Time Swallows All Things

At the North end of West Philadelphia's Clark Park, there are official signs, old and new. This well-loved piece of land has been home to a reservoir and mill pond, a Union Army hospital under tents during the Civil War, and for the past 115 years, a city park featuring a life-sized bronze statue of Charles Dickens. When the park and the neighborhood were developed, London Plane trees were planted by the thousands and still caress us with their shade. This one was already swallowing the anti-litter sign when I first saw it in 1989, so I'll guess that the sign dates from the 1970s. It read, "Littering Subject To $[??].00 Fine." I'll have to ask some old timers if they remember how much the fine was, since I don't. I think it was a few hundred dollars.

"All things the long and countless lapse of time
Brings forth, displays, then hides once more in gloom.
Nought is too strange to look for; but the event
May mock the sternest oath, the firmest will."
--Sophocles, Ajax