THINK GLOBAL
Everything seems to be giving way to universalism these days.
Many long-distance trucking firms, for example, have prospered well for many years with relatively simple names. It has become evident in recent years, however, that this relatively simple procedure was about to come to a screeching halt as we obviously running out of names for such trucking firms which appeared in ever-increased numbers.
Many such trucking services have prospered over the years with simple names such as “Acme”, “Overnight,” “Atlas” ; historical and geographical names such as ”Mayflower” and “Long Island” and many of them relied on the family name of the owner. In my particular area , Virginia, there were several which fit this group: “Smith's Transfer”, Houff Truck Lines, Cosby and several others. Such names made up the bulk of those you saw on the nation's highways regardless of where you might travel.
Gradually we began to see some strange names from time-to-time, some slanted toward brevity and others staying with elongated family designations. We began to have more versions of spaced-oriented names. ”Global;” became an obvious favorite, and ,from time-to-time we would be meeting with something called “Orbit”, “Moonwalk” or almost any of NASA project names and some pseudo-science tags such s “Planet 6”.
One such name change was impressive because it went “all the way” - almost in a simple, unadorned generic format. Someone name a trucking firm by making use of just three letters. This letters G. O. and D. were painted in large, block letters in sleek black on a white surface. When painted as large as truck side would permit it was generically clean and clear. The first time I came across this truck line name, I was rather shocked and turned for a second look to see if I had seen what I thought I had seen.. I had some real doubts. As I came closer to the rig I saw, printed beneath the three, towering letters:“G.O.D.”. As I came near to the rig, I realized there was additional print below the towering threesome of letters. It offered an explanation of the large letters: “Guaranteed Overnight Delivery.”
Since this meeting with G.O.D. on the Interstate, I have been somewhat less eager to seek out new names for our trucking firms.
A.L.M. August 2, 2004 [c388wds]
