EVERETT — Things are slowly starting to get mushy between two readerboard signs on Rucker Avenue.
“Oh my Pacific Stone! You’ve got our bacon shakin ! :)” reads the latest on the marquee at Totem Family Diner, 4410 Rucker Ave.
Pacific Stone Company, six blocks away, responded: “Yo, Totem! Your crush & our blush has Everett smiling! :)”
The Totem made the first move a month ago with a sign reading, “I have a secret crush on the rake and shovel sign down the street.”
Pacific Stone flirted back: “Hey, Totem! Our rocks are blushing & we’ve scrambled our eggs. Coffee date?”
After a March 24 story in The Daily Herald about the readerboard romance, readers sent emails requesting updates.
Across Rucker Avenue from the Totem, Camp Fire Snohomish County encouraged the courtship with their sign.
“Totem take Pacific on a date 2 R auction,” the side facing Totem reads.
Camp Fire Director Krissy Davis didn’t stop there.
“I gave Totem a couple boxes of candy and two tickets to our auction,” she said.
Tickets are $100 to the May 19 event at Hotel Indigo that raises money for scholarships for summer camps.
“I love it,” Davis said of the signs. “I’m hopeful.”
The Totem and Pacific Stone are both Rucker landmark businesses with old-school hand-lettered signs. The Totem has a colorful totem pole motif. Pacific Stone’s sign is framed in turquoise with an oversized red rake and a yellow shovel.
Yet it took decades for the flamboyant seniors to get it shaking.
Totem owner Steve Jermyn long admired the Pacific Stone sign. In early March, he decided to deviate from the usual catchy slogans and play Cupid.
He doesn’t know yet what he’s going to do with the $100 tickets.
“Maybe I’ll call Pacific and ask if they want to go, make it a date night,” Jermyn said.
He and Pacific Stone owner Tim Gray have never been formally introduced, though he has shopped at the garden store and Gray has dined at Totem.
“It’s pretty fun to see people entertained by this,” Gray said.
Both plan to keep the roadside banter going on the slow burn love tale.
Unless either is willing to uproot a sign, the relationship between readerboards will remain platonic.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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