I loved the signs and lettering, the New England-ish-ness of the little shops and stores. Montana has its fair share of charm, but it's different in Massachusetts...we've got rustic, they have quaint. And they can get by with names that would be completely appalling, here! For example:
And then there's the Runcible Spoon in Providence...
This was a corner store on the North End of Boston that looked as though they'd had the same sign for 50 years. What I REALLY liked, though, was the Petruccelli campaign sign in the window! The North End was extremely Italian; we'd walk past a group of older guys sitting on a bench in front of corner stores like this one and they'd be talking in Italian, gesturing, "Bah!". It almost felt like a movie set with GREAT extras creating the neighborhood scene.
This guy was in front of a cigar and pipe shop. When I look at the large version of the photo, on my computer, I get all distracted by the photos in the window beside him! V-e-r-y interesting...
I also like that you can tell everyone rubs the carving's head when they are going past...see the grubby top?
This sign and the view of the street behind it is another North End classic. Besides having odd little general corner stores that carried everything you'd ever need, that end of town had an abundance of real estate offices, beauty salons and restaurants. We're talking salons every couple blocks, now! Although, come to think of it, I didn't actually see a whole lot of local ladies out and about....hmmm.
The North End is also home to the church Rose Kennedy attends, we were informed.
This is one of my very favorite sign posts! It was on the other side of Boston, toward Boston Common. They have delightful street names! My friends live on Pleasant Street...again, almost like a movie set, right? We found out on our extremely, precisely factual Freedom Trail tour that George Washington decreed the British street names be changed to more Colonial street names...so one can be on Providence Street, say, and all of a sudden it will turn into Worthington Avenue, because apparently the signage was a little relaxed and the town plat book not really held to strict renaming standards.
I had to take this picture, of course...
The home of Parker House Rolls! I thought of Gramps when I saw this; he made incredible Parker House rolls. And the sign is so elegant!
Ah....here's the General Hooker Entrance. Pretty grand, huh? Considering the "women of a certain profession"....
....looked like this, exiting the building.
Boston hookers are apparently QUITE conservative.
Geoff's was a sandwich shop in Providence that made funky, wonderful food. They were also the least pretentious, most REAL, groovy people I've seen working in food prep. I'd be tempted to go there just for the overheard kitchen conversation and the funny college kid ads hanging on the walls, but I'd stay for the Rachel san (turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, horseradish on rye).
It was like seeing a picture of a dear cousin or something....sweetly familiar in a strange city.
"Hey, Norm...what's shakin'?"
"All four cheeks and a coupla chins, Sammy..."
And lastly, the Freedom Trail sign which will make Grandma Dutton mad at the desecration, but I thought it was sort of a good representation of our freedom of expression and speech.
