August 31, 2024 • 55 mins
dallas.neon.enthusiast joins the show and we talk about the wealth of neon signs in Dallas, the artistry of tube benders, where zillennials fit in the scheme of things and the interest they have in things retro.
You can follow Josh at:
https://instagram.com/dallas.neon.enthusiast
You can follow Josh at:
https://instagram.com/dallas.neon.enthusiast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Hopefully you had another great weekend of
hitting the pavement and get out there and getting signs
of whether it's Neon or who painted. Don't overlook those
really cool handpainted signs. There is an artistry behind that.
Don't overlook that. And one book I wish I would
have bought is Handpainted Los Angeles. That is chock full
(00:39):
and I think they just sold their last few books recently.
But on tonight is another. We're sticking to the Dallas
Fort Worth area. Last week we had Danger Dave from
Fort Worth and tonight we have Dallas Neon Enthusiast. That's
Dallas dot Neon dot Enthusiast. You're finding him on Instagram
and we'll find out where his other socials or wherever
(01:01):
you find him here in a little bit, but there's
that treasure trove that is Dallas Fort Worth and he
is in the thick of it all. Welcome to the show,
Dallas and the enthusiasm. Or do you have like a
name that you'd like to go.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
By or usually go by? Josh is fine, right, Josh cool.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, that's how quickly my memory escapes me.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So all good.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So tell us a little bit about yourself, Josh.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I have quite a few different hobbies, I guess,
to put it bluntly, from cars to lighting the ceiling fans,
to music, to architecture, to infrastructure like highways and roadways
in session. And the lighting extends even to street lights,
which I actually have a fairly sizable collection of those,
(01:52):
which is something odd to imagine. But that's not the
only one. I'm not hearing about that before.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've actually there's somebody here in Houston who's no longer
on Instagram, old analog photography, and he would take pictures
of lights as well, like the old like Haligen lights
and yeah, yeah, yeah. And the one thing when I
moved to Houston was were the amount of Edison lights
(02:19):
that people have in their backyards. I call them the
Houston you know Louisiana by you look.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Now, you mean those bucket lights, I guess you know
where they look kind of like a plastic, kind of
no stifled bucket.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You know, the like the Edison lights. Uh, there are
led lights that will like the old Edison lights from.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Oh you actually mean that? Okay, I'm sorry forgive me
I'm kind of used to people not exactly saying the
right thing to this, so I was kind of like
trying to decipher maybe if you meant something else.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I'm pretty good at getting the wrong terms, trust me,
I'm really good at it. But you're talking about, like,
you know, old cars, that is definitely within the wheelhouse
of sign finding. Now are you old cars or are
you also like supercars or.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean I mainly I kind of like what most
would consider the forgotten cars the most. I guess, like
things that cash for clunkers, for example, really ruined, you know,
in two thousand and eight, with things like your grandma's
old mobile Toronado or something. You know, Like I think
(03:32):
things that people don't really think of when I think
of a classic car, I mean, yeah, or the Dodge,
the original Dodge Magnum, not the station wagon saying they
made in the early two thousands. Yeah, the original one,
not the silly thing that should have been called the Neon.
