Page 20 - SEPT2025

Page 20
Community
By Donna rhoDes
My friends always see my photos or hear my tales about the beautiful, always unique and sometimes amusing “Roadside Art” I see on my rides so this is the month they’ve been waiting for.
There aren’t many art muse- ums in the region but there are some very talented and clever people out there who set their work out in the yard or by a road- side for people to enjoy.
For instance, the shop known as Junktiques on Rte. 3A in Hill is a fun place to keep an eye on (or stop in for a visit). You never know what’s going on around their vintage camper and antique truck parked out by the road. Earlier this year it had a “family” having fun in the grass beside the camper with an “elderly gentle- man” hanging out the door, wav- ing to passersby. Holiday fun can always be found happening there and I love watching for their
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newest, always enjoyable scenes. Speaking of old vehicles, in Alexandria there is a mailbox that is sure to make you smile, too. Made from all sorts of old rusted parts, they took a little old vehicle about the size of a little truck and crafted a driver to sit
inside. Created from all sorts of scraps and materials, he has his arm hanging out the wind, hold- ing the mailbox up as he waits for a delivery. I wish I had seen the mail carrier’s face that first day! Another mailbox locally has a flying pig soaring above it. I hope that means they get their bills paid in a timely manner, since their pig IS flying.
Some of the school bus stops are pretty creative too! My favor- ite looks like a quaint little house with peaked french-glass style windows and what looks like a cozy seat inside. Nicely done. They just might find me curled up with a good book inside it one day.
the old Town Pound someone made a near-lifesize cut-out of a cow and added a chicken sit- ting on its back. Very clever since town pounds were the places stray animals were placed until their owners came to get them. Evidently this cow and chicken were finally claimed by a farmer because sadly they were no lon- ger there when I drove by re- cently.
But, there are plenty of cows to be found. One is in the Frank- lin countryside where an old farm is more of a “gentleman’s home” now. As a nod to the property’s history however, there is a cow in a small fenced in pasture beside the refurbished barn. Quite re- alistic looking at that. And while I’m on the subject of cows, I was surprised by some who recently moved to Bridgewater. On one side of the road a young cow is peeking through the shrubbery and made me do a double take. The next day I drove by again when I noticed that across the street there were two more brown and white cow cut-outs lying in the shade beside the field. I fell in love with them and now make a point of passing by more often to “moo” on my way to Plymouth.
Life on the Backroads
Now I guess it’s time for my favorite. Driving way out in the woods of Rumney one day, along a road I hadn’t been down in years, I was suddenly startled to see a big hairy creature glaring at me through the shrubbery. I drove past it (rather quickly) at first then started to laugh when the shock of seeing it wore off and I had to turn around and go back. From that direction I saw that it was a life-size statue of “Sasquatch” hand carved in wood and placed beside a gated driveway.. It not only made my day but he is now the most pho- tographed piece of Roadside Art in my collection. During the covid lockdown, I went to say hi and found the big guy was even heeding health officials advice and had masked-up. Thinking about it still makes me laugh and I can’t thank the owners enough for keeping him safe through those times. I took another pic- ture of him recently that I’ve shared here and hope you love him like I do. See you again soon I hope Sasquatch!
Wow- as I am writing this I realize how many more great pieces of homemade art I’ve seen but sadly there isn’t room for them all. I bet if you or your kids stay attentive as you drive through rural New Hampshire though you might just start to accumulate a long list of artwork you’ve spotted, too. Good luck!
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Birdhouses are fun to watch for as well. Some look like a log cabin, others are built like a large hotel, while another is a replica of an outhouse. Using their imag- ination, and in some cases what- ever they had available, many of them are really clever. My favorite by far though is out in Danbury. It is a nesting box that has the face of an old man cov- ering the front. He is complete
with an old hat and a long white moustache. His mouth below is the moustache of course but is actually a hole they cut for the birds to get inside. It’s adorable!
Down by Salisbury there are an abundance of crafty folks. At
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