Sunday, July 22, 2012

A Conn. job: Some fabulously faux Connecticut retro postcards

 Palm trees? In Connecticut?

 No, it's not the Matterhorn. It's Connecticut!



 Here's the real Moodus...

...where they don't take kindly to littering or rounding up to even numbers.

 Goodspeed's Station Country Store...

 ...near the Goodspeed Opera House (photo from ctvisit.com)...

 ...and the great East Haddam swinging bridge.

The small central Connecticut town of East Haddam has a lot going for it: the gorgeous Connecticut River with its sublime 1913 steel swing bridge, the spectacular Goodspeed Opera House, dating back to 1876 and still producing Broadway-caliber musicals, and Goodspeed's Station Country store, one of those nostalgic gift shops full of fun nicknacks. On a recent visit to the store we were taken with a collection of what appeared to be vintage postcards from the region, depicting cheery skiers, fishermen and Nutmeg State guests frolicking on vacation. As a fan of this jolly type of ephemera, and a Connecticut native, I wondered why I had never seen anything like these before and while we were oohing and ahhing over them, the nice proprietor lady told us she had put them together with a publishing house that specializes in whimsical custom-made vintage-looking items. And whimsical they are...Connecticut's a beautiful place but the skiing postcard makes it look like the Swiss Alps in the 1940s. And anyone who has been to sleepy little Moodus will tell you it's pleasant but not exactly the glamorous and rugged vacation mecca seen here. So, to Goodspeed's Country Store, we offer our un-Conn.-ditional Conn.-gratulations for these visual Conn.-fections. They really -ticut the mustard.

2 comments:

roadsidewonders said...

Admittedly, those post cards are CONN-founding.

Gunnar and Sherry said...

Yes, they are quite the CONN-undrum