But and I like a lot of variety. Really, I
(03:54):
love old cars. I always say that I drive a
Lincoln town Car. That tells you a lot about me.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That's kind of where I'm at with that. I just
it's nice to see something different, and so I'll break
my neck for a Chevy celebrity or a Ford Escort wagon,
which ironically, there's actually a Mercury Tracer wagon on my
route to work that I drive alongside, and I'm like, wow,
I can't believe this really survived the claw.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I was picking up my kids from school and we're
on our way home and we're in traffic there in
the Kingwood area of Houston. It's technically a suburb, but
it's part of Houston. Yeah, I know it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I know it is. It's like Highland Park to Dallas. Yeah. Yeah,
it's city but also not Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, it makes no sense, and they try to have
it downtown. It's worthy effort. But do you know, do
you know about citruins or cries? Of course, Yeah, Soul
was driving a two CV the other day.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh wow, that's awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And by the time I could get my phone out
to take a picture, they had taken off one. I
don't know if you could really take off in a
two CPE.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No, there's not a lot of power there, but it
makes up another area, as I suppose.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
But it was just such a cool thing to see
you know the two those two pointy thingies. I don't
know what they're called. They're not really chevrons, but kind
of are pointed chevrons. I'll just call them that just
for sake of argument. Yeah, and seeing that weird like
roller skate boxy.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Look, it was such an odd it looks like a
rolling boot almost. They are pretty cool. You can change
the tires with and it will stay level with only
three tires. With the way that the hydraulic suspension operates,
it's fascinating. You can literally drive around with three wheels
(06:00):
about it's quite interesting. And you can raise and level
the suspension with a lever and it actually centers the
wheel for you when you turn the car on if
it's not already centered.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's such forward thinking.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The French had some cool cars back in the day.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah. Uh, the main cars I remember were hugeos.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeahs. The British people call it Persia's because kind of
don't know how to you're right, but for some reason
they throw that R in there and then citron. It's
really you know, yeah, put that extra into it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Make everybody know that what you're driving exactly maybe heard
from about half a block away, right, so you know,
that were kind of you know, we talk about all
the different hobbies that we have and I like to
touch on different hobbies in the show. Uh, it kind
of shows I don't know, we're saying the headspace of
(06:58):
where people go when they're looking for stuff. Probably not
the right way to say that, but it will go
with it. And since we're talked about cars are going
for the the the unusual, the out of the way.
What got you into looking for neon signs? Now you
look at other types of lighting, other cool, unique things.
(07:23):
What is it about going for sign hunting?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Well, I would say that I was fortunate enough to
grow up in the DFW area, which kind of defied,
at least in the last twenty five thirty forty years,
the erasing of all neon and you know, new installations especially,
And I grew up with a lot of signage being
(07:48):
installed in the trendy areas, and you know all the
restaurants that come from here, like on the board of Chili's.
I mean, I guess Papa Thos is from Houston, but
they're still very much big up here. And so all
of those restaurants always had elaborate neon signs and Pabas
L Phoenix, Yes, El Chico. Yeah, really, all sorts of
(08:10):
Mexican places, especially Uncle Julio's is a great example. They
always have those animated incandescent flashing arrow signs. Well most
of them don't flash anymore, but they're still lit up.
But yeah, they kind of captivated me as a kid.
And I also grew up going to the West end
of Dallas, Downtown Dallas, which used to have I'm not
(08:32):
sure if we've ever seen pictures, but if you scroll
down following up on my Instagram account, you'll find I
didn't know what else to posts. I posted some Internet
pictures from back in the day of the Neon arches
in what they used to call the Dallas Alley in
the Western Marketplace, which was a mall that was built
in an old I don't remember what kind of factory
(08:55):
it was, actually, but it was some It was a
giant red brick factory, and the Spaghetti ware House, the
original Spaghetti ware House, was right next door. And that's
another reason I like Neon. They had a very nice sign, yeah,
and so I just kind of always loved the way
it looked, the noise of the buzz when the transformers
(09:17):
are kind of going bad, and just the colors, everything
about it, the fact that it's quite literally art with light,
which is fascinating in itself because it's something that you
cannot replicate with anything else really, in which they try to,
but it will never be imitated properly.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I think I said something like that, like you're talking
about those arches with the neon around about West.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, that it was. You could see it from three
sixty six, which is what all rogers. That Trench Freeway
they goes through downtown and it separates downtown from the uptown, which,
in my opinion, they're kind of the same. Because nowadays
the skyline seems to extend far beyond what it used
to be.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It's kind of like Houston. Yeah, we have downtown, Midtown,
the GALERYA. Yeah, there was a skyline in the Galleria,
and there's even that many little skyline over Memorial City
on the west side of town.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, we've got the office building skylines as I call them,
here in the Downsport Worths as well, where you can
just go. Hell, even where I live, Plano has its
own skyline. Now that's not in downtown. The Legacy West development,
which has to be on in it as well, which
was could you not about ten years ago or less?
