New England Travel and Vacation Gazette and Other Wicked Good Content

Article and photos by Eric H. I've always found it quite remarkable that John Alden could be so many things at once -- a carpenter, cooper, the first Mayflower passenger to set foot on Plymouth Rock, one of the founders of Plymouth Colony, a signer of the Mayflower Compact, and one with the vision to open a gift shop selling bright orange rubber lobsters and Plymouth Rock stuffed toy bears strategically located across from Plymouth Rock. All kidding aside on the last one, the John Alden Gift Shop in Plymouth, Mass., has actually been around 90 years, surviving quite wonderfully in its old-fashioned, worn tile and drop ceiling ways. With the familiar pleasantly stale chemical smell of treated clothing merchandise upon entering and a wonderland of childhood-familiar and beloved gifts from the past, the John Alden Gift Shop is probably no different from the time you set foot into this traditional gift shop from your Ford LTD station wagon with the phony wood paneling. The bright oran...