Took this photo last year in Old Wailuku Town, Maui, on a quiet Sunday morning.I spent many years painting signs when I was young and so I tend to notice hand-painted signs. I've also grown to appreciate that weathered look. This sign isn't a masterpiece by any measure, but I guess it was the setting that caught my eye. This section of Wailuku Town is just off the Main drag and has several pawn shops, cafes and antique shops. By the looks of the attached Coke sign, they both have probably been hanging there for over 50 years.
I used to go to a nearby coffee shop every morning, order a muffin and coffee, read the paper and sketch out ideas. Then the wise town officials tried to revitalize the neighborhood by widening the sidewalks and adding benches and trees along the road. That resulted in fewer parking spaces. Now there's rarely a place to park and I've stopped going there. What a shame. I miss some of the funky charm it had when the sidewalks were crumbling. Some of the patina is gone forever. It's as if someone were to replace the Bungalow and Coke signs with modern lookalikes. Sooner or later they'll be taken down, so I'm appreciating 'em now, by freezing them in time through photographs.
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