My mother and father were teenagers in a naval city in the south-west of England at the outset of the Second World War. When the US Army eventually arrived in town kids from all over followed the jeeps around yelling, “Got any gum, chum?“, while GIs from Grand Rapids to Gotham chucked candy out behind them while preparing to embark for D-Day.
So that is where my mind drifted on catching a glimpse of yet another fast-fading remnant of advertising, from before pop-ups, spam and viral advertising became the bain of our lives. This particular shadow of the past is on the sidewall of a building on Bridge St, just south of Monmouth, facing the down platform of Red Bank station.
The ghosts signs face south from the side of what is now a framing and fine art business. That may explain how the two examples of the sign-writers art have survived. One is a still quite perceptible image of what I think is probably a stick of Wrigley’s chewing gum, and the other is a shield device representing maybe a household disinfectant, or maybe part of a war-bonds drive. Perhaps someone might have an idea?
And if you look carefully there are vestiges of further painted elements. What seems to be some sort of border from the western edge of the wall, along the top, and then into some more elaborate decoration and/or lettering around the side window on the eastern edge.
This brings me back to my old hometown. When, during the sixties, Wrigley’s were looking for a home for their UK manufacturing operation, they picked Plymouth, Devon, UK, and its situation on the edge of the UK’s largest wilderness area with its very clean and fresh air blowing from the west over thousands of miles of the north Atlantic. It’s still there although the GIs left to help liberate Europe a long time ago…
