I was driving around and exploring various towns in Ulster County (New York), when I noticed this billboard on the side of the road near Greenfield Park, which is a hamlet in the town of Wawarsing. As you can see here, it says “Wanted: Girls,” with the stenciled word “boys” crossed out. It’s a bit suggestive, but a closer look shows that it’s not what the vandal wants you to think it is.
The original sign has been whitewashed, leaving only the word “Wanted” at the top in red letters, and the word “boys” in black. My guess is that one vandal did that, and then another came along and crossed out “boys” and added “Girls.” But zooming in to look it at closely, the original sign said “Wanted: Future Leaders.” I was curious who might put out a billboard looking for “future leaders,” and I found the suggestion that the organization Rotary International has camps that they market with the phrase “Wanted: Future Leaders” to recruit high school sophomores and juniors for their Youth Leadership Awards. I also see that there is a local chapter of Rotary International in Walden, which is about 25 miles away from this sign.
The other thing – if you look close enough – the original sign didn’t say “Boys” – there’s a space in there between the Y and the S, which is harder to see with the other letters whitewashed out. The “S” appears to be followed by “C” and “O,” and I can’t see any more after that, but one might guess that it originally said “Boy Scouts.”
I have to admit, if you take the words out, I kind of like the whitewashed billboard as a painting, the white and yellow reminds me a little bit of some Willem de Kooning paintings.