Nice catch; pull 'em up

Wednesday before work, I went out and caught a southbound on the Ft Worth Sub between Gainesville and Alliance. The attraction was the lead locomotive, B40-8 # 8632 (the former ATSF 7442). With fewer than 40 B40-8s operating on the system, compared with close to 3,000 "comfort-cab" 6-axle GE's, catching a B-40 leading a through train is something akin to finding the proverbial needle in the hay stack. It was a nice day, and I shot the train at several locations, including this view of the train crossing the wood trestle north of Justin...

BNSF 8632 leads southbound H KCKTPL approaching Justin, TX: Feb 6, 2008

So it's come to this...

Seen recently on Long Avenue in north Fort Worth: indisputable evidence of the further decline of American society. Really now, do today's teens and young adults actually require written instructions reminding them to pull their friggin' pants all the way up over their asses? Instead of posting these reminders on roadside billboards, wouldn't it be more effective to attach instructional leaflets -- complete with diagrams and illustrations -- to all the pairs of JNCO's and Dickies on the display racks down at JC Penney's?

Obviously this young man -- photographed boarding a DART train last summer in Dallas -- hadn't seen the new billboards yet.

.

Dallas city councilman Dwaine Caraway recently (and unsuccessfully) attempted to pass a city ordinance against the popular fashion practice of sagging pants, to "crack down", as it were, on those who fail to hoist their trousers to the proper altitude. Apparently, though, the city of Laura Miller actually did have more pressing matters with which to occupy itself than the legislation and enforcement of a civic dress code. So Dallas resorted to the next best thing -- an ad campaign, with billboard space graciously donated by everyone's favorite media conglomerate, Clear Channel. Now other metroplex cities -- Garland, Grand Prairie, and Fort Worth, to name a few -- have jumped on board.

If the billboard strategy fails, maybe the message of Dallas "gospel rap" artist "Dooney Da Priest" will eventually find its target audience. We can only hope.

WSC

np: Dooney Da Priest - "Pull your pants up"