About a block from my house on Garfield Place in Park Slope, there is the brownstone that we refer to as the "Pepto-Bismol" building because it has been painted the color of Pepto-Bismol since we moved into the neighborhood. Recently the owner repainted, clearly trying to get the same color, but actually getting a color a bit to bright and harsh to be that soft, soothing Pepto-Bismol pink.
No matter how you look at it, the building is an eyesore. But in the uniformity and conformity of Park Slope, I have to admit I always had a soft spot for the Pepto-Bismol building.
Now the Daily News has an article on this building [1], informing us that the owner, now 90 years old, has been painting the building that color since 1968! Needless to say, this pisses off the Yuppies that surround him:
[Bernie] Henry, 90, said he doesn't understand why his neighbors are upset. He first slathered on the glossy pink in 1968 - five years before the city designated the area a historic district. He said the current hue on his 105-year-old house is more or less a match of what it was when his wife, Viola, told him to paint it 40 years ago.
"When I went to get the paint, I thought it was the same [shade], but it came out a little different," said Henry. "But what could I do? I bought $4,000 worth of paint."
Now I am very thankful to Yuppies for waking up America to good cuisine and good coffee, something most of America lacked until the Yuppies swarmed over the nation. But there is no question that most of us feel that irritating Yuppies is a good thing, particularly since now their effect on Park Slope seems to be the relpacement of wonderful restaurants and bakeries along 7th Ave with banks, real estate offices and over priced baby boutiques. So more power to the man who paints his brownstone the color of Pepto-Bismol amid the sea of Yuppie conformity in Park Slope.
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