Deerfield’s famous kissing restrictions involving a couple of signs that tell commuters where they can kiss when dropped off at the METRA train station on Deerfield Road are making news again. The signs show a silhouetted couple puckering up in a “Kissing Zone” and a similar silhouette inside the universally known circle with a diagonal slash. They became news when the village designated kissing and no-kissing areas to ease station traffic tie-ups in 1979.
The signs resurfaced in the media in 1984 when a couple of Deerfield residents presented tile replicas to Richard Dawson, then the kissing host of the “Family Feud” television show. The signs are back in the spotlight this month, placed there by the Warrington Chamber of Commerce in Warrington, England, and the Deerfield-Bannockburn-Riverwoods Chamber of Commerce in Deerfield.
DBR Chamber President Katie Spies and Warrington Chamber Chief Executive Colin Daniels were asked about what sparked the curiosity.
Q: Why the renewed interest?
Spies: The DBR gave the signs to Warrington when our delegation went there last year for a European trade show because Deerfield is known for two things: the signs and the Bulls training facility. The no-kissing sign is copyrighted by the Village of Deerfield, so the only way a town or anyone can put up that particular sign is if Deerfield agrees.
Daniels: We ran an article about receiving the signs on the International page of Alliance, which is a quarterly paper published by the North Cheshire, Wirral, North Wales Chamber Group, a consortium that includes Warrington (and also has Daniels as its chief executive). Alliance is distributed internationally. The issue with the article came out the end of last month.
Q: With what results?
Daniels: The media started calling me at home before 7 a.m. one day. It went on that way until 10 at night. I did 20 separate interviews, including with Australia, Canada, Switzerland. That was just radio and television. There are also pieces in all the national dailies.
Spies: I’ve gotten calls from the Scotland and London BBC and other stations. They did taped interviews. The London BBC broadcast I did as a conference call with our village manager, Bob Franz. I saw Colin on “Good Morning America.” They showed him standing in front of the Warrington station holding the signs. But they didn’t say anything about them being a gift from Deerfield or that the signs are up in Deerfield.
Q: Do people interviewing you from the foreign press know where Deerfield is?
Spies: If they didn’t, they do now. I mention the Bulls and that their training facility is located here.
Daniels: This has brought quite a lot of publicity for Warrington and for Deerfield. I explain where we got the signs from and about our chamber relationship. I also describe where Deerfield is and that it is prosperous. Radio Scotland picked up on the name Bannockburn because of the famous battle.
Q: What questions were you asked most often?
Spies: Why we have the signs and does the village enforce them. I explain that the signs are meant to be humorous but they were put up to move cars along during high-traffic times. And no, the village does not really enforce them.
Daniels: What we are going to do with the signs. My answer is tongue-in-cheek. I say, perhaps we’ll put them up. I’ve been accused of being unromantic. I say everything with a straight face. But we haven’t spoken to Railtrack, the railway authorities. I think our council will encourage Railtrack to let us put the signs up.
