blacktop/macadam

[sagehen]

>I've been following this thread intermittently, forgive me if it's been
>mentioned, but I used to be puzzled in Upstate NY by signs the highway dept.
>would put up  "Road recently oiled"  which meant they'd put a new layer of
>what we called "tar" down as far as I could tell.  Not sure what the "oil"
>referred to.
>
>The blacktop for us was a basketball court or other play area with blacktop
>on it.
>
>Dale Coye
>Princeton, NJ.
~~~~~~~~
It may be a practice now abandoned for environmental considerations, but I
believe the "recently oiled"  warnings  did actually refer to oil being
spread on dust&gravel roads to keep the dust down in dry weather.  Our town
had quite a few miles of unpaved roads    in the 70s & 80s  which would be
oiled for a stretch  near the occasional house, as a favor to the residents.
A. Murie