While walking our dogs the other day, we saw this:
All of the notes say "yes," in several languages and many different ways. The front of the car looks like this:
There are also stickies on the hubcaps, door handles, and other places.
Sometimes the place where we live seems a little staid and over-engineer-influenced (there are a lot of high-tech companies here). Now and then it pleasantly surprises us. SOMEONE is saying YES! in response to a question that appears to have been (1) anticipated (it took a while to make, let alone apply, all those notes) and (2) welcome.
We chose the neighborhood we live in partly because it does not have covenants that dictate what color you can paint your house. A lot of neighborhoods in this city do have restrictions of that type, and the houses tend to be beige, sand, tan, and maybe light gray, with trim that is white, beige, or sand. It’s all very tasteful. The truly risqué might use a light sage green.
When we were looking at houses, there was a house that was painted bright purple a couple of blocks from the one that we bought. While I like my own house’s exterior colors a little less strong, every time I drove past that house I was reminded of a trip I took with my grandparents through the Gaspé Peninsula when I was thirteen. I still vividly remember Percé Rock, people selling handmade toy wooden boats by the side of the road (Grampa didn’t stop, but I still hold one in my memory), and the brightly colored houses that were probably even more cheerful during the winter.
That house has since been painted a calmer color, but recently this appeared on the other end of our dogleg street:
Even the steel railing attached to the concrete front step is bright blue.
The color seemed a little shocking the first time I caught sight of it, but I’m getting used to it and I am glad the people who live there are free to use the color they like. It’s intense. It’s also very cheerful. And when I see it, I know exactly where I am: almost home.
I hope that was a marriage proposal. 🙂
About the houses; I love colorful neighborhoods. I used to live in a bright taxi cab yellow house. I wasn’t sure about it when we moved in, but over time, I grew to love it. When we moved out, I bought a yellow car. I love how people notice it, it’s a landmark, it’s almost impossible not to smile over it.
I collect photos of purple houses. I pass some by and that always makes me sad. My neighborhood has 5 white houses in a row, in several places, and there is no ordinance dictating color. Sad.
In a “nicer” neighborhood in my town, someone painted their house bright pink. People were mad, they tried to get city council to force them to tone it down. They had protesters. It’s ridiculous.
I mean, this was not a rich neighborhood but not working class like mine, either. But that’s Lansing. I say it’s a beige and navy sort of town and I’m not far off.
Didn’t Yoko Ono make an installation with a ladder where if you climbed it you saw the word “Yes” ???
I think that John Lennon told that story about how he met her. It’s all in my memory banks rather than on a piece of paper, but I know very little about them other than the Playboy interview not long before he was killed. Maybe that’s where I read it.
I’m all for YES!!!
Lynn