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This event (or, more accurately,
these events) took place Long, Long Ago (namely the mid 1980's)
while we were still in high school.
Hartford, Connecticut, radio
station 95.7 WKSS-FM (a.k.a. 95.7 KISS - the format was, urgh,
Top-40, but hey... we were young then) had a morning personality
named Jeremy Savage. I was listening to Jeremy's show one
morning when he started in on what was, apparently, a favorite
pet peeve of his - a stacked, three-level highway overpass
structure over I-84 near the Farmington/West Hartford line which
the state DOT built, but never used. He dubbed the thing the
"Neverpass" and was looking for some "good"
little Hartford kid to so emblazon it, using spray paint or the
like.
So..... the gears in my devious
little mind began turning. A vulgar act of vandalism like spray painting
was certainly beneath me - but, what if we could procure a
regulation, reflective-green- with-white-lettering overpass sign
that said "NEVERPASS" and "officially" label
the structure?
I called in a few of my contacts
(yes, even then, back in high school, I had a few) and inquired
of my Sign Guy (who shall remain nameless but forever in my
gratitude) what it would cost. Upon hearing the story (and
repeating it to the guys in the shop) he loved the idea so much
we ended up with the requisite sign free of charge!!!
I called Jeremy and explained to
him what we were going to do (his response, as expected, was
something of the "yeah, kid" nature). That night, we
went to work. We got off the West Farms Mall/Corbins
Corner exit, and, as sneakily as we possibly could, parked in
the mall parking lot and snuck across the street to the Wendy's
which was adjacent to the highway. Our first concern was getting
past the fence which surrounded the highway. But, like a Sign
from Above... lo! The fence was down in the little field right
next to the Wendy's! We stepped over, and walked up the
bank to the highway.
Next was to find our way to the
lowest level, so we could place the sign over the eastbound
(Hartford-bound) lane (no, I wasn't piggish enough to ask for
two signs). We had to climb over the dirt piles that blocked
vehicular traffic from using the ramp leading from the thing
back down to the highway, made our way in the moonlight up to
the top level of the thing - which had one hell of a view,
incidentally.
Eventually, we made our way to
the lowest level. We (stupidly) chose to fasten the thing to the
bridge simply by hanging it (using wire) from the railing. Upon
completing this operation, I attempted to take a picture of it
(using a Polaroid) from roadside - all that's visible in the
otherwise pitch-black picture is a little green dash. In
any instance, back to the car we went, and back home.
Next morning, I call Jeremy to
tell him it's up. He, of course, doesn't believe it, so he sends
the traffic guy out to confirm (which, of course, he did). There
was the expected pandemonium on the KISS morning show that day.
That sign stayed up all of a day
or two - some kid probably went up and grabbed it for a trophy.
I was able to convince The Sign Guy to give us another, and we
made another trip (during a snowy day that winter) back up
there. (As I recall, that trip also involved attempting to red-spray paint
Neverpass across the top of the thing, "for the benefit of
aircraft" - all that ended up being painted was the snow).
This time, I also brought along a caulking gun and glued (as
well as wired) the sign to the bridge. That time, it stayed up
for months.
In any instance, we ended up with
t-shirts (the shit we do when we're kids for t-shirts!), and
were the talk of Hartford (at least among KISS listeners) for
awhile. And every now and again one of us will run into someone
who heard about the incident. (One of our number tells a story
about his brother overhearing a conversation about the incident,
who then attempts to explain that his brother and company were
the parties responsible, and, as expected, he isn't believed. I
guess I can say I know what Clark Kent or Peter Parker must feel
like.)
P.S. The state ultimately tied
Route 9 into the top level of the thing - the bottom remains
unused and is fenced-off now. More information about this
overpass can be found
here...
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