(10:36):
It was just fields so so fast it developed. I
mean there was part of it was already built, but
a lot of it was not, and it just kind
of shot up. The growth here has been exponential, and
with that has brought more neon. So I've kind of
always liked it, you know, It's just something that I
don't know, has always been fascinating to me. And I
(10:57):
got to see animated science as a kid, so yeah,
that was a big helper.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now you actually have a picture of a Neon seven eleven.
Granted it's yes room.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
But all of downtown Dallas neon sign or seven elevens,
which they are about five maybe maybe less now, all
of them were had neon or have rather and I
think some of the ones in uptown do as well
because seven eleven is from Dallas, so I guess they
felt the need to do something special. And that's another thing.
(11:29):
Downtown has a lot of it as well, and that's
what I kind of remember.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Sorry to interrupt, No, no, I'm interrupting too, My apologies,
but like we had to when we're going up to
on Oklahoma City. Over the past month. We went up
there twice and yeah, some times we had to go
through downtown Dallas, which.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
On thirty five I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Actually we're coming around forty five to go around all
the traffic on that, you know, when forty five becomes
seventy seven up to thirty five W.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, seven, yeah, all the we call it Intertint three
forty five. If you like highways, that's what you call it.
It's an unassigned elevated freeway that connects seventy five to
forty five.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And you actually have a picture of what I was
trying to talk about. I just wouldn't remember the term
the historic West End. We went by there a few times,
and right now there is there's a really Kareni's Italian
restaurant that's nearby, and the Majestic is just down the street. Yes,
oh man, there's so many cool things.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And then there's the old Joseph A. Bank Neon sign
which has been rebuilt into saying Pegasus Brewery Pegasus City
Brewery Brewery. Actually, I have a picture somewhere I don't
remember where of when it used to actually say Joseph A.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Bank.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know if it's a particularly great photo because
I know we were moving, but I shortly after I
took that photo it might not be posted. I don't remember.
After I took that. It had a bag over it
for over two years, maybe three, and I was like,
oh man, that sucks. And then it finally was revealed
with the new sign, same white lettering, same styling of everything,
(13:15):
and it just says Pegasus City Brewery, I guess because
they were kind of relating to the fact that nearby
is the very famous Pegasus Neon sign on the Mobile
or sorry Magnolia building for Mobile Oil and Gas, which
that also has something from my childhood that I loved.
The rotating Pegasus on top of the building that was
(13:38):
actually a replacement for the original one which is now
the original one that's in front of the Omni Hotel
on a much shorter post that you can actually get
up really close to it, and it's absolutely incredible. If
you're in town again, you should check it out. It's well,
I mean, you could just look up the Omni Hotel.
Actually I don't remember Oli Street, but.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Like everything quite together. Yeah, and that was oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It was built in nineteen thirty three, I believe it
was when that sign was built. It's absolutely ancient, and
it's just it's just plain old clear neon tubing, nothing fancy,
but it looks great.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know what, simple does it? Sometimes I love the complex.
I love the like the Seagulls liquor that is such
a cool mid century Oh yeah, the there's so about
that and those other complicated ones. But sometimes just a
simple sign just it sells. It sells what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh yeah, exactly. But it has to of course draw
someonet of oh obviously.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah. But that'll bring us to the end of our
first segment. Trust me, this show flies by so fast.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I'm back so much more I could say, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh yeah, time, you have time. Yeah uh. And we're
talking to Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Go and find them on Instagram.
I'll have how the link out with him in the
show notes. We'll get all that done. And you're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Signfinders. Glad
(15:20):
you're still with us. We have Dallas Neon enthusiasts with us.
We got Houston sign finding Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Last week.
We had someone from Fort Worth. We're just getting the
you know all points of the triangle. We got to
find somebody from San Antonio. I know somebody in Austin
that does neon and Knight Austin.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, I quitely enjoy his uh account. Lots of good
stuff in Austin. Have to say, yeah, I think they might, okay,
give us a run for our money.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yes. And what just blows my mind is all the
neons still up in Dallas because Houston is If you
could see videos of old film from like the sixties
and seventies of all the neon in Houston and what
is here now, you would slap somebody. That's how much
(16:11):
we've lost over the past forty years, fifty years. Part
of that comes from laws and you know iceore laws,
h Old Council people wanted to get rid of all
the neon down Westheimer and it leaves you and you know,
good on all the people still trying to keep it up.
