Growing up, I saw these signs all around town due to the constant road construction one can find in the greater Houston area. I asked about what they meant. They read “GIVE US A BRAKE” and have a silhouette character of a construction worker. I was told that they are to let people know there are people working up ahead, so to be careful and slow down to keep them safe.
I struggled with this explanation, because I had thought originally that it was something like, though I didn’t know the word at the time, a protest by the workers. They didn’t like having to work so much under such conditions. They wanted a rest from their work, but especially from the unfair and unsafe expectations of drivers who honked and fussed all the time at them. However, the two ideas came together when I understood that, by having cars slow down, the workers were getting their safer environment, their better working conditions.
In seventh grade, I did a science fair project with a classmate where we talked about water surface tension and how soap affected it. All throughout the text on our tri-fold display board, we had the word “brake”, used in phrases like, “brake the surface of the water”. Our teacher called us over to look at the display with him. He began asking us questions to help us see an error we had committed. It didn’t make sense to me, what he was leading us to see. I understood that we had used the word “brake”. I did not understand why the word was not right, however. It was in that conversation that I discovered consciously – yes, for the first time – that there were two different words, homonyms: brake and break. I was utterly embarrassed at our poster board at that point, as it was covered in the wrong word. Yes, I had seen and used both versions of the word plenty in my life. But it had never occurred to me that the homonyms aspect existed.
I do believe that it was around this time that, upon seeing one of the road construction signs, their message finally made true sense to me(!): They were a play on words.
I think no one had ever mentioned that part to me. So, though I had definitely read and used the word “break” plenty of times, having the phrase “Give us a brake,” ingrained in my mind won out during the writing of the text for our science fair project.
So, that sucked.
I see the signs today, and it feels almost like they taunt me. They even seem a bit mean, though, as I believe they’re actually written “Give us a BRAKE”, or something similar to where only the last word is in all caps. What’s wrong with, “Slow down – workers present”? Nothing. But these signs really got to me on their lack of inclusivity. What do foreigners visiting do to understand the play on words? Though, they probably wouldn’t understand the idiomatic expression I’d always understood in the first place, so it wouldn’t matter. Even still, it both feels clever – I love plays on words – and feels mean.
Okay, that’s all for tonight. Still have the terror. God, heal us from this terror, please. Grant us success is resolving the whole situation well and with ease. Guide us clearly and always. Help us to be the best we can be, together, as a family with our daughter. Please. Keeps us safe and well. In your name, I pray. Amen.
Post-a-day 2025
hannah ananas 