(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

There's a billboard for Haddonfield on the Ben Franklin Bridge. It's a guy in colonial garb listening to an iPod shuffle. The billboard reads 'Historically Hip'. It makes me sick.

Comments

[alwaysregal.livejournal.com]

*shudders*

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Wow. The degree to which this area considers "the 1770s" to be its primary tourism draw astounds and disappoints me. I remember an anecdote--but sadly, not the source or the specific countries and individuals involved!--where a world leader (Stalin? Mao?) on his first state visit to Egypt said something like "For a thousand years in the age of the pharoahs, your country was a great intellectual and political power in the world", which Egypt took as a compliment initially until after the summit, at which point it had become clear that (Stalin? Mao?) thought of modern-day Egypt as an intellectual and political backwater and had meant this as a subtle insult. Isn't there anything about modern-day Philadelphia, Haddonfield, etc, that could be advertised?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Haddonfield modern? Not so much. That being said, the town has at least a little historical significance. The Indian King Tavern dates back to the Revolutionary War and has Underground Railroad connections. The first Hadrosaurus was found at the end of Maple Ave (and I believe is now in the Academy of Natural Sciences). The town makes a big deal of historical preservation and has a large historic district where property owners face restrictions on what renovations they can do and what colors they can paint the exteriors of buildings. There was quite a to-do maybe 10-15 years ago when some people painted their house a very striking shade of purple, even though they were outside the historic district. But there's nothing modern about the town, the only thing worth advertising these days are the good schools (which I think are going downhill), the quaint downtown shopping, and the lifestyle of the community.