Parole Sign - Annapolis circa 1990s
This is a scaled replica I scratch built of one of the rare Googie style signs you could see in Annapolis Maryland, as it stood near the end of it's life, neglected but still very beloved. I was born in 1973, so I don't have solid memories of the sign in it's full glory as it was built and painted (the brown rusty elements were a bright white, and the lettering bright and adorned with neon). Built in an area of town named from it's initial housing of a civil war camp, this outdoor shopping center was very successful until the inevitable debut of an indoor mall, the Annapolis Mall, which opened in 1980, and doomed Parole to slide into disrepair.
This is a scaled replica I scratch built of one of the rare Googie style signs you could see in Annapolis Maryland, as it stood near the end of it's life, neglected but still very beloved. I was born in 1973, so I don't have solid memories of the sign in it's full glory as it was built and painted (the brown rusty elements were a bright white, and the lettering bright and adorned with neon). Built in an area of town named from it's initial housing of a civil war camp, this outdoor shopping center was very successful until the inevitable debut of an indoor mall, the Annapolis Mall, which opened in 1980, and doomed Parole to slide into disrepair.
People my age fondly remember the Parole shopping center because as children we got to window shop at the pet store (the puppies and kittens in the large plate glass window out front proved to be irresistable), get a giant pretzel rod for being well behaved at the Buster Brown shoe store, begged for model kits at the hobby store, were driven to tears of boredom at Woodward & Lothrup (Woodies)/Sears/THE DREADED FABRIC STORE, and got a real-deal cherry coke at the soda fountain thet was somehow still operating inside the K-Mart (it had a rotating belt for food!!). The list goes on and on, but suffice to say, it was a wonderful and drab 1960s era shopping gauntlet! And in December, Santa's wee village would come to the central quad, as oversized pipe-cleaner-like tinsel candy canes and bells adorned the light poles in the parking lot that surrounded the center.
It's all gone now, replaced by one of those artifical town centers that has overpriced condos and chain restaurants and a Target. But the scrappy weird rusty Parole sign beckons me still, in my mind, symbolizing a home town that is no more, but is preserved fondly in the recesses of my addled sentimental brain. ps - that "Shop" disc on the top used to ROTATE I think into the 1980s? I do remenber that!
