A classic landmark in my hometown. Toilet paper roll on the 2nd story outer wall of a 100+ year old building on the town square.

  • GenericJeebus@lemmy.worldOP
    11·
    2 months ago

    For those wondering, I just spoke to a good friend who also grew up in the same town and mentioned the traction this post got and he clarified that the roll is actually real, the holder is leftover from when the previous building burnt down decades ago but the property owners replace the roll on it every few years when it inevitibly decays and have been doing so for about 3 generations, hence why it was there when we were kids and still is now, it’s just sort of a running joke/“urban legend” for the town.

  • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    I don’t believe for a second that this is an actual roll of paper. I think it’s art made to look like what we all think it is.

    • GenericJeebus@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      2 months ago

      The odd thing about it, the building it’s on is currently a financial investment broker, there’s a small mural lower down at ground level on the wall with various 1800s politicians, and that roll has been there since I was a kid and has been there about 22 years at least, up until the investment broker moved in a few years ago, the building was abandoned, it was owned by a real estate mogul who owned most of the buildings on the square but moved several states away decades ago and left the properties to rot, he died a while back and his children sold the properties off so things started opening and the roll is just… still there lol I have no clue if it’s art, if it’s a joke, or if it’s real and decades of the elements just petrified it or something, the rumor around town when I was in elementary school was the building previously in that spot (there’s a parking lot below frame now) burned down but the toilet paper roll survived and will be there until the end of time.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        It is plausible that location used to be a bathroom in a now missing building. I just don’t think TP would hold up like that at all. TP is generally designed to come apart over time, especially in the presence of water, to help it go through wastewater pipes and get processed when it reaches the wastewater plant at the end of the line.

        So I think, even if the holder is genuinely part of the original building that was there, someone added to it with, what looks like, a TP roll… For art.

        • GenericJeebus@lemmy.worldOP
          4·
          2 months ago

          I wound up putting another comment down below, I spoke to a friend of mine that also grew up there and whose parents still live there and have for quite a while, turns out it’s a running joke from the property owners, idl what type of tp they’re using or if there’s some other roll of paper that looks like tp they put on but you’re mostly correct, the original building burnt down a long time ago but the roll holder was left, so the property owners where putting on regular tp rolls as a joke, and have been doing it for about 30 years now, I assume they’re using some kind of rolled wax paper now considering the condition it looks to be in so it doesn’t degrade as fast but yeah, turned out to be just a running joke the owners do.

      • GenericJeebus@lemmy.worldOP
        2·
        2 months ago

        I can confirm that other than the contrast and saturation being tweaked slightly because I can’t stand when the color temp feels off in my photos, it’s completely unedited, it’s up there, and has been since I moved to that town when I was about 6, idk if it helps as proof but here it is on google streetview lol

      • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
        3·
        2 months ago

        Look, I’m no aficionado, but this piece is just transcendent. Sure, this starts off a bit messy, but it becomes a solid poop joke several stories up.

        Let’s not discount the importance of this piece here.