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When my father poured a slab of cement to build a dog kennel, he called my family out into the yard to sign it before it dried. To date, that’s the only time I’ve ever carved my name into anything–not a tree, not a bathroom wall, nothing. I’ve never even signed off in spray paint. The most I’ve done is hide a piece of a broken typewriter in a hard-to-reach place on my college campus. It was there six months later; not so sure about now. I’d love to track down some mottled birch in twenty years and hope to find a charming relic, but I think I’ve passed the carving-one’s-name-in-stuff threshold. But maybe not. Perhaps there’s a wild New Year’s to anticipate; after all, absinthe is among us once again. Regardless, when I saw these paw-imprinted tiles on TeamSugar, the longing only increased: I must get procure some wet plaster or at least some modeling clay and just imprint my entire identity into it! And what about you: are there forests or rest areas or driveways out there where we could find your personalized ciphers?
When I was in high school, I took a couple of bus trips from Portland to Boston. I was a bit of a tagger, but instead of my moniker I’d write “PDX” in bathrooms in random towns across the country. I kind of hoped that other people from Portland would see it and smile.
posted by Seth on 11-16-2007 at 2:19 am
I carved my initials into a tree in the mountains of southern Utah. At summer camp, I once wrote my name across the celing with glow-in-the-dark paint. Various gas station restrooms have my initials scribbled across them. The only large one was the camp ceiling, the rest were quite small.
posted by bryn on 11-16-2007 at 8:15 am
When I was ten, my 13 year old cousin and I wrote our names in the doorway of our room in a holiday cabin in New Mexico. I felt so cool . . .
posted by Meagan on 11-16-2007 at 8:23 am
I’ve also never been a carver or graffiti artist, however, in high school I had a boyfriend who was. Once, in a fit of (I guess) romanticism, he brought me out to a park filled with prime rocks for spraypainting and proceeded to paint our initials, or some variant of our names, over several of them.
A few years later, the initials remained on at least one rock, though I’m fairly sure it’s gone now, since that was over a decade ago.
posted by Jennifer on 11-16-2007 at 9:04 am
When we had a new sidewalk poured at our house, I scratched my first initial + my husband’s first initial near our front door before the concrete dried.
posted by Average Jane on 11-16-2007 at 9:55 am
My name is in the pavement outside the house I lived in when I was 8. We had a new driveway poured, and we got to write our names.
I carved my initials and my boyfriend’s into the “smoker’s bench” outside our dormitory in college. I needed a tetnus shot when the swiss army knife I was using closed on my middle finger. still have a scar.
In the same dorm, I climbed up on top of the closet and wrote a note to future residents in magic marker. It’s in a very obscure location. I think I got up there by climbing onto a chair placed on top of the desk, then leaning over and writing on the back corner of the top of the wardrobe.
posted by jenny on 11-16-2007 at 10:41 am
My name (often with my husband’s) is all over the place. There’s a rest stop somewhere between San Diego and Tahoe that has my initial’s in a women’s stall. There’s a tree on the hike down to Crater Lake that has my husband’s initials and mine in a cute little heart. My (madien name) initials are somewhere in my junior high’s gym. But since everyone did that, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
I’m sure there are others, but those are the few that stick out in my mind.
posted by ErinM on 11-16-2007 at 11:44 am
I’ve carved my name into the Great Wall of China, along with hundreds of thousands of other people, I’m sure.
posted by Cassie on 11-16-2007 at 2:13 pm
My boy-friend spray painted a love message on a wall very near my house. It was HUGE. It also had my name on it. Thankfully, the owners of the house didnt know who I was or I´m sure they would have asked us to pay for the re-paint. As it is, that message was there for over a year!
posted by GTT on 11-16-2007 at 3:00 pm
Well, in 1982 or so, my girlfriend and I spent a lot of time on a ledge outside the Reed College physics building (Portland, OR). One evening, we left a note on one of the aluminum struts that made up the building wall. We don’t know if it’s still there, but we’re still married (coming up to 23 years).
posted by Daniel Kim on 11-16-2007 at 10:54 pm
Over the years, every time I’ve changed jobs, I write my name or initials with a sharpie somewhere in my desk. Last time we moved, I also wrote our name and the dates we lived in the house on the underside of a drawer. Perhaps someday, someone will wonder about us and ponder.
posted by frankie on 11-19-2007 at 1:17 pm