“It is the best place in town for a display, but it just happens to be our land,” Andy Mack Sr. told the Eagle Tribune newspaper in 2007.
Mack runs Moose Hill Orchards in Londonderry, New Hampshire—home of Mack’s Apples—with his son, Andy Jr. They offer “Apples ‘n stuff”—namely pumpkins, ice cream, etc.—as attested the many roadside signs Mack has painted over the decades to advertise the businesses.
The Londonderry Arts Council has organized a “socially-distanced” exhibition of Mack’s broadsides called “Sign Language,” premiering on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Mack’s Apples, 230 Mammoth Road in Londonderry. (“Can’t make it on Saturday? Don’t worry, the signs will remain up until further notice,” they write.) The paintings were selected from hundreds Mack has stored in the barn across from the farm stand. He’s been known to paint over old signs to create new ones.
“Andy’s signs have been a fixture of daily life in Londonderry focusing on farming, current events, social issues, and wide range of other topics,” the council writes. In an article about the art show, Greg Descoteaux of the arts council describes the signs as “fun, informative and sometimes controversial work.”
The Mack family has been “farming in Londonderry since 1732,” according to one of Mack’s signs. That’s eight generations ago, when John and Isabella Mack arrived and “grew potatoes and other crops, raised cattle, and later, grew apples,” according to the farm’s website. It’s said to be the oldest single-family-run farm in New Hampshire.
Now in his 80s, Mack began painting signs for the 400-acre farm when he was in high school and they began offering pick-your-own apples and a farm stand along Mammoth Road. “We were a wholesale farm at the time, the quality of the crop was always good, the soil and conditions made for a superior apple. Some folks would come by to purchase a bushel of apples if they had a basement to store them, but by and large our business was wholesale,” Mack told Descoteaux.
The stand is now located about a mile south down Route 128 from Londonderry’s town hall, high school and police and fire departments. Along the road and on farm buildings over the years, Mack has put up signs advertising “Apple Picking Time” and “Special By The Wagon.” He’s also painted signs reading, “When it rains, we shine” and “Let Freedom Ring.”
Mack paints 4-by-8 sheets of plywood—and half sheets of plywood—with foam brushes in the family’s 250-year-old barn. Mack told the Eagle Tribune in 2007, “The foam brush was the best thing that ever happened to barnyard painters.”
Moose Hill Orchards has also become a prominent, picturesque stop for political candidates—most notably those running in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, John Edwards, Barack and Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have all campaigned there. Mack paints signs advertising the visits: “Joe Biden/Sat. 2 Here.” The farm even hosted a Black Lives Matter rally attended by nearly 300 people last June.
The Eagle Tribune reported in 2007 that Mack “dipped his brush in national and international politics beginning in 2003 after a visit to the Holy Land in Israel. With a contingent including Episcopal leadership, he met groups of Palestinians and Jews who desire peace. He came back convinced that separate states—Palestinian and Israel—are the best hope for peace in the Middle East.” A 2010 sign he painted reading “Israel Disgusting” brought accusations of anti-Semitism and socialism.
Mack has also sparked controversy over the past couple decades with signs that said a Republican state representative had “it wrong on civil unions” (2007) and “Bush + Co. why believe them now?” (2007) and “urged readers to call Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu to tell them to bring the troops home from Iraq,” the Eagle Tribune newspaper reported in July 2007.
At times, critics have turned to vandalizing Mack’s messages—spray-painting over his signs, accusing Mack of being a communist.
But perhaps, Mack’s most prominent theme these days is: “Global Warming a Horrendous Threat.” As one of his signs read, “It is time to care.”
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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon. And sign up for our free, (hopefully) weekly newsletter so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content ©Greg Cook 2020 or the respective creators.)