Planted in the past.

Last year I wrote about Glitter Plaques, a popular decorative wall hanging made of plastic that were very popular for a short time and then POOF! vanished. When you're a kid and something is everywhere it becomes as noticeable as the air; then it slowly fades away and, unlike the air, you barely miss it when it's gone. But when you see it again you're astonished at how long it's been. Whatever happened to that thing? Where did it go? Why did it go? It used to be everywhere! 

I will pay big bucks for it on eBay!

As I noted in last year's entry, you might expect bendable plastic things like the Glitter Plaques to suffer over time. But what about something like this? Surely concrete is forever! 

I used to see that exact planter everywhere. That is, not THAT planter, it hasn't been following me around like some creepy concrete stalker, but ones that looked exactly like that. Every home with the smallest, most pathetic excuse for a garden or lawn had one. 

Other things people had on their postage-stamp properties were stable grooms (white, usually; the black ones were from an older generation), little Mexican kids with or without burros and wagons, deer, and the Virgin Mary. Probably half the concrete used in Dyker Heights went for that stuff. Gnomes and St. Francis weren't popular at that time. But these particular planters, with that quasi-upside-down fleur de lis, were.

And then they all... went away. 

I've never owned a concrete planter myself; never could commit. I suppose I feared I would plop it down to find out that it was in a terrible place to grow a plant, full of darkness and herbivores, and then I'll have to move concrete. Concrete full of dirt. But all my family members when I was growing up had them, unless they lived in apartments. Maybe those folks had a few stashed away too, just in case. 

I tried to look up manufacturers of these things, and it certainly seems like people in the concrete planter business have a lot on their plate these days. National companies make everything from concrete trash receptacles and water fountains to terrorist-thwarting bollards. None of them will own up to making black grooms or Mexican boys. 

I suspect whoever was making the planters like the one seen above was a regional outfit for the greater New York area, possibly one that got taxed to death in the 70's like a lot of other local businesses. Maybe they made most of their money doing overshoes for the mob before Rudy Giuliani came along. If anyone has any information on them, or would just like to share your own heartfelt nostalgia of concrete and cement, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line at the usual place (frederick_key at yahoo). We can bond over cement.