That's kind of reason why I got into this in Houston.
(16:32):
Is it pissed me off I couldn't find off finding
all the neon that you find in like Denver, Salt Lake, La, Seattle, Portland,
all those big cities. There's still a lot of neon there,
even though like in Denver, a lot of it's going away,
especially down what is the Colfax. But yeah, Dallas deep Elum.
(16:54):
I noticed that you've got quite a few pictures of
Deep Eleum, and I talked to Danger Dave last last week.
We you know Deep Elum. Is it kind of an
arts area?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I would say it's kind of more entertainment but also
art because really most of it seems to be from
my experience, just a lot of music clubs and stuff,
and also trendy restaurants. But the one thing that does
kind of set it apart is that the city of
Dallas actually allows people to make their own art and
(17:27):
murals on some of the city property. Like if you
go underneath the forty five which is really three forty
five bridge on streets like Canton or Maine or Elm
or whatever, commerce, all the pillars underneath the bridge are
actually painted by different artists they're local to Deep Elum
(17:50):
in other areas of Dallas, and they get to sign
their name on it, and they even have spotlights on
them at night, So they kind of embrace the arts
a little bit, but also music because it's kind of
our our version of like Beale Street or Sixth Street
in Austin, or you know, Bourbon Street, and I don't
(18:13):
remember the name of the street in Nashville, but that road, yeah,
Music Avenue, yeah, Music Row whatever. So it's in the
stockyards for that matter in Fort Worth, which is kind
of their equivalent of deepa LM. I guess for different things,
but a lot of it is kind of the same.
And the neon there is quite nice, and they keep
(18:37):
putting in new signs and all this stuff, so it's fun.
The dog park even has a neon sign for To
give you an idea, which is that is a very
awesome thing to do. I have to say Austin does,
I wouldn't. I don't know if it's exactly more, but
it just seems more. Maybe it's because admittedly I am
(18:59):
one of the only people out here in this side
of the metroplex that because we have you know, East
and West cause two cities. It's like Minneapolis and Saint Paul,
so it's easy to stay and be entertained on your
quote unquote side. So I haven't found anybody else doing
what I'm doing in this region of Dallas Fort Worth
(19:21):
on the Dallas side, so I kind of it is
a little bit pressure to I feel a little bit
of pressure to have, you know, the only account at
least based on that. But I feel like maybe it's
just because I haven't had a chance to find and
document everything that it seems like maybe Austin has more,
(19:42):
I guess, but yeah, I would. Sorry you go to say.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Like Congress Street, you know, I need to get up
to Austin so bad.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
South Congress is great.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, yeah, And then you know, I've done on Google
Maps and I've got my own like you know, things
of Google Maps, you know, Google Maps points of not
places wherever you want to call him, I don't know what. Yeah,
the term is, uh set up in Austin when I
go there, But I kind of understand where you're coming from.
(20:13):
And I know some other people from Dallas, the Dallas
wor Ward theory like old motel signs, but yes, all
over the place.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, some of these, some of these accounts that are
based here do travel. Like there's also jf Po. Yeah,
he's based here, but he also takes pictures of a
lot more things than just Neon Sense too, which is fine.
And I'm trying to do the same thing myself.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But it's just you know, assuming, yeah, time consuming, and
you know DV over DT he does a lot of
and Dallas Juke Juke Joint.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I need to talk to him as well. But what
you're doing is amazing because you know, like the Doubberly
Motor Company.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Oh yes, I love. I don't know if it's Doubly
or really do really sounds cooler to me, but.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I like maybe it's my North Carolinian that's coming out
in me. But also like the Lancaster Theater, the in
Wood Theater, the Uh, I know, I'm just telling you
stuff that you already know, but just going through your feed.
