There used to be a Dippin’ Donuts in Southbridge, MA, too. It closed over a year ago, and is now another cloned Dunkin’ Donuts. But before it died and was resurrected, it was featured in three “Zippy the Pinhead” cartoons. I know, because I took the cartoons to the store and compared them – every crack in the sidewalk matches, as does the church building behind it. Before they died, they taped up the Zippy cartoons on the counter. (I never knew there was one in Dorchester)
Big Bunny Market is just up the street and over the hill. It, too, was featured in a Zippy comic. It’s still there, idiosyncratic and alone, the only one of its type. It still has the giant Big Bunny on its sign.
The first time I saw a Piggly Wiggly I thought it was the weirdest store name ever. I asked my sister if this was some kind of New Age-y organiic crunchy place and she looked at me strangely and said it was just a regular grocery store. I guess she was used to it by then, after living in the South for a few years. As far as I know, we don’t have Pigglys up north.
I have a couple. Here in town is a respected architecture firm with the name “Stoner Architects”. I like to think that if I stopped by to see what they’re working on, it would be these enormous models of housing projects that look like they were based on a Yes album cover.
In the town where I grew up, there was a haircut place called “Hair It Is!” Not that notable by itself, I suppose. What always made me laugh was how crammed together the letters were. Looked like an ad for some horrible disease: HAIRITIS!
There is a company in southern Illinois called Broad Building Supplies. The first time I saw one of their trucks, I thought ‘What? I can build my own to spec?’.
It’s not so funny if you’re stuck in traffic on Route 46 and are forced to stare at it for an hour or so. But as a kid, it always made me think that it had something to do with Batman’s big, fancy backyard.
I used to work for a company that had, as a former client, a company called Elf Lubricants. I often find myself wondering if it was lubricants made for, by, or even with elves. I usually think of it in my head as “Keebler K-Y.”
There’s a bookstore on Route 10 called The Happy Booker. Gives me a giggle every time I pass it. There’s also a restaurant in Caldwell, NJ, called Bangkok Kitchen. Not really funny unless you have a mind like mine.
There was a short-lived store on State Street in Madison, WI when I was in college. They sold cigars and coffee (not a coffee house, they just had a coffee maker plugged into a wall).
The name was obviously a male generic name of the owner (I think it was Dan). However, the marks on the outside of the window was formatted strangely:
Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan? Dan?
It ran along the bottom of the window. There was no other sign. My friends stopped for coffee there sometimes because you could smoke inside and it was cold. They would say, “We stopped in at Dan? and had a coffee…”
It didn’t last long, to be hospitable. Maybe a month.
BiWay is a chain of discount stores (one step above dollar stores, one step below Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.)
In The Beaches, there’s a local chinese restaurant called The Goof. It originally had another name, and the sign said <original name> Good Food. The d and Foo of the sign burned out, and wasn’t fixed for a long time, and everyone started calling it The Goof. Eventually the original name was forgotten and they started selling T-shirts. I was in there a few years ago and I don’t think the decor had been changed since 1957.
I think ELF is a fairly famous European oil company. There’s a car dealership at the Queensway and Stephen Drive in Toronto that has their logo on the sign. I have to wonder about the logo though; it has a six-legged dog breathing fire. Hmm.
Near Church and Wellesley there’s a bookshop called This Ain’t The Rosedale Library. Context: Church and Wellesly is the Gay Village. Rosedale is the canonical conservative old-money rich exclusive district not too far north.
there used to be a Roast Beef place on Route 1 going south near Saugus, MA called Full of Bull. It was a great place to bring visitors, because its walls were decorated with license plates and auto memorabilia. “Decorated” doesn’t do it justice – the walls were jam-packed with the stuff. The tables had glass tops, and underneath were compartments filled with weird little antiques and flotsam and jetsam. They tore it down a couple of years ago, and now it’s just another McDonald’s.
When I was in college we had a laundromat called “Duds and Suds”. They had a bar next to the machines, so you could drink while you waited for the rinse cycle.
But as a kid, it always made me think that it had something to do with Batman’s big, fancy backyard.
A friend of mine attended a bachelor party held at the Outhouse. He said it had a dangerous feel.