Notice Boards - Cultural Indicator

FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, July 27, 2001

Need a babysitter, someone to mow your dusty lawn, someone to cook up some cabbage rolls its all there on the notice boards. There are two of these one at each end of the Tisdale mall which are usually an interesting read but the best one in town is the one in the Beeland Co-op, by far it is the richest in trivia and just plain neat things. Certainly the staple infested board in front of the post office and the yard sale board by the Kin hall are vital information centres for the community but the good stuff is on the co-op and mall boards. The first thing you notice is that of course this is the place to find out about community activities in surrounding communities, fairs, benefit dances and concerts but there are also a wide variety of things that are free, cats and dogs mostly. People sell things on these boards from sheep to refrigerators, houses and yes even a flag pole. Death notices, shower announcements, official announcements for post office tenders, public health announcements, sports events, and someone wanted to buy something as well as sell something. You really have to take a few minutes out of every week to just keep yourself up to date on the events of the community and if you think a bit you will realise how much these notice boards tell about us and our way of life. They are to a certain extent a reflection of who we are, those who post the notices do so knowing the sort of people who will read them. It is a give and take thing the notice board tells us what others in our world are doing and what interests us tells us about our needs and what is happening in our life at the time.