A bit of frivolity with a serious kernel of truth.
Yesterday, as I mentioned on Facebook, we had a lively discussion, which I got a lot out of, on the future vision for Paces Campus that touched on re-branding. This morning our Director of Learnng Gabor Fellner shared with me an amusing yet salutary tale. It's essence was this:
Andrássy út in Budapest is an elegant avenue, built around 1872, one of Budapest's main shopping streets, with fine cafes, restaurants, theatres, and luxury boutiques, lined on both sides with mature trees.
Pigeons rest in the trees and whatever passes below, how can I put this delicately, can become covered in pigeon droppings.
In the 1950s, Andrássy út was renamed three times, until in 1957, under the communists, it became "People's Republic Street" (Népköztársaság út). For older people, however, it continued to be called Andrássy út as it always had been and the pigeons, well, they continued to rest in the trees and cover whatever passed below with their droppings.
In 1990, at the end of the communist era, the name of the avenue became once again Andrássy út. However, despite the restoration of the old name, all those who had grown up during the communist era carried on calling it "People's Republic Street".
And the pigeons? Well, they continued to rest in the branches of the beautiful trees and deposit their droppings on whoever passed below.
It's made me chuckle all day.