Uh what was the one Lakewoods Lucas.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Uh, Lucas B and B. Yes, yeah, wow, I need
I need to take a video of the sign across
the street from it Lucky's Cafe. It's also animated, and
I don't I might have a picture of it on
my account. I don't remember, And I now have a
lot more posts than I used to, so I kind
of forget what I have and haven't posted. Oh with you,
(21:42):
it's it's pretty nice. And then of course Papado has
their sign, and Papado is actually who's maintaining that. Lucas
B and B signed they assumed responsibility for it when they,
you know, occupied the previous space of the actual restaurant
which my grandma on my dad's side actually remembers going
to back in the day.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And my head is off to Papado or the papist family. Yeah,
they they take over a lot of Neon and uh
there's one Uh, I think Papado is either Papa do
or no. Papasito's right next to it up in the
north northwest side of Houston and they actually have an
old North National Plumbing sign. I think when the old sign.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I think that I think I might have seen that before.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And they salvaged it. And also like Dot Coffee Shop,
which is a Houston staple. Uh, they they own Dot
Coffee Shop as well and they keep that up. But
one of the one of the things I talk about
when you're going out and you know you're planning to
take photos of signs is you know you got to
(22:53):
account for time to get there, try to maybe find parking.
But a third one, maybe a fourth one, is the
awe factor, were you just have to step back. What
is the off factor of like a lucas or lakewood
or a seagulls liquor. I know you've seen them all,
you know, growing up, But the off factor for you
(23:15):
of seeing that lit up at night.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean, honestly, the I think about the now that
I know how they're made, and I have, I guess
for a couple of years now, the effort put into
something like that to be like, most artists, for example,
wouldn't want their art to be exposed to the possibility
of damage from the elements, right, So that's why we
(23:41):
put the Mona Lisa in such special you know, procedures
to preserve it and things. But neon artists or glass blowers,
whatever you want to call them, they have this pride
and in the sense that they know it's going to
get messed up, possible or very likely, and they still
(24:03):
put it out there. They still build it to be
you know, elaborate and beautiful of course too, generally the
specifications of their customers. But still they put all this
effort a lot of times with open tubes, for example,
which in Texas, as you know, I'm sure requires a
lot of replacement because of our ferocious skies. Yes, and
(24:25):
just looking back at the effort taken all of the
for one thing, just how from a technical standpoint, how
they even work, that something so chemical and mechanical can
be so pretty is just fascinating to me. And it
never gets old. Those signs you mentioned, I still feel
(24:46):
when I go to look at them again, since I
have to revisit things to check on them, you know,
as such as one does. It feels like I've just
seen it for the first time again because it's always that.
I guess it also takes me in to the past,
which is funny because I'm not really that old. I'm
twenty three almost, so heck, yeah, I guess that ties
(25:10):
back to this lineal thing. A lot of people my
age do feel a strong yearning for an era that
we never even existed in it all for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, hold, I thought real fast. We're coming up on
a break. We will dive into that topic here after
we come back from a commercial break. We're listening. We're
talking to Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Go and follow him on Instagram.
He's got a great point. You need to stick around
after this break and we'll talk about it. Welcome back
(25:57):
to International Signfinders. Glad you're with us. We have the
amazing Dallas neon enthusiasts go and follow him. He is
doing the Lord's work up in Dallas. As as he said,
you know, there are people who focus on Fort Worth, uh, Dallas.
You know, people do focus on Dallas, but he's trying
to get that hyper focus where he's not just going
(26:18):
to the trendy places. He's going on side streets that
you know, you may not think of going down inside
of the art field areas of Dallas. Now. One of
the things when I was talking to Nick Girlish. Nick
Girlich is a professor at West Texas A and M,
and you know, he kind of, you know, encourages his
(26:41):
students to you know, get out and wander to watch cars,
because that's kind of a intro to me for neon signs,
because you know, when they're doing the stroll down Main
Street and all the need outcomes on that is such
a breathtaking visual. It is very much so. And he
(27:01):
encourages his students to get out there. Who are some
of them, you know, you know they're eighteen nineteen, they
don't remember seeing cars when it first came out in
the theater because they weren't born yet and he's talking
about the wonder lust of the younger generations, and you
kind of touched upon that, And let's expound upon that
(27:23):
point a little bit more, because you know, there's some
some of the older generations think that Gen Z and
the millennials are just lazy, which I think is a
very bad They just have a focus that's different than theirs. Yeah,
in a way. And I also think once you slather
you know, a generation like that, it's kind of you know,
(27:46):
sometimes it's hard to shake those, you know, the older
the older generation thinking that way. Now, you talked about
your friends getting out there and hitting the pavement and
finding these old side feeling like they were born in
the wrong generation. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Pretty much? I mean, honestly, it extends beyond neon signs too.
