Over the weekend, the wife and I went up to Chincoteague to visit some friends who have a house on Pony Swim Lane, right where the wild pony's are driven over from Assateague Island. Pony sales fund the local fire department, and tourism funds the small town.
This massive old roadside Viking is at the end of Pony Swim Lane and is, I have deduced, a bit of signage left over from the Viking Carpet Company which built 11 of these giants and mounted them individually on trucks (here's one in Bangor, Maine and another in Memphis, Tennessee and another which used to be in Arkansas). The giant fiberglass Vikings were moved on flatbed trucks, and were counterbalanced with water tanks so they could be quickly erected in parking lots of stores that carried the Viking carpet line. Apparently the arm that is crossed in front of the Viking once held a large shield which advertised the carpeting, while a large sword was under his left hand..
At the beach, a sign warned that any public displays from me would not be tolerated.
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2 comments:
There should be other large fiberglass statuary in Chincoteague. As I recall, there are at least two rearing horses/ponies at motels there, one called The Maddox and the other...hmmm...also starts with an "M", but it's been a loooooong time since I was down that way. I always wanted a Bob's Big Boy statue, and when they were remodeling and doing away with them in P.G. County I played hard with corporate to get one. They thought I was nuts. That was before it became the rage of the frat boys to steal them. Alas, I was ahead of my time. (G) Oh, and if you think you fought mosquitoes inland this weekend, you've never stood in the swamps of Chincoteague at Pony Penning time. Those bastards are the size of fighter jets!
Seahorse
Yes, I saw a few horses, but they seemed to fit and they were not as enormous as the Viking who is about 20-feet tall.
Yes, I was right at the Pony Pen on Saturday, which is why I might have had "compassion fatigue" for the mosquitos when they came back in another location Monday. Of course the real time and place for mosquitoes is Assateague at night in mid-summer when there is no wind. You could seriously die from blood loss if you spent overnight out in the marsh.
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