Ryan chuckled and exclaimed, “You’re talking about the Sesame Street font! Well, I’m not sure what the font’s officially called, but we’ve always called it that.” It’s apt. While on hold, I rehearsed a better spiel, but one that still started with, “This is perhaps a weird inquiry…” and went on to explain that I was doing, um, research and not needing any concrete infrastructure products myself before ending with a description of the words “Street Light”. Office manager Cheaunti didn’t seem put off by my call and transferred me to a sales representative. They’re based in Sparks and have offices in the rest of Nevada and in California, Hawaii, and Arizona. Jensen Precast was established in 1968 and is dedicated to making precast concrete and (I just learned) polymer concrete composite products for infrastructures, like streetlights. It wasn’t until I created this blog, today, that I wondered why I don’t just call Jensen! After all, it wouldn’t be the most awkward phone call I’d made for, um, investigative purposes. But the website did not contain any information on or images of this particular model. That’s how I know these are called access hatch covers. After a few minutes of flummoxing around Google and typing things like “Streetlight control systems in the sidewalk”, I finally zoomed in on the image and noticed that the frame around “PC Street Light” contained a more modern clue, a web address:.

I guessed that the lettering is 1970s/early 1980s and of course I wanted to find out more about it. These covers are located on Flamingo Road, near the bus stop, between Sandalwood and Rainbow in Las Vegas, Nevada. This whimsical font (or is it technically a typeface?) stands out among the other utility access hatch covers lettered with cleaner lines.

On that Tuesday’s walk/run, I did look down and was rewarded with these two charmingly lettered access covers on the sidewalk. If we don’t take a second or two to look up or down as we’re going about the business or leisure of everyday life, we might miss something.

Sesame Street Fot Sesame Street Font