We have the abundance of older architecture here, even though
it's been lee. Dallas isn't always the greatest preserving history,
but they've done better than other cities, I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So there's no better than Houston, way better than and so.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
And also music too. Music's a big car and cars
and everything else. And it's just I guess maybe it's
because of Post nine to eleven. Honestly, not a lot
of people want to touch up on that, but I
think that, honestly might kind of and maybe also the
dying of American consumerism as we knew it back in
(28:50):
the day, because we grew up in the time where
malls were at their absolute peak and then they just
fell off briefly after, Like malls were probably the best
they had gotten overall in the early two thousands and
the late two thousands, and then as Amazon, you know,
encroached upon us, and not even just malls but stores
(29:12):
in general, the way that American retail was for so
long has been dying, and I guess it kind of
creates a nostalgia that we didn't even really fully experience
because it's we just feel transported away from the not
(29:34):
so great things going on at the moment to an
idealistic world where we can live like maybe the movies,
I guess, yeah, And Neon does really play a big
role in a lot of movies even today, so it
is kind of everywhere. And when you think about movies
like Cars, like you said, which was I meant to
(29:55):
mention that earlier because that's a great That is also
something that really set me on the scene of how
they animated every sign coming on was truly incredible, the
intention of detail the entire movie. I mean, they even
took the time to put mercury vapor street lights on
Los Angeles highways, which was something that did still exist
(30:18):
at the time there and even in Dallas, and possibly
even in some parts of Houston, but probably not as much,
And so they touched on things like that, and for
kids like me, that was kind of a cool representation
of the more interesting and overlooked parts of life that
people don't really pay attention to as much when they
(30:41):
get older, because most people, a neon sign, unless it's
truly breathtaking, is just a sign to them because you know,
it's advertisement, which is why people don't. It is sad
when they get removed, but honestly they do. I mean,
I don't have any studies. I'm just pulling this out
(31:02):
of the air, but I honestly do believe this is
probably true that they do make more money for the
businesses that have them. It certainly seems the more successful
restaurants are always the ones with semi elaborate neon signs,
even if they're yeah or Chili's is a great example too,
Chewi's Chili's Uncle, Julio's a Buelow's, many many many barbecue
(31:29):
places to do this. And so even if it's just
the open channel letters where which they're protected from the elements,
but they're still And even olive garden, although I think
a lot of them have started to take those away.
But when I was a kid, olive garden in Plano,
(31:49):
which is the closest one to where I grew up
in Richardson, was had a big old green neon sign
that I was oddly enough also lit up with metal
health lights, I guess because they wanted everything to stand out,
not just the olive garden, but the the the grapes
and everything else. So that kind of stuff kind of
(32:12):
takes us all away.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, and about you know being kind of you know,
kind of in a floating It sounds like a floating
generation there there isn't like yeah, uh like gen X,
what do we have we had being left at home
last kids being you know, you go outside until it's dusk.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
To which we honestly did that too, And that's the
thing people forget. Yeah, I would I would say that
the first half of gen Z, which is where I
obviously reside in was the last generation two collectively and
more commonly play outside without anything else. And I guess
(32:59):
for some reason old people forget it or they don't
know how to separate us from the maybe out of laziness,
which is funny, they call us lazy.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But here's why that they don't necessarily associate that because
about the time when you were growing up higot ten eleven,
maybe a little bit earlier, is when you started getting
stories like out of Maryland, where you know, a mother
let her kids go down the street to play at
the playground and she gets arrested by CPS for abandoning
(33:34):
her kids.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That is true.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, so it's kind of a weird mix of you
have all these hyper focused karens. They're like, you can't
let your kids play outside? But then do you have
like the reality? And I even see this now in
parts of Houston, going down some on the SI Screeen,
You'll see kids outdoors, playing, running up to down the streets,
having fun and the parents are within the arms reach. Yeah,
(33:58):
then do you have like the hyper Since the people
they kind of ruined the landscape of how they view
the upcoming generation by calling DPS, calling the cops, calling
all these things, yeah, and making it kind of ruining
it for your generation.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And also I guess as I'll see out about this, okay.
