Signage

[wildwoodfam]

Originally Posted by Gavia immer

To get here, you followed the state road sign that reads, "New Hampshire Lakes and Mountains", right? New Hampshire doesn't need any more "honky-tonk" to insinuate onto its scenic lakes and mountains, that's all.

I live in Mass - yes - been here all my life - and have spent almost every summer at Winnipesaukee. I have to say the ONLY place I see HONKY TONK is Hampton Beach and Weirs Beach...hmmm....BOTH IN NH! Only place I see these gawd awful neon flashing signs and the new video signage is in - yes indeed DING DING DING --- NH!!

Honky Tonk - can I pull an Obi Wan moment please - "Now thats a name I havent heard in a long long time...." In fact my Dad uses it when he describes - yep right again - WEIRS BEACH ... "Hey dad we are taking the boat over to the Weirs." His reply - "That honky tonk place?! You can have it."

Anyway - I have yet to see these signs that folks in NH are complaining about in MASS.

As for my drive to the lake - no signs saying Lakes and Mountains, thats route 95 - on 93 its signs for: Manchester - Boston Airport, Verizon Center, Steeplechase Mall, etc etc etc until I get the "quiet" village of TILTON and its famous traditional New England SHOPPING OUTLETS - nope no signs for Lakes and Mountains when I come up - my friend - but at night I just follow the lights - glowing on the horizon - sadly - I can see more stars here at home in Haverhill than I can when I venture to parts of the lake....

[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

I live in Mass - yes - been here all my life - and have spent almost every summer at Winnipesaukee. I have to say the ONLY place I see HONKY TONK is Hampton Beach and Weirs Beach...hmmm....BOTH IN NH!

You must be joking.Have you been to Salsbury beach?

Only place I see these gawd awful neon flashing signs and the new video signage is in - yes indeed DING DING DING --- NH!!

Your kidding again right?Only in NH?Have you never been on Rt 1 in Saugus?Maybe living in the border town of Haverhill you spend most of your time in NH.

Anyway - I have yet to see these signs that folks in NH are complaining about in MASS.


rolleye2:

I think you need to look around your own state.

[Skip]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

I think you need to look around your own state.

Kind of got a good chuckle when I read your retort this morning.

Why?

When I went in to work this morning there were several Sunday papers still kicking around the office. The first one on the top of the pile quickly caught my eye. The above the fold story on the front page?

Why, it was a full article deploring the tacky signs covering a City and the apparent lack of enforcement of current sign policies.

New Hampshire community, New Hampshire paper?

Nope....

It was the Sunday Eagle-Tribune and the community was the City of Haverhill, MA !!!!

It appears tacky signage is indeed an interstate problem!

[wildwoodfam]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

I think you need to look around your own state.

SAUGUS?!? I hardly consider there to be a link between Saugus and Lake Winnipesaukee. Though come to think of it - Weirs Beach and Laconia do sort of remind me of Saugus! HA! If you want to do a comparison - lets look at some of our resort locations in MASS - The Berkshires of course - no neon out there! Then there are the towns like Chatham, Dennis, Hyannis, etc...anywhere on Cape really, Salisbury Beach since someone brought it up - is in its final stages of its arcade/honky tonk life - and is becoming "wooden signed" to its death. There is only ONE road with any kind of flashing lights - right in the center - and that will be gone within a couple years, much like its counterparts along the coast. Nantasket Beach - Gone - Revere Beach - gone - Mass is becoming "Wood Carved" while our neighbor to the north goes NEON!!

As for Haverhill - the problem in Haverhill is not NEON signs - its paper signs being posted on more than 25% of their window space in convenience store windows - again - APPLES AND ORANGES - and if you read the article instead of skimming it you will see there is an ordinance in place that the council wants enforced. No NEON or FLASHY Signs - even the Starbucks on 125 has a Wooden Carved sign - NOW drive 100 yards north and cross into NH and thats a different story!

Get back to the main and original point - since we have drifted so far away from it....Signage in NH is not the fault of any other community - which was my original post. It is the fault of those who serve NH on councils and chambers. Lets face it - those are the facts. If you dont like the changes - go to Town Meetings, vote city councilmen off the boards and complain to the Chambers of Commerce.

As for me spending time in NH - of course I do - what with all the conveniences and SERVICES in lower taxed Haverhill with the tax free shopping a stones throw away - who wouldn't do that!

[Skip]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

...As for Haverhill - the problem in Haverhill is not NEON signs - its paper signs being posted on more than 25% of their window space in convenience store windows - again - APPLES AND ORANGES - and if you read the article instead of skimming it you will see there is an ordinance in place that the council wants enforced. No NEON or FLASHY Signs - even the Starbucks on 125 has a Wooden Carved sign - NOW drive 100 yards north and cross into NH and thats a different story!...

