A couple of years ago, Daniel Norred was selling Saline watermelons one day when a man in his 70s — Mr. Norred did not learn his name — stopped to speak with him. The man told Mr. Norred about two “Welcome to Saline” signs that he had possessed for decades.
The man said sometime around 60 years ago, a sign painter was commissioned by Coca Cola or RC Cola to hand-paint welcome signs for small towns in Louisiana. The man said the cola company worked with the State of Louisiana and paid for the campaign.
The holes at the top of the sign may have been for attaching the welcome signs to the DOTD corporation limit signs for each town. Another person suggested that the holes were for attaching a diamond shaped RC Cola advertisement.(see example below)
The man said the sign maker created two signs for Saline. Most of the towns put the signs up, but Saline put the signs up in a storage barn and said they would hang the signs up at a later time. The signs remained in the barn for decades. When the man retired (presumably from the town of Saline), he removed the signs from the barn. The man gave Mr. Norred one of the signs and said he was going to keep the second one.
Mr. Norred is searching for any information relating to this or any similar sign.
Do you have or know someone with interesting relics from Bienville Parish’s past? Do you have any information on this sign? If so, please contact the Journal at BPJNewsLA@gmail.com.
On the bottom right corner of the welcome sign is printed, “Robertson 862.”
An example of another sign with the RC Cola diamond attached.
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