If you have driven along I-75 through Florence, Ky., you won't be able to miss the giant Florence Y'All water tower. And you also won't be able to help exclaiming "It's Florence Y'All" every time you pass by. But I was curious about the history of the "Y'All" part because I remember it used to say "Mall" as in Florence Mall which is next to it.
So according to Wikipedia, which is always 100-percent accurate, here is the back story:
The giant advertisement (for the mall) raised legal concerns (when it said "Florence Mall"). In July 1974, state Bureau of Highways officials told the city that the tower's sign was taller than allowed by state law. Among the solutions mooted were repainting the tower or covering the words with a large tarpaulin. With time running out to comply with the law, civil staff met for a brainstorming session at the Stringtown Restaurant with the late C.M. "Hop" Ewing, then Mayor of Florence, who "sketched different ideas on a napkin." Ewing ultimately devised the idea of removing the vertical lines at the sides of the M in MALL, adding a stem to make it a Y; becoming Y'ALL. Ewing called it a "corny solution, but cost-effective" because the minor alteration would cost one-third of a full repainting. The city paid $472 to the W.T. Marx Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, to make the changes.
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