August 10, 2024 • 49 mins
First off - my apologies for getting the podcast out late. Just a bit of information as to why: we buried my mom this week. That's why.
@roadspeak joins the podcast and we talk about some regional looks to signs, his travels down Route 66, and what is the best turntable(?).
You can follow him at
https://instagram.com/roadspeak
The book he references in the show:
Hollywood Signs: Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon in Mid-Century Tinseltown
and the sign I forgot the name of:
Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, MA that is the shape of a Cactus.
@roadspeak joins the podcast and we talk about some regional looks to signs, his travels down Route 66, and what is the best turntable(?).
You can follow him at
https://instagram.com/roadspeak
The book he references in the show:
Hollywood Signs: Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon in Mid-Century Tinseltown
and the sign I forgot the name of:
Hilltop Steak House in Saugus, MA that is the shape of a Cactus.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Last week we had a great conversation
with Rob Latimer, Casey Seinchaser. Go and find him and
follow him, and also hopefully he had a great weekend
getting out there hitting the pavement, whether it's driving or
walking or hobbling in my chase right now with a
broken toe, walking around with a Buddha. Thank you, Oklahoma,
(00:43):
sitting for your hospitality. No that's not a snide remark.
Sorry everybody, hopefully didn't take it away, but hopefully you
got some awesome pictures. Share him with this, share with me. Heck,
I'm i ama share them in one of my stories.
You never know what's with me the way I go,
especially the ADHD bring. But tonight we have a great guest.
(01:06):
You may know him as road speak. I got to
make sure I get that right, because there's roadside Peek
and there's roads Speak. And we started talking a while
back about different types of signs around regions. We may
get into that. We may fire the shots with that one,
because I've heard that there really aren't. You know, there's
(01:29):
just some standards, shapes and stuff like that that go
across the country and maybe some regionalisms they go along
with them. But well hear what he has to say.
But welcome to the show. One of the many one
of my many friends on Instagram that goes all over
the place, Bill Holden, is that is okay for me
to call you Bill Holden?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, that's fine, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Because you know some people don't you want to keep
their identity a secret Batman Roads speak. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Bill, thanks so much, thanks for having me and oh cool,
hey sorry, right, well I was gonna say, yeah, like
I because I've seen both of your accounts now and uh,
you know the thing that got me well, I guess
I found your your other account, You're Houston sign neon Science. Yeah, yes, okay,
(02:27):
and uh but then I found out that you had
the podcast. I was like, oh man, this is like perfect.
I love listening to where I love talking about this
type of thing, and so I'm super excited to be here.
So thanks for thanks for reaching out to me, and yeah,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I'm ready to go. Yeah, I know it's been he's
been a couple of months coming because you're teacher, is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
That's right? Excuse mean that's right. I'm a high school
band director in the Dallas area.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yep, oh yeah, I just yeah, gummet. We got lost
in downtown Dallas and we drove through Deep elumough and
I couldn't stop and take pictures because we has time front.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, there's a lot to take pictures of there for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, it's the quintessential like old downtown area, and
it's sort of like it's an extension of downtown Dallas,
like Deep Elam actually means like Deep Elm Street, but
it's just like said in Texan, and but it really
is like nowadays, it's kind of a little bit of
a bohemian area. Yeah, there's a lot of like bars
(03:36):
and clubs that have performance venues there, but like small ones,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I actually have a friend from my hometown in
Connecticut who he moved down to Dallas before I have
been moved to Texas, and he actually lives in some
sort of a an artist retreat I think with his
band and wow, and they've been doing some pretty good things.
I mean, like fifteen years later, he's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Hey. Hey, they say do what you love. But there's
all a lot of things I love that you don't
get paid for like sleeping, eating, Well, you might get
paid to eat, you know, Joey Chestnut. So uh yeah,
but I don't have a metabolism like Georges. Yeah, my gosh,
(04:20):
you can hibernate all the amount of hot dogs that
he can consume in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's it's scary. And you know, it's funny because I
I don't really follow him, but I follow this other
guy named Matt Stoney, okay, and uh and you know
he's even more slender, and and a lot of people
ask him like, how do you stay so then doing
all this this eating, and it's uh, I mean, it's
like anything else, it's a balance, you know, oh hoo.
Much of anything is not good. But but he's he's
(04:49):
really made a mark for himself. And you know, it's
late lately, you know, because I have so much time
off in the summers and and like winter break, I'm
able to, uh to go up to visit my mom
for extended periods of time, and so we'll eat all
these meals and she'll say, you know, Billy, you're you're
just eating so fast. Where did you why did you start,
(05:10):
you know, eating so fast, and I think it's subconsciously
all the you know, the eating videos that I watch
on TikTok, and really.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
For me it was I worked at summer mowing lawns
and we didn't get a set lunch break. In Idaho,
they have a thing where you don't get a lunch break.
If you can travel between properties, that's considered your break.
So you learn to eat extremely fast between properties. You
(05:39):
might stop for you know, a few minutes and call
it a break or whatever, but you learn or eat
really fast. And unfortunately, like you, the psychological aspect of
speed eating, for me, it's it's instinct, unfortunately, And I
the only time I slowly eat a meal is if
I have a good conversation going on. Then I'll take
(06:00):
my time and I'm the last one to eat my hemagin.
Oh sure. Yeah. So here in the first segment, we'll
have you introduced yourself a little more. So. You're a
band teacher of the Dallas area. Where what was the
thing that that gave you the bug to go out
and sign hunt or take or sign find and take
(06:23):
pictures of signs?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You know, I was thinking about this and it's kind
of a mix between a couple of things that are
now looking back on it kind of related. So I
grew up in Connecticut, and you know, I would often
go visit my grandmother, which was in East Hartford. And
if anyone ever knows, he's the main street in East Harford.
There's a certain area where you like, it kind of
(06:47):
looks like, you know, a more spread out version of
like Deep Bellum for instance, Like it's a it's you
can tell it's an old main street, New England town,
but but it has like it's like ten percent more
city than it is like small town. Okay, And but
at night, especially like you know, during the holidays, you'd
see some things decorated and all these storefronts that are
(07:10):
really close to the street, so like you know, like
a walking city rather than like one that's car dependent.
And I just liked that old kind of look to it.
And then you but then okay, new imagery. Now, if
you've ever seen the painting called Nighthawks by Edward Hopper,
it's you know, Nighthawks at the Diner, I think is
(07:31):
full name. And it's just like the idea that there's
this thing that's open in the middle of the night
when no one else is around, you've got like two
couples that are sitting at the bar but not talking
to each other. It just gives this mystique of, I
don't know, just like what what people do when everyone
else is sleeping. It's there's a mystique there. And but
(07:55):
also the fact that it's on the corner and you
can see into it like an old, you know, googie
style diner, even though that has more of an East
Coast look, which you know, maybe this is foreshadowing, but
you know, because I think it's meant to be in
New York, that particular painting, but if you were to
look at, you know, some of the googie from La,
it's kind of the same thing. You can see into
(08:18):
it at night, but it just has all these jagged
edges and everything. But so yeah, that got me into that,
and I think in my hometown there's there's a little
place called the Whole Donut which actually sadly has just
gone a business or it's actually the the little Corner
Donut Shop has been just taken over by a new family. Okay,
(08:41):
but it has that like it. It has that little
sort of like the stools around a counter kind of
look to it and I've always just loved that that
look and just kind of what goes with that, and
also the sense of community that goes with that too. Yeah,
So I think that's what got me into this this
whole thing, or should be.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That diner culture in the Northeast, because you know, Richard Gutman.
I don't know, if you listen to the podcast where
I interviewed Richard Gutman, he's known as the diner Man.
He is the nation's foremost expert on diners, and he
talks about all the little diners, like you know, the
old street car diners and the the diners that you're
(09:22):
talking about, And the first one it comes to mine
is the Jackson Hole diner there in New York City.
I think that's what that's where it is. And I
also talk with the Outside of the Times, and there
are a few cool little diners outside of Boston as well,
and it seems like that, you know, Pennsylvania, New York,
New Jersey, into New England, seems like there's a diner
(09:44):
culture up in that neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely. And you know, one of those little infographics that
I scrolled through on Facebook once in a while, it
talks about like where are the kings of sandwich culture?
And I think that also has to do with you know,
some of the most famous places in New York like Carnegie,
Delhi and places like that, you know, yeah, just like
(10:09):
classic delicate delicate dos and Yes Cats, which also shout
out to Houston.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, but but you know it's old, reliable, you know,
because if you're if you're hungry at you know, two
in the morning, you can go to Denny's or you
can go there. And so but there definitely is like
there's sandwich culture. And then there's some history too through
that which I can't fully recall right now, but as spots,
(10:35):
certainly they started off as the diner cars and then
then they just kind of created a culture all of
their own. And you know, many small towns up there
have them, and because of how everything is old up
there in that part of the country, uh, they largely
stay untouched, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, it's really cool. So that's a great segue to
in our first segment. Going to our segment we have
road Speak. Go and find him on Instagram at road
Speak that's r O A D S P e a K.
And when we come back, we'll get it maybe get
a little more into the diner culture and maybe some
(11:14):
of the observations that Bill has had criss crossing the country.
You listen to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(11:37):
Sign Finders. I'm your host, Breverend Anthony. Glad you're back
with us. We have the wonderful Bill Holden Road speak
with us. Go follow him on Instagram right follow he
goes all over the country. He's kind of like old
motel signs Nick girlic maybe I throw away dv ever dt.
