We have no idea who created these displays by two of the bridges over the Gowanus Canal, although we’re certain someone does know and that they might tell us. We noticed both for the first time recently and know that wood with the Goofy, Donald Duck and other cartoon figures wasn’t there a week or two ago. We also wonder how, exactly, it was put on the piling near the Union Street Bridge. In any case, the Garfields are on the Carroll Street Bridge are somewhat less dramatically placed, but they are not far from Monte’s, leading to some inevitable lasagna jokes.
3 responses so far ↓
1 amarilla // Dec 13, 2007 at 7:44 am
GL, I like to this of this as a reward for all your hard work. Good thing I’m typing this my jaw just dropped on the floor. Those colors are very similar to the Brooklyn yellow and blue.
Hand on heart, I pledge allegiance to the Carroll Bridge garfields…
2 Lisanne McT // Dec 13, 2007 at 10:17 am
Looks like something Miss Heather would do…..
3 Anonymous // Dec 17, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Well if you want to know the truth…the Garfield family lived in the musty basement of the Canal Bar along with the fischer-price toys. When my grandmother died, I cleaned out her house and couldn’t bring myself to part with my childhood collections. I put them in the basement of the 3rd Avenue apartment (I lived there for 3 years) and left them there when I moved to Crown Heights (which was a stupid idea). Well anyway, I didn’t last in the Heights for more than 9 months, lucky I even made it out of there alive… But having been vacated from 3rd Avenue apartment for 9 months, the owner of the bar said I just had to get my stuff out of the basement. I went. The answer was to purge. What was I ever going to do with a tote box full of garfields? They certainly would’nt fit the decorating scheme of my new residence…a victorian country house on eastern Long Island. Not wanting to throw away my childhood, and being too lazy to schlep them to the Salvation Army, and knowing that no self-respecting Park Slope parent would fish them out of a box for their brood if I were to leave them on 5th Avenue…I did the only thing I could do. Together with my friends (former neighbors; current residents of the aparment above the canal bar, we disposed of the garfields down by the Gowanus. In a late night covert operation, we climbed the truss of the bridge to create an impromptu garfield totem pole. Alas, my childhood toys have found a home. The garfields seem to have dwindled in number which means people are probably taking them. That makes me happy. Give them a good home on Garfield place (hardy har har). As for me, I am enjoying the country life that long island affords, where my new water view is of the bay and fire island, an odorless experience contrasting that of the canal. Fairwell Brooklyn in all of your overpriced, overhyped, and tragically hip glory. I’ll miss you! Our relationship has become too intense Brooklyn, we need to take a break. But we will get back together. As soon as I make enough money to live in a neighborhood where I wont have to live with the guilt and shame of being a “gentrifier.” Goodbye Gowanus fish, Crown Heights chicken bones, and train-to-Auschwitz style commutes and hello to beaches, farmstands, sleepy LIRR commutes (and the occasional split level ranch house which makes me want to consider a career in arson.)