Once upon a time, the Merritt Parkway had signs like these:
(Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
They were distinctive. Unique.
And also, I imagine, very dangerous if a car slammed into one.
Of course, once upon a time too — in fact, for decades — the Merritt Parkway had an Exit 42 in Westport.
Both this design and that number are now just memories.
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What is the Weston road exit off the Merritt now?
Exit 21
Memorialized in the movie “The Tunnel of Love.” I knew the whole family in the late 1950s. I even met Emily who died at age 12.
Like this sign all the little things that made Westport great have either disappeared, been replaced or dramatically changed. All the great old houses that gave Westport its’ character have been torn down and replaced by pretentious mega mansions by outside invaders from the big city. I’m just glad that I left Westport and all that great character it had when it was still great; now I still have great memories of that.
My parents.(Jane & Frank Pomerantz) always said exact same sentiment as Michael Gilbertie’s last sentence here. (We moved to Weston,1955, until 1978.)
My mother’s family moved to Westport in 1930. My mother left town for Florida in 1988. She passed away in 2004 and we returned for her to be buried at Willowbrook. Guess where we had a lovely reception for her following the interment: Nistico’s Red Barn. Talk about comfort food (cooked by comfort people). !!! I will always love the Westport of my childhood and the people I shared my childhood with but the present day Westport is so unlike the one of my youth that it might as well be on Mars. I think Dan Woog is amazing. He sees the good in everything while downplaying the less good and I respect that despite my own failure to emulate it. But as far as Westport goes I consider myself fortunate to have lived there as a child. I may write a book focusing on the great people of Westport who raised me. I’ll get Dan to write the introduction.
Hey… let’s go play miniature golf and then go to the Crest for a burger. Then maybe hit the beach to watch the “ submarine races” as Bobby Caruzone would say.when he worked at the golf range before he became a Westport cop. There was a time when basically everyone in town knew my family. It was a small town where a fireman in town with five kids could live in town. It’s a town that’s gone forever, but not forgotten!
The original Merritt signage was cool. I loved the theatrical “rustic” aesthetic – it was plainly done with a wink and worked nicely with the log cabin style toll booths. And I still prefer the old school four letter abbreviation for our state: Conn.
I believe a version of the sign used to say “entering Westport, Conn on the Merritt Parkway”.