(11:58):
He loves traveling the open road and getting out, getting
the pavement is sharing his findes with us. Now, when
I first kind of gotten to a conversation with you,
you talked about noticing different influences from across the country,
kind of like you were talking about the one delicate
(12:19):
Testen that you love there at East Hartford where it
has that, you know, the charm of the Northeast, but
also maybe a little bit of influenced from tugs and
norbs and mills and Bob's Big Boy. So what are
some of the things that you've noticed in your journeys
across the country.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So one of my favorite things to do is rich
sixty six like I think that is the thing. It'st
us it's storied, and you know, it's just all the
old tales of you know, finding a better life out west,
you know, yeah, and it's really interesting to see. Well,
you know, the thing I ponder about most as I'm
(13:03):
doing the trips is like, you know, the sense of
you know, there were people that started in say the midwest.
Chicago is always like the you know, we always think
of it the start there. But I mean, yeah, maybe
you're in Gary, Indiana. You just opped on sixties like
you know, you don't know, but yeah, but you know,
(13:24):
so some some people stopped in Saint Louis, some people
stopped in Albuquerque, and some people went all the way.
So you know, all along the way there must have
been different levels of innovation, uh, to for instance, survive
in the desert or you know, or to make it
all the way and whatever the dream was at that point.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, but it's oh, go hit sorry my best.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Actually, wait, I'm sorry, I forgot what your question was.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You know, it's just about because he talked about the
diner there in East Hartford, cow Has. You know, it's
that the diner look maybe a little bit of diner field,
but also as a West coast feel to it as well.
It has most the East coast diner, maybe a little
bit of the street car look to it with a
(14:12):
little bit of the Googi's or Norms or mills in La.
They kind of cross pollination of differin. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I think the it's interesting because a lot of you know,
the diner cars, because they were modeled after largely, you know,
just trains. The window situation is not great, like you
usually just have like a small window and it's like, okay,
we're just gonna eat here and then go back to
our seat. But yeah, but the thing about the restaurants,
(14:44):
whether they be East coast, Midwest, or West coast is
that you know, they're able to have the windows which
which lets you see in and see out. Of course,
my observation that that you had brought up I think
was more based on the signs themselves, because you know,
(15:04):
as I start in the eastern part of sixty six,
like Illinois and uh, what's the next Missouri?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, they they they have like elements of those eye
catching because it's all about car culture, right like af
you're passing, oh yeah, you know, they're they're trying to
lure you in with whether it's lights or just like
cool shapes. Now, of course, West Coast seems to have
a lot of like the angular shapes, a lot of neon,
(15:37):
which I mean, you know, I'm like a bug to
a bug light when it comes to Whenever I've seen neon,
I just love it. But but I don't think you
see as much neon except for maybe in actual Chicago,
but like in some of the smaller towns, like you
might see lights on signs, but I don't think you'll
see as much neon. Maybe I just haven't seen enough
(15:59):
of it yet. But yeah, but also like the shapes
are a little bit different because I think on the
West Coast you see more of a lot of people
talk about the Space Race and how everything was kind
of in that new age at the time, you know,
the hope for whatever the final frontier was going to be,
like yeh there it was, you know, wild the Space Race,
(16:21):
I guess what it was.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And what they called Google techno optimism Mmm, yeah, okay, yes,
I always love the the alternate names of Google. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And by the way, if if you don't know New
Jersey specifically, Wildwood, New Jersey, has its own little you know,
treasure trove of well they call it do Op over there,
but essentially it's Google. You know, it's got the it's
got the neon, it's got the like the separated letters
(16:53):
and like all the angular shapes and it's it's super cool.
I was actually able to this last summer. I was
able to go take like a mini day trip with
my mom, which with New York City traffic, turned out
to be a seven hour drive. We got to the
to the place that did the tour like five minutes
before the tour started, and so thankfully we had that,
(17:14):
but but so it was it was cool. We saw
it at dusk and then we after the tour was done,
we kind of uh drove around to some of our
favorite places from the tour and we went on the
boardwalk and you know, so it was a nice little
day trip. And then this is sort of unrelated to
what we're talking about, but then we won't work there.
(17:35):
We went back through New York and uh, you know,
you know, moms are you know. The first of all,
you know, my mom was saying, well be careful, this
is New York City, you know, and mom it's fine,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And then.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So I parked I think we were right outside of
Radio City, where there happened to be an actual streetcart
of of the whole all guys if you know that place,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, which is super good and the
So we didn't actually pick up anything, but I was like, well,
let's just walk around. And it was like, you know,
it's two in the morning in New York City. Like
(18:09):
if there's not a story that comes from this, then
you know, what are we even doing here?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
So we walked around and uh, you know, you see
you see people actually, and the story became like why
are all those people lining up outside Radio City at
two thirty in the morning. And then you know, we
we saw some people that were that were also looking
at them and they're like, oh yeah, there's this this
guest that's going to be there, and uh, you know,
they're all they're all just waiting there, and so we so, yeah,
(18:37):
nice little story there. We we we drove around a
little bit more, took some cool pictures. There's some good
neon in New York too, oh yeah, and you know,
and but it's a different look, you know, like if
you look at the neon signs from like Radio City
or you know other places in New York. You know,
New York has more of an Art Deco look to
(18:57):
it rather than yeah, mid century. It just goes to
when when the city blossomed, you know, uh, it had
its different booms. And also in the Skyscrapersio like you know,
you know, the Empire State Building and Christler Building, like
it's got more of that Art Deco look rather than
in Centuria. But or or you know, a modern But
(19:17):
I think modern buildings are kind of boring, like the skyscrapers. Yeah,
and they look cool, but you know, they don't have
the charm that like a good Art Deco building does.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Like here in Houston with some of the bigger buildings,
they have a brutalist uh oh, I forget his name,
Big Bush out of Houston. He wrote in the the
Rice whatever they call their their architecture architecture journal actually
wrote about I don't know if you're familiar with brutalism.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Do you know what brutalism is a little bit, Yeah,
because there's some in Boston that's.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, bowl very noticeable, like some mint Eastern bloc. What
do you think of like the ugliest building in the
world is that pyramid, North Korea, and it's very brutaliss
So there's a brutaliss like bunkiness to Houston. And also
you'll see like the weird little like circular disc shapes,
(20:13):
not like you know, the uh was it the record
Tower Tower Records in La not gonna like capital like
a halo capital. That's right, man Tower Records. What the
heck it's It's like a hay brick halo. Ned was
nineteen seventies field and they're like, hey, this would look cool,
(20:34):
and everybody and like it only looks cool in the seventies.
The cities no eighties, no seventies, Yes, and everybody's like,
what are you doing? I'll turn. So that bring us
to the end of our second segment. Sorry I went
a little long winded. Well we'll get into this kind
of light observations, like little local areas have their own
(20:55):
little feel like Tucson is an Albuquerque and Albert Kirghy
isn't du Can Carrie, you know. And when we get back,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(21:25):
Sign Finders. We're in our third segment of the show.
We are still running to this show like you know,
a kid through candy. I don't know. I'll come with
a better cliche next time. And we're talking with the
Amazing road Speak go and follow him r O A
D S P E A K. I just want to
reason why he's falling out because there's roadside heat and
(21:47):
there's road back and they similar but not uh. And
so we have the amazing Bill holding with us. Now
we're talking about kind of the ritualisms, like you have
the art deco of New York City and also there's
some art deco that bleeds into Chicago. And I was
talking with Rob Ladiber last week. There are a few
(22:10):
little towns like Kansas, Missouri. Even down here in Houston,
the Acme Oyster House used to be the i think
the l Ray Movie Theater, and it had that art
deco look and then you'll see it kind of bleed
into other things, and you know, the mid century comes
in and there's some you know, architect that likes to
(22:30):
put this shape with that shape and things like that.
What are some of your observations as you were going
across the country about the way different maybe a different
architect in Livingston Texas would do it different than Albertquerque.
What were some of the things that you've seen on
(22:52):
your travels.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yes, well, first of all, I claim to be no expert,
but no worry observations.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, yeah, there's observes. Yeah, hopefully I made that explicit.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
But absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
And well let's see here. I'm gonna I'm just gonna
cheat real quick and put go onto my hey.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, I remember, well, yes, I think the because I
think when you send me a message, it was it
was right after I had posted a particular sign. I
was an Oklahoma I think this is Lichfield, Illinois. It's yeah, well,
(23:33):
because that's the thing, right, like it you can tell
that it's a sign, the type of sign that we
would like, but but it looks different, like you wouldn't
find this sign in California, but you might find it
somewhere else in the Midwest. Like I would almost expect
to see this in you know, like a suburb in Wisconsin,
maybe in Minnesota. Yeah, certainly along route of Sea six
(23:56):
in Illinois, which it is, but it just has the
Midwest look to it. I didn't and like I'm not
fully sure how to I mean it does have neon
now that I'm looking at it. Yeah, but it also
has uh like you know the all the bulbs that
are outside of the welcome to Las Vegas sign. Yes,
like it has that, but they're not on the outside.
(24:18):
They're they're on it so to you know, to attract
attention in a different kind of way. Yeah, And I
think all this adds up to just like it's a
Midwest regional sign, like it's you can just it just
I don't know, it just looks like it's a Midwest sign.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Is the bombasticness to some of the bigger city signs
because you know, like you said, the car cultures like
I'm here, You're having here, and you have like two
story signs. You know, Bob's Big Boy is ridiculous. I
think even looking on yours, like even Blue Swallow isn't
(24:52):
as big an bombastic, but it has that charm like
a smaller town charm to a if that makes sense,
because you know, and like even Oklahoma City, you got
a you have a limited amount of time to get
as many eyeballs on your product, if that makes sense,
and you got to get it quick, so you got
(25:14):
to make a bombastic like the downtown or motel in
l A. Holy Cow. It's not the biggest sign I thing. Uh,
you get to see it, but it's it's oh yeah,
I catching and like, yeah, I've uh.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I forget how I found out about that sign, but
but I I made it, made it a point one
of my many LA trips, and I've I've posted it
a couple of times at night and and during the day.
