those two are related in any way.