As the MacArthur family song says, in the summer of 1974 someone painted “Mary Shiminsky I Love You!” on the railroad overpass off from Putney Road heading to Chesterfield. The graffiti on the Boston and Maine railroad bridge inspired this song, a book of poetry, a postcard and newspaper articles across the country wondering about Mary Shiminski and the declaration of love.
It turns out 29 year old Mary Shiminski was from Long Island and had had a disagreement with her boyfriend. As a result of the fight she had come north to Putney, Vt. to stay with her parents for a few weeks. They owned a trailer in the woods near the Westminster/Putney line and summered there.
Mary’s boyfriend, Bert Salva, followed in the tractor trailer truck he owned and attempted to contact her. Bert would park his truck in Putney and walk the three miles to the Shiminski’s trailer, where he’d call to Mary and ask her to come out and talk with him. She refused.
Bert continued to attempt to contact Mary but she avoided him whenever possible. On hot summer days the Shiminski family was in the habit of going to Spofford Lake for a swim. Bert knew Mary would pass under the railroad bridge to get to Spofford so he came up with a plan.
Bert bought 8 cans of black spray paint and 4 cans of white spray paint. On a hot summer night in July 1974, he climbed up to the bridge overpass and hung on with one arm while he painted with the other. First he had to blot out all of the graffiti already on the bridge with the black paint and then he painted his phrase, “Mary Shiminski I love you” with an explanation mark and his initials. He worked from 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.
The next morning, Mary and her family had breakfast at the Howard Johnson’s restaurant, (now Ramunto’s) that overlooks the overpass.
Mary remembers, “I thought, ‘How am I ever going to live this down?’ I was really angry. There were two policemen in the restaurant and I went to them and told them who I was, pointed to the sign, and told them I knew who painted it. ‘What should I do’ I asked them.”
The policemen told her she should be honored, not mad, and invited her to have a cup of coffee. “It’s not often we get to have coffee with a celebrity,” they told her.
Mary went back to New York and Bert followed her. He continued to pursue her until she relented to see him again. Here’s the song lyrics to tell us how it ended…
“So Mary and me got hitched, had little ones… one two three, through good times and bad, that ole railroad bridge, it lives in our memory”…