The Carpet Giant Looms Large

The Carpet Giant shouldn't mean anything but he is impossible to not notice. Rising from the South Meadows like a half-resurrected phoenix from the 1980's, The Carpet Giant sign is at the same time unmistakable and yet largely forgettable, unlit and a sign of a bygone era.

When we see the massive unlit Carpet Giant sign, it reminds us of a place where our parents might have shopped at some point. Kind of like how our kids might ask us one day if we ever shopped at a Sam Goody.

Billy's Neon At Night

One of the best things about the Christmas season is the many displays of bright lights. Almost makes you wonder why we all just don't display colorful lights all year round. While Bushnell and Goodwin Park have excellent Christmas displays this year, Billy's Package Store is still the undisputed champion of Hartford lights.

Hartford's Best Neon Sign

Neon is a tough thing. Part tacky and part crass commercialism, neon signs conjure images of gambling and strip bars. Yet with the passage of time old neon signs have reached an age where they are nostalgic if not downright relics from an earlier era.

This neon sign is outside a package store on New Park Ave and in our opinion is damn near a museum quality piece. Everything about this sign just screams a different era, the size, the neon letters, the arrow pointing in, the bubbling martini glass. When do you think was the last time someone went into this package store to get the ingredients for a nice martini? This sign is just straight awesome.