Free Write- Prompt a Seven-Up Sign

 An old sign was this week's prompt.

Rick's Free Write

We are fascinated by artifacts of history. Excavation of the ash-covered ruins of Pompeii. The inexplicable construction of Stonehenge. Pieces of pottery and wall frescoes that reflect how ancient civilizations lived.

Of such is the mystery of the Seven-Up sign of Argelès-sur-mer. Weathered, faded, still proudly mounted on the corner of a building at the intersection of Rue de la Republique and Rue Vermeille. An icon of American capitalist colonialism. A distinctly U.S .beverage promoted in the heart of a small French tourism village on the sea near the Spanish border.

No doubt the cost of the sign was discounted in exchange for the promotion of the soda pop. But why not Coca-Cola, the dominant force worldwide? Or at least Pepsi-Cola (yeech), the No. 2 rival?

I suspect a sense of rebelliousness on the part of the proprietors of the neighborhood grocery. An independent spirit reflective of a non-nonsense woman and her genial husband who was not adverse to getting on the store floor to play with his young goddaughter.

No one has occupied the commercial space since they retired several years ago. So the sun-faded sign remains. Defiant. Seven-Up  

Julia's Free Write

He had decided that the trip to his ancestor’s small village in the middle of France was now a necessity, having been thought of many times over the years.

He had a vague memory of visits as a small child, but those had disappeared along with his grandparents when his mother died. In fact, he didn’t really even remember his mother as he had only been seven when cancer came and although she fought hard, in the end was unsuccessful. His father never mentioned neither in-laws nor his deceased wife. Of the old school, he simply didn’t have the temperament.

But here he was, almost of retirement age and his company had sent him to Paris on a business trip so what better opportunity?

He arrived in the street where once they had lived and the first thing to catch his eyes was the sign: there it hung, an old sign. Perhaps not as old as the building to which it clung, but still old enough. In French– before the days of the Coke and Pepsi-Cola battle: Drink Seven-Up!

D-L's Free Write

The Seven-Up sign has been there for at least thirty-five years. The grocery store below only carried Coke and Orangina. 

Babette and Jean-Pierre were Pied Noir, black feet the term used for French citizens forced to flee North Africa for political reasons.

I used the sign to give directions to my place. "Pass La Noisette on your right and a 14th century church on your left. Take a right at the Seven-Up sign. 

The neighborhood, unlike the sign, has changed. 

A mamie, one of the old women of the village gave me a splendid history of the street with its 400-year old houses and families. 

"Pierre, he looked like an old Tony Curtis, when he wasn't at sea.His wife was an artist. Alain, who once lived in Haiti, sailed to America in a boat not much bigger than a row boat. 

Today, as some of the old Catalan families have died out, they are replaced by retirees from Northern France and summer folks from many countries.

The neighborhood became Copenhagen South. First it was a TV journalist followed by a film director, writers, producers, some who won international awards such as Césars, Emmys and Baftas. 

One flamboyant director, tired of the separation between locals and others, decided to throw a street party for all.

From then on people from all the houses mingled.

Seven-Up was never served. 

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the top stories about the airline industry. He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.  

Visit D-L.'s website  https://dlnelsonwriter.com, She is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased  at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504 

Visit Julia's blog. She has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/