And then there was some other podcasts. I don't know
if it was yours or not, but UH. And then
the the person who restored that sign or like helped
(25:47):
uh adapt it to its new name. UH also wrote
a book. It's called The History of Our Hollywood History
or something like that, and it's all about the history
of the science. I mean, get yeah one second, Oh, no.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Worries, and we'll have a uh and we'll we'll mention
this book in the show notes at the end of
the show. I gotta find a better way to say that,
but at the show notes on the website, that's what
I'm trying to say. Well, yeah, I found the big
shoe suing gas for less. Yeah, I can see what
(26:21):
you're talking about. It's like a smaller town. He made
it out I've had a lot of money, but he
wants you to come there and catch your eye. Yeah,
I can see what you talked about.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
So the name of the book is it's just simply
called Hollywood Signs by Kathy kickerd oh cool. Yeah, it's
fancy kick. Yes, k I k K E R t okay.
So she was the one, and I, you know, I
was just meant, I don't know, I think I commented
on some other person's picture of that sign, and then
(26:52):
you know, then then Kathy was tagged in it, and
so that you because this is the beautiful thing about
social media, like yeah, all you have to do is
like find the tags or the hashtags and then you
can just direct message these people and uh and start
that conversation and just be like someone who's gone through
that process of like wow, you know how to restore
a sign?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, or you're entrenched in that that world enough that
like you were able to just you know, walk up
to the people and say, hey, I restore signs and
da da da da. So I think she was more
on the design side rather than like the mechanical like
fix the sign thing. But which is but she has
the eye forever yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
You know, especially if you're trying to a keep the
spirit of the old sign alive and be adapted to
the new situation and make a mesh together, you gotta
have an amazing eye for both design and technique in
order to convey that to the masses. M hmm. That
(27:55):
was just a fancy way of saying you gotta know
what you know, you gotta know able yep.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And and you know the story with that sign is
like the bulk of the neon of that sign stayed
the same, like that where actually says motel. It was
just the white part that says downtowner. But she didn't
just put downtowner like it's there's it's in a particular
script and it's got the little Hollywood in there, and
it's got the stars very well done, perfect and you ask.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Me and it very Uh. You're expecting like the rat
pack to come out of this place as that feel
of what a likely you know, Dean Martin and Frank
Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior and here was the other
guy in the group. I was for you of the
fourth guy. Uh. I'm sure somebody will remind me, but
you have this feeling like they're going to come out
(28:46):
of there with like Martini's and you know, like a
beautiful woman on their arms and just walk walk by
you there in downtown La exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And I mean we can't finish this episode without at
least mentioning Vegas, right, like, yes, the king of you know, tall,
exuber and flamboyant signs that are just you know, they
do the job, they get your attention.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Have you ever been there like it after midnight when
you're really tired?
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I have, I have?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, And what is what is the first thing that
comes to your mind when you come out of the
darkness into that light.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Just it's time to do something else, Like there's not
time to go to bed.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's I had been up for over forty eight hours
at that time, or close to forty eight hours. And
you know, come down north, coming out of Saint George,
Utah through Arizona, and you're going across the Mawapa Reservation.
It's like, this is dark, what what are we doing
out here? All of a sudden you hit the gorge,
the edge of the Vegas Gorge, and it's just like
(29:51):
a bug zapper.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh absolutely yes, yeah, poom to me. Moths in fact, yeah,
I don't. I don't think I've mentioned this, But so
my mom turned sixty six this year and he celebrated
by going on a Route sixty six trip, so like
sixty six on sixty six, and it was the first
time my mom has been to California before, but it
was the first time she's gone through to California, and
(30:17):
of course sixty six and all of the Americana that
comes and comes with that, and she loved the trip absolutely.
But then so we got to La and then as
we were coming back, we went to Palm Springs. She
loved that. I mean, talk about mid century overload, you know,
she loved that. We went to Amboy, and then from
Amboy we went and it was getting dark at this point,
(30:39):
and leave it to me to leave just enough time,
but we left Amboy and with just enough time for
us to get to the Neon Museum in.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Oh wow, but it was, you know, such a thing
because it's i mean, come on, you're driving through the desert,
the absolute pitch black desert. And then but then my
mom was like, what is all that light in the
clouds over there? Yeah, and we were like forty five
minutes away, and it's just like being on the East coast.
You know, this nice rolling hills and it's pretty and
(31:12):
all that, but it's crowded compared to where we were.
And she does, you know, had never really experienced like
total darkness to the point where like you can see,
you know, the lights in the clouds from forty five
minutes drive away. So that was an experience for her.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, you know, you're coming up on a bigger town
when you see the lights in the clouds, like Albercer,
even though you're the mountains, you know, kind of have
to climb from Tucumkiri up to Albuquerque and down, but
you see it in the clouds, and you Salt Lake
Cities the same way. I don't know Denver's the same way. No,
Denver's not. It doesn't have that feel. But definitely Vegas
(31:49):
holy cow. Oh yeah, that is like slap you right
in the face. Hey, wake up. It's time to go
to spend a lot of money. So that'll bring us
to the end of our third segment. When we come back,
we will ask about We'll ask Rhodes speak Bill about
I forgot your name. I'm so sorry, and.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Said, okay, I've got like six different things to go
to my ed at once.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yeah, you can tell us getting late too. We will
ask him about his butt, so his buckelist, place he'd
like to go, and maybe some other things we'd like
to talk about. You're listening to International Sign Finders. Welcome
(32:35):
back to International Sign Finders. We have Bill Holden road speak.
I'll have how you can get in contact with him,
how you can connect with him through Instagram in the
show notes on the show website at spreaker, not at
the end of the show. We'll talk about that too.
I'll get this all right one of these days. It's
(32:56):
been twenty seven episodes. I still haven't got it right. Yeah,
I'll learning. So we've been talking about some of the regionalisms.
Uh maybe you know it's kind of like Larry's Mexican Restaurant,
which I think was something else in Richmond, Texas. Uh,
there was a similar one called Feflix's Mexican Restaurant in
(33:17):
Houston as the same sign. I mean, I'll take this back.
There is a cactus in Boston, Massachusetts, or that there. Yeah,
there is a neon cactus there, so you won't find
that as much on the East Coast as you would
in the Southwest. Yeah, fill with that. Yeah, I'll find
(33:38):
that with you.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Oh it's funny like yeah, well to kind of peel
back the layer on that a little bit, because I mean,
I don't I'm not. This is not my industry. I
just love it, you know. Yeah. So, but I found
out that the Munger Moss Motel also has is the
same sign as another place.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
The Rest Haven.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, so yeah, I only seen one of them in person.
But uh, but I don't know, I mean, there must
have been a point like is there another Royce sign somewhere,
you know, like from Amboy. If it's something you can
just pull out of a catalog, then you know, maybe
we're all being duped.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yes, and we're we we love being duped. These are
great signs. It's kind of like here in Houston, Oh,
what was it. It's kind of like if you have
a building that shaped like a beer barrel and you
sell beer. There's a technical term for that, and it's
going to come to me afterwards, and you'll see signs
kind of like that. It's uh oh it's mimetic the
(34:39):
medic or mimetic design. Uh. And you'll find like the
one I can think of off the top of my head.
It was back in the fifties of sixties called Guidos.
It was a seafood restaurant and it had a rep
with two six shooters in each claw. It was very mimetic,
(35:00):
very Houston. You're not or to find that many other
places along the coast. And uh, you know, I forget
where I was gonna go with this. Anyway, we'll get
to your buckal list. No, it's kind of like you know,
Saguar saw Sally, That's what I was thinking about. And
she's up in the Boston area. She takes picture of
(35:20):
some of these things, and it's just so funny. In
the middle of Austin there is a cactus by Neon Cactus.
It's so strange. But so now we're going to get
at you your bucket list, as I have just completely
derailed this show. So what are some places that you
would like to go? You've got up and down sixty six. Uh,
you gained all the beauty, you know, light the Tucson,
(35:42):
ind Uh was it the hot dog place in Albertquerque?
I forget what it's called. Something dog.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I'm not sure. Well, I certainly have been to Pink's
in LA for a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, okay, gotcha. Uh well, we'll worry about the name
of it later. But uh yeah, So what are some
places that you would like to go to that you
haven't been to yet, or even you've been to the
area but you didn't get a picture of something. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It's funny because sometimes when you when you're on a
long trip like sixty six, there's there's a few moods
you go through, which is like, all right, we're doing it,
like you've got all the energy in the world. And
then you know, eleven and a half hours later, you're
still on the road because I'll drive like pretty far,
you know, and yeah, and I've driven over a thousand
miles in a day before. But you know, when you're
(36:38):
on the last couple hours of the day, you're like,
all right, well, let's let me just get to my destination.
You know, the spark kind of lose it, you know. Yeah,
but there have been some times that I've gone through
certain areas of sixty six and whether you know, I
wanted to hit it in the day or I wanted
to hit it at night, and just like you know,
based on when I started that day. It just didn't happen.
