Random trivia

Last winter, I took lots of long walks on Sundays when church was canceled because RI is too broke to plow the streets. Some parts of Providence have really pretty old houses, so I took a lot of pictures. Anyway, I would occasionally find pineapples over people's doorways, like so:

(Obviously they aren't real-- it's part of the decoration, which didn't make it any less strange.)

Well, I finally found out what they mean! Early New Englanders apparently used to put a pineapple over the doorway to signal that a sailing family member (like a merchant or navy person) had returned safely. Of course everyone would want to come over and see that person, so eventually the pineapple over the doorway became sort of a symbol of hospitality. But I kind of like the "safe return" meaning best.

This random piece of cool trivia is brought to you by the letter "P" (for pineapple, of course). Now you know!