Busting Signs and YouTube Videos

When it comes to busting sign creation, lettering is critical

In addition to fishing and boating, another of my passions as a child was busting signs. What? You know, busting signs! Those big paper banners that high school cheerleaders paint “Go Team” or whatever on that the football team charges through as they enter the field. Busting signs.

As a youngster, I was infatuated with the busting sign. Everything about it. Particularly the busting part. But, unlike most kids who shared my passion, I had the hook up. You see, I had older siblings. Specifically, I had two older sisters who were in high school when I was three and four years old and they knew cheerleaders. And it just so happens that one of those cheerleaders they knew would collect the pieces of the busted signs after the team ran through them on Friday nights at Draa Field and give them to my sisters.

Yep, authentic game-used busting signs. The Holy Grail.

We would piece those babies back together like a jigsaw puzzle, fasten them up with a little masking tape, and then I would don my football helmet or Tuffy the Terrier costume and re-bust the busting sign a few hundred times. What a rush!

Perhaps you can guess which child is me?

Of course, we also made our own original busting signs, too. This anyone can do. All you need is a roll of banner paper and some markers. You can decorate it anyway you like, but “Go Terriers” is always a good place to start. One thing to remember, though, is that when you get ready to bust, when you’re using an original sign, it’s best to make tiny little tears at the top and bottom right in the middle. Otherwise, when the buster tries to bust, you’re likely to end up with a catapult. But with just a couple little tears, the busting is spectacular.

For some reason, I thought about the busting signs one day recently when I was playing with my five-year-old, Jacob. I’m using the word playing loosely. What we were actually doing was sitting at the kitchen counter watching a Lion Guard music video on the iPad. Not just watching, though. No, we were transcribing the lyrics onto paper and drawing renderings of the key scenes from the video to go along with the words. I was doing all of the artistic and transcription work and Jacob was doing the directorial and design work. Fun for everyone!

This is some of my best work

It seemed like we were doing it for hours, we had to keep pausing and rewinding so I could get the words right. After completing the first page, I said something like, “Okay, we’ve got it.”

“What?” Jacob said.

“We’re done, right?” I asked.

“No. We’re just getting started,” he said without breaking eye contact.

So, I guess this is a thing we do now. It just seems a little odd to me. Making picture books from music videos of cartoons?

Whatever happened to doing normal things like making and/or reassembling busting signs and busting them? Kids these days.

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