And there's also the I've noticed this even with people
who now I'm at the age where some of my
peers are parents, which is odd to me, but you know,
it's part of growing up, I guess it is.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And so I've noticed since I writ my job, I
work in homes, so I actually see American life the
little window of what people let somebody who's working in
their home see. And I've noticed that a lot of
younger parents that have younger kids, they because of how
demanding today is with you know, and you need to
(34:58):
really have both parents working to survive. Anymore technology is
just thrown at kids because there's no time to actually
care for your kids attention that they require. You know,
that's a horrible way to put it. Sorry about the fact,
but you know, it's like we call the iPad generation.
(35:20):
Within my part of the generation, we call either late
Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the whole scibity toilet generation.
You know, all that stuff. I don't even understand that
tolet what you don't even want to go down that
rabbit hole. I don't even understand it. Really.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
It's like the term salty. I still haven't figured out
what salty.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Now that makes a little bit more sense, because I
mean it's sour salty. You know, things that are salty
aren't like you have sweets, so salty that makes more sense,
But yeah, it still doesn't make sense to some. I
get it, yeah, but like, yeah, the iPad generation is
what we call it because for iPad kids, because the
social development time of a child is when these kids
(36:06):
are getting technology shoved in their face to shut up,
plain and simple. I've literally watched this in homes and
it's baffling to me. And I truly hope that whenever
I do become a parent, that I do not resort
to that myself, because I get the easiness of it.
I understand entirely and just but it's we didn't get that.
(36:31):
You nor I got that as a kid because our parents.
For me, yes, the technology kind of existed back then,
but it was expensive and also my parents just didn't
view things that way. I did get my first smartphone
in seventh grade, which seems early for some, but I
(36:52):
have now seen third graders with actual smartphones with internet
and cell service access, which is unreal to me. I
can't what's the how horrible the internet is? I can't
imagine that. And so the old people see that and
decide that it's everyone because it is easier to just
(37:15):
do that instead of discerning who is and who isn't
that way, and I guess it's also part of you know,
just old people tend to label group says something they're
not exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
And I will admit that I'm a little guilty about that.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Because I mean, I am too. I'm sorry to become
a boomer someone.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Uh, there's a possibility of narcolepsy, and this is kind
of going around. I'm telling some I'm telling some tea
on myself.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
And hey, there's right there.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's an old Southern term. Yeah.
And so when I was at home taking care of
my daughter, I could drink a uh that's you know,
a bang energy drink, take my adderall and pass out
for two hours. So we will watch a lot of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
And I hated it.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I honestly hated it, but I couldn't. There's a possibility
have anarcolepsy, but I always made sure I was available,
Like if my daughter needed something, all she had to
do was shake me and uh and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
And I'm just resting my eyes.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
But when you're snoring and your daughter wakes you up saying, Dad,
you snore, it's kind of hard. Excuse.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Oh my dad used it. Definitely quite a bit, so grandpase.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, that's maybe that ties us all together.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Old Southern stuff right there, exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Well, that'll bring us to the end of our third segment,
holy cow. Or when we come back, we'll get into
maybe some buckets places uh for for Josh and uh
may maybe talk about some other crazy stuffs, maybe some
intergenerational stuff that we don't necessarily know that we have
in common. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(39:24):
to our fourth and final installment, no installment segment. I
thought that sounded cooler, but soon as it came out
as like, dude, fourth and final segment of International sign Finders,
glad you're with us. We have Dallas Neon Enthusiasts. That's
Dallas dot Neon dot enthusiast. You know, spell them out
the correct way. You can find them on Instagram. I
will have how to get in contact with him in
(39:45):
the show notes, maybe some other places he likes the plug.
We may put those in the show notes as well.
