We’ve all heard of the Adopt-a-Highway or Sponsor-a-Highway programs started in the 1980s. Individuals, organizations, and companies or businesses volunteer to keep a mile-long stretch of a highway clean and litter-free in exchange for their name on a sign.
I always glance at those signs since it’s hard to miss them. It kind of sucks when that stretch of highway isn’t clean and maintained but over all it’s a program that seems to work. The Department of Transportation for each state can pull the volunteers sign if they don’t comply anyway opening it up to a new group or person.
Anyway, when I saw this sign while driving in Westchester County, New York on the southbound side of 684 about 30 minutes north of NYC I took a double-take and the next day pulled over and snapped some photos.
Jolana Miller/Townsquare Media
Is this who I think it is? Is it just a guy with the same name or is it THE Clive Davis. You know, the Clive who is a world famous, five-time Grammy winning record producer who discovered and signed Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, Santana, and Barry Manilow to name a few and that doesn’t even include those signed to his record labels.
He’s also in the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.
The 92 year old rock star in his own right is currently the Chief Creative Officer with Sony Music Entertainment in case you were wondering. This after a career running Columbia Records and RCA among other labels with an endless amount of talent.
Jolana Miller/Townsquare Media/Getty Images
So is it THE Clive Davis? Well it would make sense since he lives in Westchester in the town of Pound Ridge according to the Bedford and New Canaan Magazine.
To solidify it though it took me a simple Google search confirmed with a Rolling Stone article. Clive has been sponsoring this stretch of highway, and another stretch on the northbound side of 684 as early as 2008.
Obviously this is old school, common knowledge for those that live in this area and drive 684 all the time. I guess that means it will now become second nature for me to see the sign, too.
Love it!
According to Mental Floss, Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams are two other celebrities that have adopted highways once upon a time.
LOOK: Stunning vintage photos capture the beauty of America’s national parks
Today these parks are located throughout the country in 25 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The land encompassing them was either purchased or donated, though much of it had been inhabited by native people for thousands of years before the founding of the United States. These areas are protected and revered as educational resources about the natural world, and as spaces for exploration.
Keep scrolling for 50 vintage photos that show the beauty of America’s national parks.
Gallery Credit: Alexander Raeburn
LOOK: Must-do activities at every national park
Gallery Credit: Angela Underwood