In the past, I’ve blogged pictures of the two Coke murals here in Keene, as well as a picture of the Parrish Shoes mural left over from filming of the movie Jumanji. Of the various sights I notice and collect, old advertising murals are among my favorites, so I was amused last week to see more than a few faded glories in both Findlay and Toledo.
When I posted that first picture of one of Keene’s two Coke murals, I mentioned that such painted signs remind of the old Mail Pouch tobacco murals you used to see on the sides of rural barns. So I had to laugh when one of the first things I saw in downtown Findlay, OH was a brick wall sporting ads for both products: tobacco and soda.
Judging from the abundance of old soda murals, Ohio must be a particularly thirsty state…either that, or Midwestern folks are so hard-working, they need lots of reminders to stop and pour a pop. (And yes, Ohio is the heart of pop country, “soda” being a word I taught myself to use only after moving to New England.)
It seems that in the olden days, if you were thirsty in northwest Ohio, you had a wide choice of soft drink options. You could have enjoyed a Pepsi at Johnny Tobak’s Nite Club…
smiled with a Coke by the pawn shop…
or sipped a 7-Up at the Paradise Grill & Bar.
After you were sufficiently hydrated and ready to get back to work, you could take a cue from this faded sign by going shopping for “Everything for the home, farm, garage, or factory.”
Some old murals are so faded, they are no longer legible. This wall used to advertise something, but now it’s difficult to determine what.
Whatever products they sold, faded brick murals continue to fascinate me, standing as they do like isolated islands from a nearly forgotten past.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
Aug 22, 2005 at 11:21 am
I love those old murals! What does that faded one say? F.A. something Confectionery? I’ve been google searching every combination of F.A. and confection or confections in Findlay, Ohio I can think of. I need more information Lorianne! Dammit, give me more!
š
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 11:26 am
Fascinating. The everyday, ubiquitous things in a foreign country that no one ever tells you about. I learn so much from you. ‘Pop’, by the way, was the word that I grew up using (in my case, asking for and not getting – ‘no dear, it’s “common” and not good for you’) in working-class 1950-60s England. You wouldn’t hear it here now.
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 11:52 am
Sorry, Shane, but that’s all I could make out on the mural myself! (It’s not any more legible in person…in fact, I initially noticed what looked like the faint lines of an old Coke ad & only noticed the Confection part after-the-fact.)
Unless there’s an expert in Findlay history out there who wants to lend some help, this one might necessarily remain a mystery!
Goodness, Jean, I never would have thought that anyone across the pond would say “pop”! Growing up in Ohio, of course I thought that’s what *everyone* said, so I was hugely disillusioned (and embarrassed) when I moved to Boston & people *laughed* at people who said “pop.”
When I was an undergrad, we called the librarian who walked around confiscating contraband food & drink the “Pop Cop.” I don’t know what they’d call such a person in New England: the Soda Soldier? š
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 11:57 am
I love those old advertising murals too! Especially those Pepsi murals. Not a coke fan.
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 12:16 pm
I likem too…thanks.
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 4:40 pm
These are SO wonderful. You really must pop over to see Tracy at Artsy Science today… he has some great pictures from a small town he visited recently… you’ll laugh out loud!
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Ron, that Pepsi mural was my favorite. It was on the side of an old building right down the street from Tony Packo’s in Toledo. I’d never seen a *Pepsi* mural, only Coke ones…and also the fact that it was painted on a *wood* building (not brick) was somewhat unusual.
Interestingly, I remember you mentioning that you don’t like Coke. I think I once offered to buy you a Pepsi the next time you were in Keene… š
Sylph, I’m glad you liked these. It was fun collecting them!
Yes, Panthergirl, I saw Tracy’s photos from “Nimrod.” I loved the horse & buggy on the street…it made me wish I’d had a camera the time I saw an Amish man with horse & buggy pulled up to a payphone! My favorite of Tracy’s pictures, though, was the one of the “Nimrod Gnats”! š
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 6:52 pm
I’m ashamed of myself for not having gone far enough back in your online history to know that “Jumanji”, a favourite of both my daughter and myself, was shot in Keene!
So when the little Parrish kid goes flying through the streets on his bike, we are seeing YOUR town?
I MUST watch it again, tonight! Of course, now I’ll cry for night #2, ’cause Ky is at summer camp for a week, and Smother Mother me can’t get over it…
LikeLike
Aug 22, 2005 at 7:07 pm
Yes indeed, parts of Jumanji were shot here. That was before I lived here, and I’ve actually never seen the film, so I can’t say for certain which scenes were shot locally. But I do know that they had to give our lovely Central Square a makeover to make it look decrepit, and the Chamber of Commerce folks actually posted a sign apologizing to visitors for Downtown’s unusually disheveled appearance.
The Parrish Shoes sign was a quick mock-up, and film crews were supposed to cover it when filming was finished. But in the meantime, locals grew to love the mural & asked for it to stay, so it’s still there (and weathering well).
I hope you make it through the film without using *too* many Kleenex! š
LikeLike