(37:01):
But I've done the trip enough times that I've been
able to get day and night shots of a lot
of things that I like. But so, when I was younger,
I was able to travel. I think at the time
it was like forty two states out of the fifty. Oh,
so I had done a lot, and I've at least, like,
you know, stepped foot in a lot of places like Wyoming.
(37:23):
I think it was literally just a rest up and
then we got back on It counts, it counts. Yeah,
that was a great rest up. Yeah. But because of that,
you know, at this point now I've only there's only
a few states I haven't been to, which would be
Alaska and Hawaii. And you know that's going to take
some commitment to try to get to them that you
don't just fall, you know, take a wrong turn and
(37:45):
you're in Hawaii. You know that's right, But yes, Hawaii, know,
oh sure, yeah? And then Washington and Montana. So I
have a friend who's currently stationed in Washington. Uh so,
you know, a good excuse to try to try to
visit there in the next few months before he leaves.
(38:06):
And then Montana, you know, probably on that same trip,
I'll just like hop over id Hoe and touch, you know,
just touch Montana and then turn back.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
But there are a lot of great signs of Montana.
Uh if you get over to Billings to Butte, maybe
Anacondah like that little grip of fifteen there. I wish
in my younger years when I lived in Idaho, I
would have just gone up there and taken photos because
when I was out there, Buttes like, hey, don't stop
(38:36):
a mute, just keep going north or keep going east
or west. But the pictures I've seen of the bars
and the restaurants in Butte, Montana are it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
M I am totally unfamiliar with that, and and now
you've got me curious. I'm going to go look to
see if it has a different look than the West
coast and the Midwest, or maybe they have their.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Little uh like like a buffalo. You know, there's a
few places that was they have neon buffaloes or a
buffalo on a sign and maybe yeah, maybe the designers
like that.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
This will be interesting to see. Thank you for turning
me on to that. Hey you're welcome, yeah, because I
mean to tell you to do that. I wasn't sure
what I was going to do in Montana.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah. Uh. And the thing is Butte, it's an old
coal mining town. I think, okay, I think you're yeah,
it's up in the mountains. The main thing I remember
about Butte is you know, going through there and they
had this big statue of Prist I think in the mountains.
And when we were going up to the mountains there
(39:42):
was fog and so half of Christ was you could
see the bottom half, but the top half was covered.
So just like these feet hanging out of the cloud
m especially when you're half a slipper, like, oh wow,
that's that is interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So does that have like a similar look to the
Rhea Deijion Arrow Jesus statue.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I don't know. I I just saw the bottom one,
the bottom part, because that that real one is amazing.
That's a really cool statue.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I have to to I've been there, like I I
went walked up the steps that was That was a
long time ago. Yeah, but uh yeah, it's it's it's serious.
And then of course once you get out there you
get a beautiful view of Rio.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Oh yeah, yeah that's cool. Uh. So talked about Montana, Washington,
get with then be in forgotten by time. He is
a he's from Yakama, Washington, but he does a lot
of Washington, like all of Washington. And also maybe Neon
(40:48):
was it Neon Pieen five O three? Uh, they're out
of Portland, but I'm sure they could get you in
the right direction when you're in uh, wherever you're at
in Washington. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I'll I'll always get you some connections going that I
that I yeah, because yeah, it's an area I don't
know much about. I've studied just because I love the
culture of southern California. Like, I haven't even really visited
northern very much. I've been through it a couple of times,
well once, but yeah, and you know, on all of
(41:19):
my LA trips, I said, oh, maybe this will be
the one I take the you know, six hour drive
up to stf But it never seems to happen it
and I guess I'm too enamored with the desert.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah, and maybe head up there when Neon speech is there.
They have a Neon conference up there and uh, well
you can also view it at home too. They have
an online portion and they also have a in in
person portion as well. Uh where they just talk about Neon?
Oh the uh the place I was talking about Albert
(41:50):
Grease told the doghouse.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, okay, maybe I have heard of that.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, I think that it was on Breaking Bad or
better call Saul one of the two. Yeah, I couldn't
get into Breaking Bed when they put the little kid
and asked that, I was like, no, not for me,
definitely not for me.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
So uh yeah, oh there are well, okay, so I
think to finish the bucket list thing, like, sof the reals,
I'm already there. Yeah, so there's the four estates that
I at least have to like touch my foot onto it.
But aside from that, you know, there's not much on
sixty six that I haven't seen. Like once in a
(42:33):
while I'll say, o, wait, like I've never been to
the Blue Hole, for instance, in Okay, Santa Rose in
New Mexico. But yeah, I mean, I mean, if I'm
not gonna swam, do I really need to go? But
you know, maybe there's a picture there or something. But
I can get off the list of places I've been. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean here is nice, but so let's see, Yeah,
the there's a there's probably just a few places that
(42:56):
I haven't been on sixty six. But there's a couple
other pockets of the country that I'd like to visit
a little bit more. I mean Texas too, Like I've
got like I want to go down to Big Bend
if I ever, yeah, get the chance to like hike
there at a reasonable time of year, because I hear
that Terre Lingua, which is right next to it, is
(43:17):
a great place to get tacos and and just some
other things that you'll see there. Like you have to
go through Alpine and Marfa, which has a great little
artist community, and I've all passed through well, but not
enough time to really enjoy it. So and like there's
so many corners of Texas that you know, a lot
(43:38):
of people say, well, you go out to La so often,
Like why don't you? Just like Texas has so much
to offer, it's closer, it's cheap, and you can visit
more of.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Them as huge all with cow. I mean, California is big,
don't get me wrong, that's a big state. But you
know Texas. You know where I'm at in Houston. It's
ten eleven hours to help pas So, and it's nine
hours to Amarillo and it's four hours, three and a
(44:06):
half hours to Dallas, so uh, you could get there
in a day, but it's it's a day. Here's a
day of drive.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
That's your day.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, that is definitely your day. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
L El Paso is always uh that's always a kick
in the pants. There's no way to look cool after it.
It's like you're just run ragged after you do that drive.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You know, Oh yeah I can't. It's kind of like
going through different parts of New Mexico. I I would
love to go through southern New Mexico, like go down
to Las Bruce's, go to Alma Gordo. I don't know
if White Sands is southern New Mexico, but uh, you
know some like I want to say Vaughan, it might.
I know Vaughan's an off the beaten path, but they
(44:50):
have some really cool signs there and like little towns
like Cuba. It's up in like the northern north central, uh,
New Mexico. And yeah it's got it's a town of
like five or six hundred. It's got four signs, but
those are great signs. Each one of them has character
(45:11):
and it also like I forget who I was talking
with about like little towns, especially in Texas. We put
in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. Every little town, especially when it's
a county seat town, seems to have a really cool
theater in the middle of town. Whether it's a neon
(45:34):
or the neons still on or the neon's falling off,
there's still something about these those little towns. Like I
was in Chickashe, Oklahoma, which is about forty five minutes
outside of Oklahoma City, and the Washata. I'll have that
up on my Instagram page soon. The Washata Theater is amazing,
(45:57):
just amazing theater. And you I think that would be
in Oklahoma City. No, it's in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Mm hmm,
forty five minutes down the road. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
And I love theaters too, just because I'm in the
performing arts and uh. The Peikos Theater in Santa Rosa
is also very nice.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I got it at with.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Great and little Neon sign is a small theater, but
I mean it's just perfect size for the town.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
But you know, you wouldn't think that there's much in
Santa Rosa, but there are there are some some buildings,
buildings to take them, you know, in some science to
take pictures of. And wouldn't you know it that little
downtown it's got that theater. And I think they still
have an old school Arby's. Uh do they still have
(46:44):
an Arby's neon sign in Santa Russa? I think so.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, it's gone out.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
You see so many of those, Yeah, I mean those
are a diamond dozen.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
But yeah, it's like chickib Carry. You know, people know
Chukham Carry. That's kept like the the Jewel of sixty
six in a way, the small jewel. But I was
talking to Neil lover eight on one He's like, you know,
Jacob curious, kind of overrated. But Santa Rosa, I'm like,
dank comment, I need to stop at Santa Rosa.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
And yeah it's good. It's a good style for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
And even San John. I think San John's got some
pretty cool stuff as well. A little further up more
towards the Texas line. So that'll bring us to the
end of the show. Holy cow, it's been a wild ride.
Thanks for at least putting up with me. I will
say that I I'm off the rails. I will hey,
absolutely no, admit it.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
No, I love talking signs and it's funny how this
type of thing always like it one thing sparks another
sparks another, and there are so many there's such a
community by just by virtue of the fact that you're
traveling and uh people, there's a there's there's the type
of people that like to talk about travel and uh,
(47:59):
just all that goes with that, and in particular the
sign thing like I just love it. Yeah, thanks for
having me, man.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Glad to have you, and I'm glad we're able to
connect finally And okay, I've I've imped out your your
Instagram page. Do you have any other websites that you'd
like to feature or talk about before we hit out?
Speaker 2 (48:22):
That's really the only one that's related to this type
of thing. So yeah, I mean, there is a Facebook
version that I'm trying to kind of get trying to
just double everything on Facebook, but that's in its infancy.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
So what's better for a turn table, belt driven or
direct drive?
Speaker 2 (48:40):
A loaded question, But it depends what you're using it for,
and it all depends on what you want to you know,
how much meanings do you want to put in?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Okay, gotcha? Yeah, I thought I thought i'd throw your
card ball there at the year. Just be fun.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah, so yeah, once again, thanks so much for joining
us on the show, and go follow Bill at speak
Uh that's r O A D S P e a K.
Maybe we'll have old Roadside Peak on another time. He's
kind of the o G. If you want a guy
(49:13):
who has been in the Segin hunting community before the
Internet was big, roadside Roadside Peak is part of your guy.
