This photo (left or above, based on your device) is of our suburban upstate New York mailbox, circa 1999.  The house numbers and flower petals were cut out of adhesive reflective tape by me.

Our mailbox was, shall we say, unconventional for our neighborhood.  But there was no HOA to approve or reject the color of the paint or the design of the font.  We were free to be creative and make a statement.

But what is that font, you ask.  Looks familiar, if you’re of my age.  Best I can tell, it’s an adaptation of the font used on the 1968 Doors album Waiting for the Sun…

Who knows what specific font I was trying to mimic — bottom-heavy lettering was a thing in late-60s poster art and apparently something I was reluctant to let go of 20 years later.  I suppose the intent was to send our neighbors a subtle message that we were… different.  Not pot-smoking bottle-sculptures-in-the-yard different but just enough to let you know.

Even without the mailbox, our neighbors surely got the message that we were “different” based on the five geese my spouse and children tended, who were prone to wander about the neighborhood and nibble at things.  I mean the geese, not our children.

The geese are a story for another day — today’s scrapbook page is lovingly dedicated to 1960s fonts and their ongoing, subliminal challenge to conformity.

Font Design by Victor Moscoso