Actually I did read the entire store. And I will reiterate that I find it extremely humorous to be lectured about tacky signage from a resident of a community that is struggling with tacky signage!

You tell us that we have created our own problem by lacking theforesight to have the proper ordinances in effect to discourage what you deem as inappropriate, yet your own home town which has such ordinances fails to enforce same!

I am not a fan of the LED signs in question, but if they are legal in the communities in question then so be it. But I did find the photo that I "skimmed" over in the Eagle Tribune of an offending Haverhill storefront to be much more offensive then any LED sign I have recently come across in New Hampshire.

But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

Best of luck in getting your sign ordinances enforced down in Haverhill and getting all those nasty store fronts cleaned up!

[wildwoodfam]

Originally Posted by Skip

Actually I did read the entire store. And I will reiterate that I find it extremely humorous to be lectured who is lecturing who?about tacky signage from a resident of a community that is struggling with tacky signage! Not a community - a neighborhood. Haverhill as a community is not struggling with tacky signage - one city councilor - ONE - city councilor has taken issue with it - and it is in ONE district neighborhood. Not a tourist haven by any stretch. Those areas have signage regulation enforcement because Haverhill wants to attract outsiders! End of that topic.

I am not a fan of the LED signs in question, but if they are legal in the communities in question then so be it. But I did find the photo that I "skimmed" over in the Eagle Tribune of an offending Haverhill storefront to be much more offensive then any LED sign I have recently come across in New Hampshire.

Then you have never driven through Laconia or Rochester or even your hometown of Dover lately! Just drive up route 11 from 16 to Alton Bay - and you'll see plenty of convenience stores with tacky signage and cheesey advertising like the store pictured in the Tribune.

But then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

[B]This beholder tends to avoid THAT section of Haverhill - as it is a neighborhood. Not a tourist attraction like Lake Winnipesaukee. Speaking of Lake Winnipesaukee - The point of the original post was the corruption of the LAKES REGION due to LED Signage!B]

Best of luck in getting your sign ordinances enforced down in Haverhill and getting all those nasty store fronts cleaned up!

Again, it's one neighborhood and one city councilor's rallying cry - not a city wide dillema nor is it a concern for me or my neighbors in this community.

Lets go back to the original post --- about LED signs in the LAKES REGION....and my concern that there was blame being laid at the foot of "other states" which I found unfounded, unnecessary and unproductive.

[mets3007]

The LED signs dont bother me when I visit there each summer, they do their job as attention getters for the tourists and thats why they are there.I remember the Funspot one was changed 2 yrs ago I remember reading that the LED sign is cheaper to run than the old digital sign energy cost wise ( this was in one of the papers could have been Bob Lawton's own Weirs Times I dont remember). Other signs have been added to businesses ( Patricks, Logs Of Fun. Thurston's Marina) their purpose is to get the attnetion of the tourist to the business and thats the future of the area is going to be, since the use of modern technolgy is going to be the future wave of business, they save energy costs and no bulbs have to be replaced. I do indeed look at the signs when I pass by them and thats the purpose of them, is to attract tourists to that location and by having the signs that are bright and move people will look and therefore some people might go there because they like what they see, but some people might not, but they will indeed look. This is an annoyance for people who live there and have to see them everyday, but I can also see the business side of it, as in Field of Dreams " If you build it they will come" this motto is " If you attract them they will come" as the people will be attracted by the signs that move more than old wooden signs because the movement and the brightness of the colors is more attractive than words on a wooden sign, I can see why they are being used to bring in more customers which is the number one job for a business. I am neutral on it because they can being annoying but also do their job as attacting businesses.

ps sry for long post

[Ropetow]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

SAUGUS?!? Then there are the towns like Chatham, Dennis, Hyannis, etc...anywhere on Cape really,

Have you been down Route 28 or 132 lately in the Yamouth / Hyannis area? Not tacky?????

[wildwoodfam]

Originally Posted by Ropetow

Have you been down Route 28 or 132 lately in the Yamouth / Hyannis area? Not tacky?????

not really - not tacky anyway - overbuilt for sure - but there is a difference - I would not consider it "honky tonk" - nothing like the Lynn - Saugus stretch of route 1!! But I tend to avoid that section of Hyannis anyway - I prefer to hang around the compound!

Besides - whats a Republican like yourself doing driving around in Hyannis?!

[Ropetow]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

Besides - whats a Republican like yourself doing driving around in Hyannis?!

Slumming!
Or, opposition-research
As they say in Hyannisport, "We'll drive off that bridge when we get to it..."

[wildwoodfam]

[QUOTE=Ropetow]Slumming!

in Kennebunkport!