But yeah, thanks so much for being with us, and
until next time, get out there, have fun. Hey, loads
of pictures of signs and be safe. Definitely be safe.
Until next time, happy sign finding.
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Last week we had a great conversation
with Rob Latimer, Casey Seinchaser. Go and find him and
follow him, and also hopefully he had a great weekend
getting out there hitting the pavement, whether it's driving or
walking or hobbling in my chase right now with a
broken toe, walking around with a Buddha. Thank you, Oklahoma,
(00:43):
sitting for your hospitality. No that's not a snide remark.
Sorry everybody, hopefully didn't take it away, but hopefully you
got some awesome pictures. Share him with this, share with me. Heck,
I'm i ama share them in one of my stories.
You never know what's with me the way I go,
especially the ADHD bring. But tonight we have a great guest.
(01:06):
You may know him as road speak. I got to
make sure I get that right, because there's roadside Peek
and there's roads Speak. And we started talking a while
back about different types of signs around regions. We may
get into that. We may fire the shots with that one,
because I've heard that there really aren't. You know, there's
(01:29):
just some standards, shapes and stuff like that that go
across the country and maybe some regionalisms they go along
with them. But well hear what he has to say.
But welcome to the show. One of the many one
of my many friends on Instagram that goes all over
the place, Bill Holden, is that is okay for me
to call you Bill Holden?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, that's fine, okay, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Because you know some people don't you want to keep
their identity a secret Batman Roads speak. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Bill, thanks so much, thanks for having me and oh cool,
hey sorry, right, well I was gonna say, yeah, like
I because I've seen both of your accounts now and uh,
you know the thing that got me well, I guess
I found your your other account, You're Houston sign neon Science. Yeah, yes, okay,
(02:27):
and uh but then I found out that you had
the podcast. I was like, oh man, this is like perfect.
I love listening to where I love talking about this
type of thing, and so I'm super excited to be here.
So thanks for thanks for reaching out to me, and yeah,
here we are.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I'm ready to go. Yeah, I know it's been he's
been a couple of months coming because you're teacher, is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
That's right? Excuse mean that's right. I'm a high school
band director in the Dallas area.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yep, oh yeah, I just yeah, gummet. We got lost
in downtown Dallas and we drove through Deep elumough and
I couldn't stop and take pictures because we has time front.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, there's a lot to take pictures of there for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, it's the quintessential like old downtown area, and
it's sort of like it's an extension of downtown Dallas,
like Deep Elam actually means like Deep Elm Street, but
it's just like said in Texan, and but it really
is like nowadays, it's kind of a little bit of
a bohemian area. Yeah, there's a lot of like bars
(03:36):
and clubs that have performance venues there, but like small ones,
you know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I actually have a friend from my hometown in
Connecticut who he moved down to Dallas before I have
been moved to Texas, and he actually lives in some
sort of a an artist retreat I think with his
band and wow, and they've been doing some pretty good things.
I mean, like fifteen years later, he's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Hey. Hey, they say do what you love. But there's
all a lot of things I love that you don't
get paid for like sleeping, eating, Well, you might get
paid to eat, you know, Joey Chestnut. So uh yeah,
but I don't have a metabolism like Georges. Yeah, my gosh,
(04:20):
you can hibernate all the amount of hot dogs that
he can consume in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
It's it's scary. And you know, it's funny because I
I don't really follow him, but I follow this other
guy named Matt Stoney, okay, and uh and you know
he's even more slender, and and a lot of people
ask him like, how do you stay so then doing
all this this eating, and it's uh, I mean, it's
like anything else, it's a balance, you know, oh hoo.
Much of anything is not good. But but he's he's
(04:49):
really made a mark for himself. And you know, it's
late lately, you know, because I have so much time
off in the summers and and like winter break, I'm
able to, uh to go up to visit my mom
for extended periods of time, and so we'll eat all
these meals and she'll say, you know, Billy, you're you're
just eating so fast. Where did you why did you start,
(05:10):
you know, eating so fast, and I think it's subconsciously
all the you know, the eating videos that I watch
on TikTok, and really.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
For me it was I worked at summer mowing lawns
and we didn't get a set lunch break. In Idaho,
they have a thing where you don't get a lunch break.
If you can travel between properties, that's considered your break.
So you learn to eat extremely fast between properties. You
(05:39):
might stop for you know, a few minutes and call
it a break or whatever, but you learn or eat
really fast. And unfortunately, like you, the psychological aspect of
speed eating, for me, it's it's instinct, unfortunately, And I
the only time I slowly eat a meal is if
I have a good conversation going on. Then I'll take
(06:00):
my time and I'm the last one to eat my hemagin.
Oh sure. Yeah. So here in the first segment, we'll
have you introduced yourself a little more. So. You're a
band teacher of the Dallas area. Where what was the
thing that that gave you the bug to go out
and sign hunt or take or sign find and take
(06:23):
pictures of signs?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You know, I was thinking about this and it's kind
of a mix between a couple of things that are
now looking back on it kind of related. So I
grew up in Connecticut, and you know, I would often
go visit my grandmother, which was in East Hartford. And
if anyone ever knows, he's the main street in East Harford.
There's a certain area where you like, it kind of
(06:47):
looks like, you know, a more spread out version of
like Deep Bellum for instance, Like it's a it's you
can tell it's an old main street, New England town,
but but it has like it's like ten percent more
city than it is like small town. Okay, And but
at night, especially like you know, during the holidays, you'd
see some things decorated and all these storefronts that are
(07:10):
really close to the street, so like you know, like
a walking city rather than like one that's car dependent.
And I just liked that old kind of look to it.
And then you but then okay, new imagery. Now, if
you've ever seen the painting called Nighthawks by Edward Hopper,
it's you know, Nighthawks at the Diner, I think is
(07:31):
full name. And it's just like the idea that there's
this thing that's open in the middle of the night
when no one else is around, you've got like two
couples that are sitting at the bar but not talking
to each other. It just gives this mystique of, I
don't know, just like what what people do when everyone
else is sleeping. It's there's a mystique there. And but
(07:55):
also the fact that it's on the corner and you
can see into it like an old, you know, googie
style diner, even though that has more of an East
Coast look, which you know, maybe this is foreshadowing, but
you know, because I think it's meant to be in
New York, that particular painting, but if you were to
look at, you know, some of the googie from La,
it's kind of the same thing. You can see into
(08:18):
it at night, but it just has all these jagged
edges and everything. But so yeah, that got me into that,
and I think in my hometown there's there's a little
place called the Whole Donut which actually sadly has just
gone a business or it's actually the the little Corner
Donut Shop has been just taken over by a new family. Okay,
(08:41):
but it has that like it. It has that little
sort of like the stools around a counter kind of
look to it and I've always just loved that that
look and just kind of what goes with that, and
also the sense of community that goes with that too. Yeah,
So I think that's what got me into this this
whole thing, or should be.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That diner culture in the Northeast, because you know, Richard Gutman.
I don't know, if you listen to the podcast where
I interviewed Richard Gutman, he's known as the diner Man.
He is the nation's foremost expert on diners, and he
talks about all the little diners, like you know, the
old street car diners and the the diners that you're
(09:22):
talking about, And the first one it comes to mine
is the Jackson Hole diner there in New York City.
I think that's what that's where it is. And I
also talk with the Outside of the Times, and there
are a few cool little diners outside of Boston as well,
and it seems like that, you know, Pennsylvania, New York,
New Jersey, into New England, seems like there's a diner
(09:44):
culture up in that neck of the woods.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Absolutely. And you know, one of those little infographics that
I scrolled through on Facebook once in a while, it
talks about like where are the kings of sandwich culture?
And I think that also has to do with you know,
some of the most famous places in New York like Carnegie,
Delhi and places like that, you know, yeah, just like
(10:09):
classic delicate delicate dos and Yes Cats, which also shout
out to Houston.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, but but you know it's old, reliable, you know,
because if you're if you're hungry at you know, two
in the morning, you can go to Denny's or you
can go there. And so but there definitely is like
there's sandwich culture. And then there's some history too through
that which I can't fully recall right now, but as spots,
(10:35):
certainly they started off as the diner cars and then
then they just kind of created a culture all of
their own. And you know, many small towns up there
have them, and because of how everything is old up
there in that part of the country, uh, they largely
stay untouched, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, it's really cool. So that's a great segue to
in our first segment. Going to our segment we have
road Speak. Go and find him on Instagram at road
Speak that's r O A D S P e a K.
And when we come back, we'll get it maybe get
a little more into the diner culture and maybe some
(11:14):
of the observations that Bill has had criss crossing the country.
You listen to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(11:37):
Sign Finders. I'm your host, Breverend Anthony. Glad you're back
with us. We have the wonderful Bill Holden Road speak
with us. Go follow him on Instagram right follow he
goes all over the country. He's kind of like old
motel signs Nick girlic maybe I throw away dv ever dt.
(11:58):
He loves traveling the open road and getting out, getting
the pavement is sharing his findes with us. Now, when
I first kind of gotten to a conversation with you,
you talked about noticing different influences from across the country,
kind of like you were talking about the one delicate
(12:19):
Testen that you love there at East Hartford where it
has that, you know, the charm of the Northeast, but
also maybe a little bit of influenced from tugs and
norbs and mills and Bob's Big Boy. So what are
some of the things that you've noticed in your journeys
across the country.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So one of my favorite things to do is rich
sixty six like I think that is the thing. It'st
us it's storied, and you know, it's just all the
old tales of you know, finding a better life out west,
you know, yeah, and it's really interesting to see. Well,
you know, the thing I ponder about most as I'm
(13:03):
doing the trips is like, you know, the sense of
you know, there were people that started in say the midwest.
