My....how times change!

It wasn't that many years ago that when the paint truck came to town to paint the line in the middle of the state highways, this would be the order of progression. First came a truck warning of line painting, getting cars to stay over to the side of the road. Then would come a truck with a low platform and it would have a man sit on it and he would paint the lines. He would watch for small "key" signs which would be on the side of the road, which said either solid or dashes or whatever. Right behind that came another truck with an man down on a low platform and he would set down little flags, with heavy metal bases, about every one hundred feet or so to keep cars off the paint. Then behind that would come another truck just keeping cars back and away, giving the paint time to dry. They would put go about about a mile, then go back and pick up the flags, and reload the truck getting ready to start all over for the next stretch of road.

Move ahead twenty-five years and look at how they do it today! Wow! I bet the first truck, with the paint and compressors and the man in the paint box probably cost half a million dollars. What a machine! Behind that was a truck with some bright signs just saying sign painting. No flags. No warning truck out front. No turning around. Just putting down paint.  center line plus one side line of the right.

Thursday I saw them go up thru the center of Sharon mid-morning, and I think they did probably all the way to Lakeville, maybe Canaan and probably 44 and 112 as well as 41. They were scooting right along. Today they were back down thru Sharon and did the other outside line they didn't do yesterday. Now, I am doing a bit of speculating on exactly how much they did, but lets say I would not be surprised if they had done that much in the last day.

The finished product sure looked nice where I saw, near the plaza. It will come in handy on foggy days and nights, and make it all safer for all of us. I saw a third truck with bags of something that I bet was the reflective particles, that they mix in the paint, and reflect when headlights hit them. Another pretty neat thing. In the old days, I remember a man shoveling the particles onto the wet paint from the back of a truck by hand. Progress. Some of it it pretty darn cool!

I sure wish the board of finance in the Town of Sharon would see to it that our selectmen have the necessary funds so they can get our curves and intersections and blind areas get a center line down, so our roads can be that much safer. I've been threatening to go out and paint the center line on Roeske's Corner myself, just so cars will be more apt to stay on their side of the road. I can't count how many times I have been run off into the grass on that corner. I have a little spray rig for doing small parking lots. I could do it myself. Come on finance board. Make it happen....sooner than later!