Hey, Dubuque! Have You Seen This Odd Footprint on Sidewalks?

Last week, when my girlfriend, Catherine, and I went for a late-lunch in Dubuque, I took note of something on the business' adjacent sidewalk. Its presence instantly inspired confusion, intrigue, and nostalgia, basically in that order.

Let me take you back for a minute... when you were a kid, were you ever tempted to write your initials, or maybe your name, in a fresh piece of wet cement? I confess to having been tempted but too cowardly one day when I was in fourth grade and had just gotten off at my usual bus-stop and saw a wet concrete sidewalk slab had just been filled. I wanted to write my initials. I regret not. But I feared the wrath of somebody would be upon me if I did.

That memory I forgot I had rushed back to me when me and Catherine noticed that on a concrete square leading into the restaurant Your Pie in Dubuque's Wacker Plaza was the silhouette of a footprint. Inside the print read "MAX SMITH DUBUQUE IOWA."

If you look at the photo above, you'll notice the shape of the shoe is too perfect (and too flat, with no ridges) to be from a real shoe (I assume, after all). The lettering is perfect, block-style, not hand-drawn like a kid hastily writing his name in the cement with his index finger. This had all the makings of something that was professionally branded on the sidewalk.

A quick Google search of "Max Smith Dubuque Iowa" puts the mystery to rest: the "culprit" is Max Smith Construction Company, located on Washington Street in Dubuque. Not a ton of information for the company exists outside of a Facebook page. I assume if you're looking to have concrete work done in the Tri-States, the Max Smith name needs no introduction.

Furthermore, another curious find on the massively underrated website "Encyclopedia Dubuque" is a page dedicated to some swag associated with the concrete enterprise, including some retro coffee mugs. One reads "You Pour Your Coffee / I'll Pour Your Cement." Elite branding.

I'd be interested to see where else this footprint exists in Dubuque and the Tri-State area. In the meantime, visit Max Smith Construction Company's Facebook page for more details on the company.