Chicago is always like the you know, we always think
of it the start there. But I mean, yeah, maybe
you're in Gary, Indiana. You just opped on sixties like
you know, you don't know, but yeah, but you know,
(13:24):
so some some people stopped in Saint Louis, some people
stopped in Albuquerque, and some people went all the way.
So you know, all along the way there must have
been different levels of innovation, uh, to for instance, survive
in the desert or you know, or to make it
all the way and whatever the dream was at that point.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, but it's oh, go hit sorry my best.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Actually, wait, I'm sorry, I forgot what your question was.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You know, it's just about because he talked about the
diner there in East Hartford, cow Has. You know, it's
that the diner look maybe a little bit of diner field,
but also as a West coast feel to it as well.
It has most the East coast diner, maybe a little
bit of the street car look to it with a
(14:12):
little bit of the Googi's or Norms or mills in La.
They kind of cross pollination of differin. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
I think the it's interesting because a lot of you know,
the diner cars, because they were modeled after largely, you know,
just trains. The window situation is not great, like you
usually just have like a small window and it's like, okay,
we're just gonna eat here and then go back to
our seat. But yeah, but the thing about the restaurants,
(14:44):
whether they be East coast, Midwest, or West coast is
that you know, they're able to have the windows which
which lets you see in and see out. Of course,
my observation that that you had brought up I think
was more based on the signs themselves, because you know,
(15:04):
as I start in the eastern part of sixty six,
like Illinois and uh, what's the next Missouri?
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah, Missouri.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, they they they have like elements of those eye
catching because it's all about car culture, right like af
you're passing, oh yeah, you know, they're they're trying to
lure you in with whether it's lights or just like
cool shapes. Now, of course, West Coast seems to have
a lot of like the angular shapes, a lot of neon,
(15:37):
which I mean, you know, I'm like a bug to
a bug light when it comes to Whenever I've seen neon,
I just love it. But but I don't think you
see as much neon except for maybe in actual Chicago,
but like in some of the smaller towns, like you
might see lights on signs, but I don't think you'll
see as much neon. Maybe I just haven't seen enough
(15:59):
of it yet. But yeah, but also like the shapes
are a little bit different because I think on the
West Coast you see more of a lot of people
talk about the Space Race and how everything was kind
of in that new age at the time, you know,
the hope for whatever the final frontier was going to be,
like yeh there it was, you know, wild the Space Race,
(16:21):
I guess what it was.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
And what they called Google techno optimism Mmm, yeah, okay, yes,
I always love the the alternate names of Google. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
And by the way, if if you don't know New
Jersey specifically, Wildwood, New Jersey, has its own little you know,
treasure trove of well they call it do Op over there,
but essentially it's Google. You know, it's got the it's
got the neon, it's got the like the separated letters
(16:53):
and like all the angular shapes and it's it's super cool.
I was actually able to this last summer. I was
able to go take like a mini day trip with
my mom, which with New York City traffic, turned out
to be a seven hour drive. We got to the
to the place that did the tour like five minutes
before the tour started, and so thankfully we had that,
(17:14):
but but so it was it was cool. We saw
it at dusk and then we after the tour was done,
we kind of uh drove around to some of our
favorite places from the tour and we went on the
boardwalk and you know, so it was a nice little
day trip. And then this is sort of unrelated to
what we're talking about, but then we won't work there.
(17:35):
We went back through New York and uh, you know,
you know, moms are you know. The first of all,
you know, my mom was saying, well be careful, this
is New York City, you know, and mom it's fine,
it's fine.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And then.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
So I parked I think we were right outside of
Radio City, where there happened to be an actual streetcart
of of the whole all guys if you know that place,
oh yeah, yeah, yeah, which is super good and the
So we didn't actually pick up anything, but I was like, well,
let's just walk around. And it was like, you know,
it's two in the morning in New York City. Like
(18:09):
if there's not a story that comes from this, then
you know, what are we even doing here?
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (18:15):
So we walked around and uh, you know, you see
you see people actually, and the story became like why
are all those people lining up outside Radio City at
two thirty in the morning. And then you know, we
we saw some people that were that were also looking
at them and they're like, oh yeah, there's this this
guest that's going to be there, and uh, you know,
they're all they're all just waiting there, and so we so, yeah,
(18:37):
nice little story there. We we we drove around a
little bit more, took some cool pictures. There's some good
neon in New York too, oh yeah, and you know,
and but it's a different look, you know, like if
you look at the neon signs from like Radio City
or you know other places in New York. You know,
New York has more of an Art Deco look to
(18:57):
it rather than yeah, mid century. It just goes to
when when the city blossomed, you know, uh, it had
its different booms. And also in the Skyscrapersio like you know,
you know, the Empire State Building and Christler Building, like
it's got more of that Art Deco look rather than
in Centuria. But or or you know, a modern But
(19:17):
I think modern buildings are kind of boring, like the skyscrapers. Yeah,
and they look cool, but you know, they don't have
the charm that like a good Art Deco building does.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Like here in Houston with some of the bigger buildings,
they have a brutalist uh oh, I forget his name,
Big Bush out of Houston. He wrote in the the
Rice whatever they call their their architecture architecture journal actually
wrote about I don't know if you're familiar with brutalism.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Do you know what brutalism is a little bit, Yeah,
because there's some in Boston that's.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, bowl very noticeable, like some mint Eastern bloc. What
do you think of like the ugliest building in the
world is that pyramid, North Korea, and it's very brutaliss
So there's a brutaliss like bunkiness to Houston. And also
you'll see like the weird little like circular disc shapes,
(20:13):
not like you know, the uh was it the record
Tower Tower Records in La not gonna like capital like
a halo capital. That's right, man Tower Records. What the
heck it's It's like a hay brick halo. Ned was
nineteen seventies field and they're like, hey, this would look cool,
(20:34):
and everybody and like it only looks cool in the seventies.
The cities no eighties, no seventies, Yes, and everybody's like,
what are you doing? I'll turn. So that bring us
to the end of our second segment. Sorry I went
a little long winded. Well we'll get into this kind
of light observations, like little local areas have their own
(20:55):
little feel like Tucson is an Albuquerque and Albert Kirghy
isn't du Can Carrie, you know. And when we get back,
you're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International
(21:25):
Sign Finders. We're in our third segment of the show.
We are still running to this show like you know,
a kid through candy. I don't know. I'll come with
a better cliche next time. And we're talking with the
Amazing road Speak go and follow him r O A
D S P E A K. I just want to
reason why he's falling out because there's roadside heat and
(21:47):
there's road back and they similar but not uh. And
so we have the amazing Bill holding with us. Now
we're talking about kind of the ritualisms, like you have
the art deco of New York City and also there's
some art deco that bleeds into Chicago. And I was
talking with Rob Ladiber last week. There are a few
(22:10):
little towns like Kansas, Missouri. Even down here in Houston,
the Acme Oyster House used to be the i think
the l Ray Movie Theater, and it had that art
deco look and then you'll see it kind of bleed
into other things, and you know, the mid century comes
in and there's some you know, architect that likes to
(22:30):
put this shape with that shape and things like that.
What are some of your observations as you were going
across the country about the way different maybe a different
architect in Livingston Texas would do it different than Albertquerque.
What were some of the things that you've seen on
(22:52):
your travels.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yes, well, first of all, I claim to be no expert,
but no worry observations.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, yeah, there's observes. Yeah, hopefully I made that explicit.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
But absolutely.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
And well let's see here. I'm gonna I'm just gonna
cheat real quick and put go onto my hey.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, I remember, well, yes, I think the because I
think when you send me a message, it was it
was right after I had posted a particular sign. I
was an Oklahoma I think this is Lichfield, Illinois. It's yeah, well,
(23:33):
because that's the thing, right, like it you can tell
that it's a sign, the type of sign that we
would like, but but it looks different, like you wouldn't
find this sign in California, but you might find it
somewhere else in the Midwest. Like I would almost expect
to see this in you know, like a suburb in Wisconsin,
maybe in Minnesota. Yeah, certainly along route of Sea six
(23:56):
in Illinois, which it is, but it just has the
Midwest look to it. I didn't and like I'm not
fully sure how to I mean it does have neon
now that I'm looking at it. Yeah, but it also
has uh like you know the all the bulbs that
are outside of the welcome to Las Vegas sign. Yes,
like it has that, but they're not on the outside.
(24:18):
They're they're on it so to you know, to attract
attention in a different kind of way. Yeah, And I
think all this adds up to just like it's a
Midwest regional sign, like it's you can just it just
I don't know, it just looks like it's a Midwest sign.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Is the bombasticness to some of the bigger city signs
because you know, like you said, the car cultures like
I'm here, You're having here, and you have like two
story signs. You know, Bob's Big Boy is ridiculous. I
think even looking on yours, like even Blue Swallow isn't
(24:52):
as big an bombastic, but it has that charm like
a smaller town charm to a if that makes sense,
because you know, and like even Oklahoma City, you got
a you have a limited amount of time to get
as many eyeballs on your product, if that makes sense,
and you got to get it quick, so you got
(25:14):
to make a bombastic like the downtown or motel in
l A. Holy Cow. It's not the biggest sign I thing. Uh,
you get to see it, but it's it's oh yeah,
I catching and like, yeah, I've uh.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I forget how I found out about that sign, but
but I I made it, made it a point one
of my many LA trips, and I've I've posted it
a couple of times at night and and during the day.
