This is my Most Favorite Refrigerator Magnet.
It combines so many fine elements: Shell Art. Alligators. Toilets. Magnets. And the obligatory [Your City’s Name Here] Sign.
It’s also a wink at the urban legend of baby alligators smuggled home in the 1950’s by clueless tourists, then later flushed down toilets to henceforth roam throughout the New York City Sewer System, attaining huge lengths and terrorizing the populace by popping out of the occasional manhole. (This one apparently had a bad sense of direction).
Ft. Myers, Florida is absolutely Ground Zero for Kitsch, even more so than Miami. Miami at least has South Beach!
Ft. Myers on the other hand is pretty much the Tattoo Parlor/Payday Advance/Pawnshop Capital of the World.
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Allee Willis
Well, it certainly sounds like I need a trip to Ft. Myers! Thanks for the detailed description.
This thing is crazy WONDERFUL. Totally looks homemade. Could they have jammed anything more into the space and could the Ft. Myers label on the cheap, unfinished woodblock have been pasted on any more crooked?
Is that a shell poking out of the bottom? Why on earth would anyone paste a shell down there?
I love that the toilet is black but the lid is white.
I would have killed to be in the room with the ‘artist’ as he thought of different things he could do with alligators. I’m absolutely shocked that he didn’t put rhinestone eyes on him.
Connie
You’re right, Allee, there is another (brown) shell on the bottom: represents the plumbing, maybe? Or….worse?
I am ashamed to not have thought of rhinestone eyes myself.
If I find some red or pink ones the right size I will definitely glue them on, artistic license be damned.
Thanks for making my first contribution a winner, though I definitely have a strategic advantage as a snowbird in Ft. Myers.
[Our legal residence in Connecticut is woefully short on kitsch.]
Allee Willis
I’m ready for more more more Ft. Myers kitsch anytime you are. If this toilet gator is any indication I’m getting my oxygen mask ready now. Some of my favorite submissions to awmok.com are when people just snap photos of things around their town. It sounds like Ft. Myers is ripe for the shooting.
I know what you mean about Connecticut. I had to stay there once for months when I was writing with Cyndi Lauper and the lack of Kitsch almost drove me insane. Everything was very prim and proper and devoid of a certain kind of life spirit I crave. Ft. Myers seems way more on the Allee tip.