One of the original leisure parks of America stems from Willow Grove Park, Pennsylvania. Willow Grove is about 15 minutes away from Philadelphia in Montgomery County.
But Montgomery County's maiden name is Philadelphia. What I mean is, before Montgomery County was given its own independent name it was originally a part of Philadelphia County - until the beginning of the American Revolution.
Some time after the Civil War - John Phillip Sousa adopted it as his stage for patriotic band music. After a brief stint in the circus - Sousa became the military penultimate music man in the Marines.
Willow Grove during its Victorian Heyday was like something of the 'chalk park' in Marry Poppins, dotted with a few rides and stages for performances.
It was about the time when out of control spoiled teens took over America, that amusement parks went less than friendly. But that only partly explains why Willow Grove was converted into a Shopping Mall. Unfortunately hordes of spoiled teens - usually caused by poor parenting or exhausted parents who work too much - often make venues like Willow Grove less than family friendly, as spoiled teens have a tendency for cursing, necking, smoking and obnoxious shouting.
Also back in the day when things were black and white - pennants were the it flag of fun and showmanship. If you were male and grew up before colour TV - chances are your room was decorated with these triangular vexilloids.
Stumbled across this blog while searching for flag designs to use for my current art project. Love how you write about both historical and fictional flags, and I can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd be interested to check out my flag series, they are all digital paintings on my account at deviantART. I'll give you a shout out if any of your posts inspire me to do something based on a historical flag. http://joshthecartoonguy.deviantart.com/gallery/