And then there was some other podcasts. I don't know
if it was yours or not, but UH. And then
the the person who restored that sign or like helped
(25:47):
uh adapt it to its new name. UH also wrote
a book. It's called The History of Our Hollywood History
or something like that, and it's all about the history
of the science. I mean, get yeah one second, Oh, no.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Worries, and we'll have a uh and we'll we'll mention
this book in the show notes at the end of
the show. I gotta find a better way to say that,
but at the show notes on the website, that's what
I'm trying to say. Well, yeah, I found the big
shoe suing gas for less. Yeah, I can see what
(26:21):
you're talking about. It's like a smaller town. He made
it out I've had a lot of money, but he
wants you to come there and catch your eye. Yeah,
I can see what you talked about.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
So the name of the book is it's just simply
called Hollywood Signs by Kathy kickerd oh cool. Yeah, it's
fancy kick. Yes, k I k K E R t okay.
So she was the one, and I, you know, I
was just meant, I don't know, I think I commented
on some other person's picture of that sign, and then
(26:52):
you know, then then Kathy was tagged in it, and
so that you because this is the beautiful thing about
social media, like yeah, all you have to do is
like find the tags or the hashtags and then you
can just direct message these people and uh and start
that conversation and just be like someone who's gone through
that process of like wow, you know how to restore
a sign?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, or you're entrenched in that that world enough that
like you were able to just you know, walk up
to the people and say, hey, I restore signs and
da da da da. So I think she was more
on the design side rather than like the mechanical like
fix the sign thing. But which is but she has
the eye forever yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
You know, especially if you're trying to a keep the
spirit of the old sign alive and be adapted to
the new situation and make a mesh together, you gotta
have an amazing eye for both design and technique in
order to convey that to the masses. M hmm. That
(27:55):
was just a fancy way of saying you gotta know
what you know, you gotta know able yep.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
And and you know the story with that sign is
like the bulk of the neon of that sign stayed
the same, like that where actually says motel. It was
just the white part that says downtowner. But she didn't
just put downtowner like it's there's it's in a particular
script and it's got the little Hollywood in there, and
it's got the stars very well done, perfect and you ask.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Me and it very Uh. You're expecting like the rat
pack to come out of this place as that feel
of what a likely you know, Dean Martin and Frank
Sinatra and Sammy Davis Junior and here was the other
guy in the group. I was for you of the
fourth guy. Uh. I'm sure somebody will remind me, but
you have this feeling like they're going to come out
(28:46):
of there with like Martini's and you know, like a
beautiful woman on their arms and just walk walk by
you there in downtown La exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
And I mean we can't finish this episode without at
least mentioning Vegas, right, like, yes, the king of you know, tall,
exuber and flamboyant signs that are just you know, they
do the job, they get your attention.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Have you ever been there like it after midnight when
you're really tired?
Speaker 2 (29:16):
I have, I have?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Yeah, And what is what is the first thing that
comes to your mind when you come out of the
darkness into that light.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Just it's time to do something else, Like there's not
time to go to bed.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's I had been up for over forty eight hours
at that time, or close to forty eight hours. And
you know, come down north, coming out of Saint George,
Utah through Arizona, and you're going across the Mawapa Reservation.
It's like, this is dark, what what are we doing
out here? All of a sudden you hit the gorge,
the edge of the Vegas Gorge, and it's just like
(29:51):
a bug zapper.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Oh absolutely yes, yeah, poom to me. Moths in fact, yeah,
I don't. I don't think I've mentioned this, But so
my mom turned sixty six this year and he celebrated
by going on a Route sixty six trip, so like
sixty six on sixty six, and it was the first
time my mom has been to California before, but it
was the first time she's gone through to California, and
(30:17):
of course sixty six and all of the Americana that
comes and comes with that, and she loved the trip absolutely.
But then so we got to La and then as
we were coming back, we went to Palm Springs. She
loved that. I mean, talk about mid century overload, you know,
she loved that. We went to Amboy, and then from
Amboy we went and it was getting dark at this point,
(30:39):
and leave it to me to leave just enough time,
but we left Amboy and with just enough time for
us to get to the Neon Museum in.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Oh wow, but it was, you know, such a thing
because it's i mean, come on, you're driving through the desert,
the absolute pitch black desert. And then but then my
mom was like, what is all that light in the
clouds over there? Yeah, and we were like forty five
minutes away, and it's just like being on the East coast.
You know, this nice rolling hills and it's pretty and
(31:12):
all that, but it's crowded compared to where we were.
And she does, you know, had never really experienced like
total darkness to the point where like you can see,
you know, the lights in the clouds from forty five
minutes drive away. So that was an experience for her.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, you know, you're coming up on a bigger town
when you see the lights in the clouds, like Albercer,
even though you're the mountains, you know, kind of have
to climb from Tucumkiri up to Albuquerque and down, but
you see it in the clouds, and you Salt Lake
Cities the same way. I don't know Denver's the same way. No,
Denver's not. It doesn't have that feel. But definitely Vegas
(31:49):
holy cow. Oh yeah, that is like slap you right
in the face. Hey, wake up. It's time to go
to spend a lot of money. So that'll bring us
to the end of our third segment. When we come back,
we will ask about We'll ask Rhodes speak Bill about
I forgot your name. I'm so sorry, and.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Said, okay, I've got like six different things to go
to my ed at once.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Yeah, you can tell us getting late too. We will
ask him about his butt, so his buckelist, place he'd
like to go, and maybe some other things we'd like
to talk about. You're listening to International Sign Finders. Welcome
(32:35):
back to International Sign Finders. We have Bill Holden road speak.
I'll have how you can get in contact with him,
how you can connect with him through Instagram in the
show notes on the show website at spreaker, not at
the end of the show. We'll talk about that too.
I'll get this all right one of these days. It's
(32:56):
been twenty seven episodes. I still haven't got it right. Yeah,
I'll learning. So we've been talking about some of the regionalisms.
Uh maybe you know it's kind of like Larry's Mexican Restaurant,
which I think was something else in Richmond, Texas. Uh,
there was a similar one called Feflix's Mexican Restaurant in
(33:17):
Houston as the same sign. I mean, I'll take this back.
There is a cactus in Boston, Massachusetts, or that there. Yeah,
there is a neon cactus there, so you won't find
that as much on the East Coast as you would
in the Southwest. Yeah, fill with that. Yeah, I'll find
(33:38):
that with you.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Oh it's funny like yeah, well to kind of peel
back the layer on that a little bit, because I mean,
I don't I'm not. This is not my industry. I
just love it, you know. Yeah. So, but I found
out that the Munger Moss Motel also has is the
same sign as another place.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
The Rest Haven.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, so yeah, I only seen one of them in person.
But uh, but I don't know, I mean, there must
have been a point like is there another Royce sign somewhere,
you know, like from Amboy. If it's something you can
just pull out of a catalog, then you know, maybe
we're all being duped.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yes, and we're we we love being duped. These are
great signs. It's kind of like here in Houston, Oh,
what was it. It's kind of like if you have
a building that shaped like a beer barrel and you
sell beer. There's a technical term for that, and it's
going to come to me afterwards, and you'll see signs
kind of like that. It's uh oh it's mimetic the
(34:39):
medic or mimetic design. Uh. And you'll find like the
one I can think of off the top of my head.
It was back in the fifties of sixties called Guidos.
It was a seafood restaurant and it had a rep
with two six shooters in each claw. It was very mimetic,
(35:00):
very Houston. You're not or to find that many other
places along the coast. And uh, you know, I forget
where I was gonna go with this. Anyway, we'll get
to your buckal list. No, it's kind of like you know,
Saguar saw Sally, That's what I was thinking about. And
she's up in the Boston area. She takes picture of
(35:20):
some of these things, and it's just so funny. In
the middle of Austin there is a cactus by Neon Cactus.
It's so strange. But so now we're going to get
at you your bucket list, as I have just completely
derailed this show. So what are some places that you
would like to go? You've got up and down sixty six. Uh,
you gained all the beauty, you know, light the Tucson,
(35:42):
ind Uh was it the hot dog place in Albertquerque?
I forget what it's called. Something dog.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
I'm not sure. Well, I certainly have been to Pink's
in LA for a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, okay, gotcha. Uh well, we'll worry about the name
of it later. But uh yeah, So what are some
places that you would like to go to that you
haven't been to yet, or even you've been to the
area but you didn't get a picture of something. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
It's funny because sometimes when you when you're on a
long trip like sixty six, there's there's a few moods
you go through, which is like, all right, we're doing it,
like you've got all the energy in the world. And
then you know, eleven and a half hours later, you're
still on the road because I'll drive like pretty far,
you know, and yeah, and I've driven over a thousand
miles in a day before. But you know, when you're
(36:38):
on the last couple hours of the day, you're like,
all right, well, let's let me just get to my destination.
You know, the spark kind of lose it, you know. Yeah,
but there have been some times that I've gone through
certain areas of sixty six and whether you know, I
wanted to hit it in the day or I wanted
to hit it at night, and just like you know,
based on when I started that day. It just didn't happen.
(37:01):
But I've done the trip enough times that I've been
able to get day and night shots of a lot
of things that I like. But so, when I was younger,
I was able to travel. I think at the time
it was like forty two states out of the fifty. Oh,
so I had done a lot, and I've at least, like,
you know, stepped foot in a lot of places like Wyoming.
