Sidewalk Evangelism

On my daily cycle commute I travel along a paved path that runs along side Niakwa Park, I nice little area in Winnipeg where I grew up. One day last week I noticed somebody had written something on the asphalt in coloured chalk. Nicely written with good handwritting and there were two sections separated by about 50′. The sections were organized to that you could read one or the other easily depending on which direction you were traveling.

The writing was organized in short phrases a few feet apart, so that you could read a phrase and think about it briefly before reading the next phrase, sort of like the Burma-Shave roadside sign advertising campaign.

Don’t take

 a curve  

at 60 per.

We hate to lose

a customer

Burma-Shave

And indeed the chalk writer was “advertising” something.

The first day I flew by the chalk writing and really couldn’t make out what was going on. On day two, my curiosity took over and I looped back for a read of the message. I was intrigued, and impressed by the ingenuity and the message at least until I got to the punch line which totally dampened my enthusiasm.

A few days later I noticed the chalk messages had been enhanced by another writer, somebody with a different colour of chalk, and a better punch line.