Yeah, I remember when it said FLORENCE MALL, then had to be changed to Y'ALL, or so the story goes, as some didn't like it giving such prominent, but free, advertising to the then fairly new Mall. Famous tower, it is.
There goes one of my favorite stories, sigh. I heard that the mall officials got to advertise in return for paying for the paint job. When it needed repainted, they were kind of slow to get it done, so the city officials took care of it - with just a teensy little change, lol.
I hate when the truth ruins a great story!
Ha - well, cheri, as I wrote; "or so the story goes..."
I have no idea if it is any more true or not that what you heard. It's probably on record somewhere, and I suspect that even that has been passed around so many times it's changed in the translation.
Here's what Wikipedia says about the
Florence Water Tower, which makes both of us wrong:
"Florence is well known in surrounding cities for a water tower visible from I-75 that reads "Florence Y'all". Originally the tower advertised the up-and-coming Florence Mall, as part of an agreement by the mall developers who donated the land for the tower. However, because the mall was not built yet, the tower violated highway regulations, and the city was forced to change it within a short deadline. Rather than repaint the entire tower, they simply painted over the two vertical lines of the "M" to create a "Y". The intent was to change it back when the mall was built, but the local residents liked the tower's new proclamation, so the city decided to leave it as it was."