Years ago I tried to start a thread about old graffiti. Unfortunately I didn’t have a digital camera at the time, and was not very successful at making my objective clear, because people replied back with descriptions of ancient Roman soldier’s marks they’d seen on trips to Italy or in books. But what I’m really after is graffiti which is old, but not too old to have originated a recognizable phase of the culture we’re in–whatever you consider that to be, for yourself.
Sixty-one years ago somebody, presumably Richie or Linda, came to this section of sidewalk which had just been resurfaced, and commemorated their couple-hood for all time. Or at least, for just over sixty years and running. They came twice on two successive days, and appear to have had a small dog with them. Richie apparently was wearing dress shoes, or at least loafers, and not sneakers, as the shoe print clearly shows.
I don’t know why but I think it’s cool that this has been there for so long. And if it should be removed and resurfaced tomorrow, at least I’ve memorialized it here. Neighborhoods change drastically, people move in and out, bungalows give way to apartment houses. But some things abide. Somewhere in the same neighborhood, there’s a 1937 marking by someone named Loraine, but I have forgotten where it is, or was.
When the Reichstag in Berlin was refurbished after reunification, they preserved a section of graffiti done by Soviet Army soldiers when they took the building in 1945.
Thanks for the link. However, I’d like to hear about graffiti that people see in their own cities and neighborhoods, or wherever they live and work. Graffiti which has been spared to artificially preserve “history” doesn’t count. It would be like Churchill’s cigar cutter or FDR’s cigarette holder; I’m sure someone has saved those things.
Another way of explaining it is this: If you can show me Joe Blow’s Zippo lighter that somehow got stuck in a fifty-year-old block of pavement, or ordinary people recording their ordinary lives, like Linda and Richie, that’s what I want this thread to be about.
If you mean that little bungalow court with a plaque dedicating it to “The Daughters Of The Grand Army Of The Republic”, yes. I used to live in the building just south of it. There was another bungalow on its own lot, closer to Texas Ave., but it was replaced by a skinny four-story apartment house about sixteen years ago.
I noticed a tree in my town a few weeks ago that had initials carved in it and a date from the 1960s IIRC - the initials had grown and distorted with the tree but were still legible. I can’t remember exactly where it was though, or I’d go back and photograph it…
Band Graffiti from 1866! The rock ledge around the former site of Catskill Mountain House is full of stuff like this. As are the surrounding mountains, come to think of it.
T Boone Pickens, wealthy Oklahoma oil man, sent a crew to his grandmothers former home and had them dig up a slab of concrete in the driveway with his name he had graffitied when he was a kid. They replaced it with a new slab. The current owner of the house was “pissed”!!!
We moved into our current home in 1998. It was built in 1940. The wooden shelving at the back of the garage features numerous pencil scribblings from someone keeping track of their oil change dates and mileage in the 1950s.
I aim to clean out and fix up our garage soon, but I’ll never paint over those.
Also, I went to college near this covered bridge, and there’s a lot of very old stuff carved into its interior walls, including my ex-husband’s and my initials: ohiobarns.com - ohiobarns Resources and Information.
In 1979 my father carved his and my mother’s initials at the pier on Centre Island in Toronto. I went to see it in 2002 and it was still there. I’m not going to lie, seeing KT + SL made me a little misty.
Very funny in a way; the Tower prison was used mostly for prisoners of high social standing and prominence; in its neatness of execution and Latin usage, some of this graffiti looks like what the patrician Rich Kid from a Little Rascals film would have done.
The Bible is still part of our culture, right? There’s a bit of a verse of Isaiah that’s chiseled onto the Western Wall. I’m blanking on the verse now, but I recall my Second Temple professor telling us that it dates from Roman times, and is a subtle dig at the occupiers.
Okay, except I did some googling after writing the above paragraph and found this, which claims that the graffiti is quite different from what I remember. Hm.
Some of the responses from that google query are craaaaaazy, incidentally.
I despair of my ability to express my intentions adequately. There’s probably 7000 year old graffiti in Jericho, but I don’t consider myself an heir of the culture of Jericho even if it is mentioned in the bible.
The Western Wall is a preserved ancient monument. It doesn’t surprise anyone to see ancient graffiti there.
I’m more interested in graffiti that exists in environments that are actively lived in, walked through, worked in, and so on. Old monuments set aside and roped off, and taken out of active use don’t count (although the Tower of London bit was interesting). What’s in the sidewalks in the neighborhoods where people live? I would think older sidewalk marks can be found in Boston or New York. What’s in the basements of old houses/buildings that people live in today? Let’s say, not only graffiti, but any small artifact. For example, when some of UCLA’s original buildings were being retrofitted a few years ago, someone found a bottle of bootleg booze left behind by one of the original construction workers in the 1920s.
I think they must have gone to my HS which is a couple of blocks away. One of these days I might take a look at the old yearbooks in the school library from '48 to '52 to see if I can find them. Though it’s probably more time and trouble than it’s worth, with only first names to go by. I’d probably have just as much luck trying to find out the dog’s name
My very favorite ancient grafitti is carved by Greek mercenaries on the Temple at Abu Simbel in Egypt, and it contains an ancient joke: “Archon son of Amoibichos and Axe, son of Nobody, wrote this”