And as they say in Maine - "the only bushes we like in Maine are the sea-rose bushes!"

[SIKSUKR]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

SAUGUS?!? I hardly consider there to be a link between Saugus and Lake Winnipesaukee.

That was in reference to YOUR statement which was as follows "Anyway - I have yet to see these signs that folks in NH are complaining about in MASS"

I hardly consider Saugus part of any other state.I'm done posting to an obvious troller.

[wildwoodfam]

Always nice to see words get twisted to fit arguments on the forum. Anyway - I would have been done with this a long time agao - but needed to keep trying to bring the conversation back to its original points - LED signs at the Lake and how that WASN'T Massachusetts or any other states problem.

You are correct - Saugus is certainly in Mass - I don't get to Saugus - nothing to see there - and thus - my statement - "I have yet to see these signs...in Mass." Also - Saugus is certainly NOT a tourist destination - which is why I stated there was no connection to what Saugus does and what Winnipesaukee does - if that were the case - one would not have to look much further than Manchester NH or Concord NH to draw observable comparisons to the signage issue. Anyway - having been called a troll - - which is disappointing considering my length of time posting to this forum, I have to question the objectivity of some of you folks on this site.

Certainly is friendly - so long as you agree on the issues!

[Skipper of the Sea Que]

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

SAUGUS?!? I hardly consider there to be a link between Saugus and Lake Winnipesaukee. Though come to think of it - Weirs Beach and Laconia do sort of remind me of Saugus! HA!

Come on now. There's no neon cactus or plastic cows around Winnie are there? Route 1 Saugus has really exploded since I was a youngster but it is still special. Home to the Kowloon Restaurant, Leaning Tower of Pizza, Kelly's Roast Beef (the Saugus store was built to be the Taj Mahal of Fast Food), the former Adventure Car Hop and so much more.

There are many of us former Saugonians on the forum and around the Lake but there is more. I do believe there is a real connection between the two places. I vaguely remember a discussion on the forum regarding Cannonballs manufactured around the Lake made from Iron from the Saugus Ironworks. Hopefully one of our historians can find some info on that connection.

Originally Posted by wildwoodfam

Also - Saugus is certainly NOT a tourist destination - which is why I stated there was no connection to what Saugus does and what Winnipesaukee does -

Not a tourist destination?
Historic Parks, Saugus
Or see what the National Park Service has to say about that: Saugus
Or teach your children about the Saugus Natural Treasure with this course: P U B

[Skip]

Originally Posted by Skipper of the Sea Que

Come on now... Not a tourist destination?
Historic Parks, Saugus
Or see what the National Park Service has to say about that: Saugus
Or teach your children about the Saugus Natural Treasure with this course: P U B

Come on now yourself Al!

Who are you to interrupt this friendly debate with the facts???!!!

[wildwoodfam]

Sorry Skip (and Skipper) - could not resist pointing out the irony of the posted picture!

[Weirs guy]

Originally Posted by Skipper of the Sea Que

There's no neon cactus or plastic cows around Winnie are there?

Only because Karl took his with him. I miss that cow tail...

[tis]

That brings back memories. We had an old family friend from Saugus who use to make costumes, I believe it was for the Saugus Iron Works. Does that sound right to you Saugonians? If not, what else in Saugus might she have made costumes for? I was young and can't remember if it was for some certain celebration or what.

[AC2717]

Originally Posted by tis

That brings back memories. We had an old family friend from Saugus who use to make costumes, I believe it was for the Saugus Iron Works. Does that sound right to you Saugonians? If not, what else in Saugus might she have made costumes for? I was young and can't remember if it was for some certain celebration or what.

Just adding some humor here..
was it for the Hilltop Cows out in front of the restaurant on Route 1

[Weirs guy]

Just for the record the Weirs itself (Laconia doesn't count in this vote, or any other for me) has a total of 4 of those "horrible, baby-seal-clubbing neon signs" (Funspot, Logs o` Fun, Thurstons and the Weirs Beach sign itself). The rest of the honky tonk is nicely wooden signed.

[ITD]

Originally Posted by Weirs guy

Just for the record the Weirs itself (Laconia doesn't count in this vote, or any other for me) has a total of 4 of those "horrible, baby-seal-clubbing neon signs" (Funspot, Logs o` Fun, Thurstons and the Weirs Beach sign itself). The rest of the honky tonk is nicely wooden signed.

I think Channel marine has one too, next to Thurstons on the main drag.

[Weirs guy]

Originally Posted by ITD

I think Channel marine has one too, next to Thurstons on the main drag.

I can't count the 2 as 1? Dang it! Thanks ITD, its 5.

I think I'm installing one next week on the house though that will scroll through each forum thread here with a few roman candles mounted to it!

[SIKSUKR]

Whatever .