Today, we’re going to take a trip in the way-back machine here at Weird Wanderings as we look at one of my personal favorite pieces of nostalgia: pennants!
Back when Route 66 was in its heyday and everyone took the scenic highways and back roads, there were few souvenirs as celebrated and ubiquitous as pennants. Whether you visited the Grand Canyon or some little Mom and Pop business, almost every place sold a few colorful felt triangles to commemorate the trip. These isosceles masterpieces were cost effective to produce yet easy enough to customize that no two pennants ever needed to look alike.
While pennants have been around for over a century, they didn’t start out as the official merchandise of kitschy tourist traps. The original pennants were designed for athletic teams. From high school to college to professionals, virtually every team had their colors and mascot emblazoned in felt. The pennant ultimately gained the most significance in baseball where the winner of each league’s championship would get to fly a pennant after the team’s victory.
Over time, pennants became such a part of the national tradition that everyone wanted to have one (or a hundred) of their own. With the rise of roadside attractions in the mid-twentieth century, souvenir pennants hit their stride. For years, you couldn’t stop in a gas station or souvenir shop without discovering a barrage of colorful felt just waiting to find a place on your wall. Unfortunately, by the late 90s and early 00s, technology got the better of us, and since they had no real practical significance like t-shirts or hats or random gadgets, pennants became a quaint anachronism, fading into the past like ink in sunlight.
But that doesn’t mean pennants are down for the count. Using a bit of ingenuity, you can still build a bright collection of your own. So these days, where do you look for pennants? For online shoppers, the usual haunts of eBay and Etsy are two of the best places to start. Currently, Big Kev Vintage is retailing some terrific vintage Florida pennants, from Daytona Beach to Saint Petersburg. And if you want something a little more worldly, Epoch Co. has a quartet of Australian pennants that celebrate everywhere from Melbourne to Currumbin.
For those who enjoy a good bargain hunting experience in person, antique shops and yard sales are among the top places where you can locate cool pennants–or find the sellers in the know who can locate a few vintage pieces for you. Just don’t be afraid to ask; pennants might not be a huge market for vintage seekers (meaning there might not be any currently in stock), but lots of pennants are still out there waiting to be rediscovered.
And as for places that still sell brand-new pennants, look no further than Pittsburgh’s original wunderkammer Trundle Manor. When I visited for the first time a couple years back, I was thrilled to buy my first new pennant in almost twenty years. And that vibrant blue and red tentacle looks great with the rest of my pennant cache.
Happy haunting!
All pennants featured in the above photos are from the Weird Wanderings personal collection. Which is odd since I’ve never been to Nashville.