(37:23):
I think it was literally just a rest up and
then we got back on It counts, it counts. Yeah,
that was a great rest up. Yeah. But because of that,
you know, at this point now I've only there's only
a few states I haven't been to, which would be
Alaska and Hawaii. And you know that's going to take
some commitment to try to get to them that you
don't just fall, you know, take a wrong turn and
(37:45):
you're in Hawaii. You know that's right, But yes, Hawaii, know,
oh sure, yeah? And then Washington and Montana. So I
have a friend who's currently stationed in Washington. Uh so,
you know, a good excuse to try to try to
visit there in the next few months before he leaves.
(38:06):
And then Montana, you know, probably on that same trip,
I'll just like hop over id Hoe and touch, you know,
just touch Montana and then turn back.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
But there are a lot of great signs of Montana.
Uh if you get over to Billings to Butte, maybe
Anacondah like that little grip of fifteen there. I wish
in my younger years when I lived in Idaho, I
would have just gone up there and taken photos because
when I was out there, Buttes like, hey, don't stop
(38:36):
a mute, just keep going north or keep going east
or west. But the pictures I've seen of the bars
and the restaurants in Butte, Montana are it's it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
M I am totally unfamiliar with that, and and now
you've got me curious. I'm going to go look to
see if it has a different look than the West
coast and the Midwest, or maybe they have their.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Little uh like like a buffalo. You know, there's a
few places that was they have neon buffaloes or a
buffalo on a sign and maybe yeah, maybe the designers
like that.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
This will be interesting to see. Thank you for turning
me on to that. Hey you're welcome, yeah, because I
mean to tell you to do that. I wasn't sure
what I was going to do in Montana.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Yeah. Uh. And the thing is Butte, it's an old
coal mining town. I think, okay, I think you're yeah,
it's up in the mountains. The main thing I remember
about Butte is you know, going through there and they
had this big statue of Prist I think in the mountains.
And when we were going up to the mountains there
(39:42):
was fog and so half of Christ was you could
see the bottom half, but the top half was covered.
So just like these feet hanging out of the cloud
m especially when you're half a slipper, like, oh wow,
that's that is interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
So does that have like a similar look to the
Rhea Deijion Arrow Jesus statue.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I don't know. I I just saw the bottom one,
the bottom part, because that that real one is amazing.
That's a really cool statue.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
I have to to I've been there, like I I
went walked up the steps that was That was a
long time ago. Yeah, but uh yeah, it's it's it's serious.
And then of course once you get out there you
get a beautiful view of Rio.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Oh yeah, yeah that's cool. Uh. So talked about Montana, Washington,
get with then be in forgotten by time. He is
a he's from Yakama, Washington, but he does a lot
of Washington, like all of Washington. And also maybe Neon
(40:48):
was it Neon Pieen five O three? Uh, they're out
of Portland, but I'm sure they could get you in
the right direction when you're in uh, wherever you're at
in Washington. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I'll I'll always get you some connections going that I
that I yeah, because yeah, it's an area I don't
know much about. I've studied just because I love the
culture of southern California. Like, I haven't even really visited
northern very much. I've been through it a couple of times,
well once, but yeah, and you know, on all of
(41:19):
my LA trips, I said, oh, maybe this will be
the one I take the you know, six hour drive
up to stf But it never seems to happen it
and I guess I'm too enamored with the desert.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah, and maybe head up there when Neon speech is there.
They have a Neon conference up there and uh, well
you can also view it at home too. They have
an online portion and they also have a in in
person portion as well. Uh where they just talk about Neon?
Oh the uh the place I was talking about Albert
(41:50):
Grease told the doghouse.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, okay, maybe I have heard of that.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, I think that it was on Breaking Bad or
better call Saul one of the two. Yeah, I couldn't
get into Breaking Bed when they put the little kid
and asked that, I was like, no, not for me,
definitely not for me.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
So uh yeah, oh there are well, okay, so I
think to finish the bucket list thing, like, sof the reals,
I'm already there. Yeah, so there's the four estates that
I at least have to like touch my foot onto it.
But aside from that, you know, there's not much on
sixty six that I haven't seen. Like once in a
(42:33):
while I'll say, o, wait, like I've never been to
the Blue Hole, for instance, in Okay, Santa Rose in
New Mexico. But yeah, I mean, I mean, if I'm
not gonna swam, do I really need to go? But
you know, maybe there's a picture there or something. But
I can get off the list of places I've been. Yeah. Yeah,
I mean here is nice, but so let's see, Yeah,
the there's a there's probably just a few places that
(42:56):
I haven't been on sixty six. But there's a couple
other pockets of the country that I'd like to visit
a little bit more. I mean Texas too, Like I've
got like I want to go down to Big Bend
if I ever, yeah, get the chance to like hike
there at a reasonable time of year, because I hear
that Terre Lingua, which is right next to it, is
(43:17):
a great place to get tacos and and just some
other things that you'll see there. Like you have to
go through Alpine and Marfa, which has a great little
artist community, and I've all passed through well, but not
enough time to really enjoy it. So and like there's
so many corners of Texas that you know, a lot
(43:38):
of people say, well, you go out to La so often,
Like why don't you? Just like Texas has so much
to offer, it's closer, it's cheap, and you can visit
more of.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Them as huge all with cow. I mean, California is big,
don't get me wrong, that's a big state. But you
know Texas. You know where I'm at in Houston. It's
ten eleven hours to help pas So, and it's nine
hours to Amarillo and it's four hours, three and a
(44:06):
half hours to Dallas, so uh, you could get there
in a day, but it's it's a day. Here's a
day of drive.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
That's your day.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Yeah, that is definitely your day. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
L El Paso is always uh that's always a kick
in the pants. There's no way to look cool after it.
It's like you're just run ragged after you do that drive.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You know, Oh yeah I can't. It's kind of like
going through different parts of New Mexico. I I would
love to go through southern New Mexico, like go down
to Las Bruce's, go to Alma Gordo. I don't know
if White Sands is southern New Mexico, but uh, you
know some like I want to say Vaughan, it might.
I know Vaughan's an off the beaten path, but they
(44:50):
have some really cool signs there and like little towns
like Cuba. It's up in like the northern north central, uh,
New Mexico. And yeah it's got it's a town of
like five or six hundred. It's got four signs, but
those are great signs. Each one of them has character
(45:11):
and it also like I forget who I was talking
with about like little towns, especially in Texas. We put
in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. Every little town, especially when it's
a county seat town, seems to have a really cool
theater in the middle of town. Whether it's a neon
(45:34):
or the neons still on or the neon's falling off,
there's still something about these those little towns. Like I
was in Chickashe, Oklahoma, which is about forty five minutes
outside of Oklahoma City, and the Washata. I'll have that
up on my Instagram page soon. The Washata Theater is amazing,
(45:57):
just amazing theater. And you I think that would be
in Oklahoma City. No, it's in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Mm hmm,
forty five minutes down the road. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
And I love theaters too, just because I'm in the
performing arts and uh. The Peikos Theater in Santa Rosa
is also very nice.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
I got it at with.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Great and little Neon sign is a small theater, but
I mean it's just perfect size for the town.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
But you know, you wouldn't think that there's much in
Santa Rosa, but there are there are some some buildings,
buildings to take them, you know, in some science to
take pictures of. And wouldn't you know it that little
downtown it's got that theater. And I think they still
have an old school Arby's. Uh do they still have
(46:44):
an Arby's neon sign in Santa Russa? I think so.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Yeah, it's gone out.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
You see so many of those, Yeah, I mean those
are a diamond dozen.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
But yeah, it's like chickib Carry. You know, people know
Chukham Carry. That's kept like the the Jewel of sixty
six in a way, the small jewel. But I was
talking to Neil lover eight on one He's like, you know,
Jacob curious, kind of overrated. But Santa Rosa, I'm like,
dank comment, I need to stop at Santa Rosa.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
And yeah it's good. It's a good style for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
And even San John. I think San John's got some
pretty cool stuff as well. A little further up more
towards the Texas line. So that'll bring us to the
end of the show. Holy cow, it's been a wild ride.
Thanks for at least putting up with me. I will
say that I I'm off the rails. I will hey,
absolutely no, admit it.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
No, I love talking signs and it's funny how this
type of thing always like it one thing sparks another
sparks another, and there are so many there's such a
community by just by virtue of the fact that you're
traveling and uh people, there's a there's there's the type
of people that like to talk about travel and uh,
(47:59):
just all that goes with that, and in particular the
sign thing like I just love it. Yeah, thanks for
having me, man.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
Glad to have you, and I'm glad we're able to
connect finally And okay, I've I've imped out your your
Instagram page. Do you have any other websites that you'd
like to feature or talk about before we hit out?
Speaker 2 (48:22):
That's really the only one that's related to this type
of thing. So yeah, I mean, there is a Facebook
version that I'm trying to kind of get trying to
just double everything on Facebook, but that's in its infancy.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
So what's better for a turn table, belt driven or
direct drive?
Speaker 2 (48:40):
A loaded question, But it depends what you're using it for,
and it all depends on what you want to you know,
how much meanings do you want to put in?
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Okay, gotcha? Yeah, I thought I thought i'd throw your
card ball there at the year. Just be fun.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah, so yeah, once again, thanks so much for joining
us on the show, and go follow Bill at speak
Uh that's r O A D S P e a K.
Maybe we'll have old Roadside Peak on another time. He's
kind of the o G. If you want a guy
(49:13):
who has been in the Segin hunting community before the
Internet was big, roadside Roadside Peak is part of your guy.
But yeah, thanks so much for being with us, and
until next time, get out there, have fun. Hey, loads
of pictures of signs and be safe. Definitely be safe.
Until next time, happy sign finding.
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