But we've been talking about kind of the the floatingness
of the new generations, you know, like the greatest you know,
the World War Two people when they were kids coming up,
they didn't have TVs. They had movie theaters, and they
(40:06):
were spending every day, sometimes twice a day, and also
had some of those places at ac as opposed to
their homes. So you go there watch like fifteen thousand
hours of movies. They think that, you know, Gen X
was bad watching all the TV. Growing up, they watched
movies all day. And then you have like the silent generation,
the Boomers, the Gen X, there's always seems to be
(40:28):
something that kind of hands them down. You're talking about
nine to eleven. Me growing up, it was the Challenger explosion.
I remember being in second grade sitting there. We brought
you know, that was still when the Space Shuttle was
super novel. My teacher brought in the TV. So we're
watching the Challenger go up, and it also was very
(40:50):
exciting for teachers because Sally Read, the first teacher in space,
was going up on the Challenger about five ten minutes
into the flight, boom, and we didn't have any Do
you want to talk about this? They We watched the
rerun of it like three or four times until they
(41:11):
turn it off and too get out and we're like, Okay,
what happened there? You know, I'm eight years old. I
don't know what happened. YEA told you to come down
from them that stuff, you know, certain things like that
define generations, like nine to eleven with the millennials, gen Z.
Maybe it's COVID. Maybe COVID is the thing that kind
(41:34):
of ties it down.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Is the I mean, I guess, or the recession, I mean,
I don't know one could.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
You can, or.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Just the ongoing even though the wars didn't actually really
affect us, I guess still the hearing about it a lot.
And yeah, they probably the recession maybe, and yeah maybe
in COVID and really interesting twenty sixteen election, no matter
how you feel about it, it was definitely interesting, way interesting,
(42:09):
so that that would definitely go down the whole presidential
race and all that stuff, which.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Instead of it being one one event, it's several events.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, I guess. So it seem to me.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
It's kind of like the boomers with Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, and Korea too.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Korea, Yeah, the Inter Korean War into Vietnam, and that
was an event over technically, Vietnam was thirty years. We
were involved for a long time. Yeah, but that's a
different topic for a different day. So, you know, the floating,
(42:49):
the need to pin down to something that's solid. I
get that. Oh my gosh, I get that. I still
have that. Maybe that's the reason why I'm so into.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well. They seem to be somewhat eternal because even if
they're not around in person, they're well represented in all
sorts of forms of media. It seems because they are
just timeless.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
And like you said about your grandmother there at Lucas
B and B restaurant, she had that tie with you,
so you may have not talked about it a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I love allaceulstry.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yes, I still need to learn more about Houston history.
And also I come from North Carolina. It's still a
ton of We just found out the Khakis were invented
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
And there's all sorts of cool stuff from this country.
It seems that most places neat ideas have come from
about anybody. Really, it's quite remarkable that we allow such
a thing to happen. I love it. Wouldn't want to
be anywhere else exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I don't mind visiting other places.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, me too. I've been to Spain and England and
that's it. I haven't been to the neighboring countries yet.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Did you get confused by old water.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
No, I actually already knew some British people, but yeah,
I like some British music, so that was definitely.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
I listened to a lot of the old style dubstep
from Freyden, South London, Bristol, not as much Manchester, but
that old, deep, dark dungeony sound. I still listen to that,
that style of dubstep, not so much of the random
acts of robotics. But uh yeah, and that'll let me
(44:47):
get focused. Yeah yeah, I get off in the side change.
It's really bad, me too, I haven't. I actually took
an extra pill of adderall before I did all this
so I can stay focused. Because it's hard doing two
interviews in a row. It's tough. Oh yeah yeah, and
it also takes a lot out of you, like energy wise,
(45:09):
but bucket list places, okay, Dallas, we know that's your
main bucket list, But is there any other place in
the in the world's let's let's not limit it to
the US the world that you would love to go
to for like sign finding, car find I mean Cuba,
for Heaven's sake, with old calls.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Oh, I know, it's quite something, honestly, I there's so
many places. I know, there's some cool spots in France
and some other areas that have some great Neon and uh,
Germany too and so forth. Yes, and even even the
(45:50):
Eastern European nations have some rather interesting takes on Neon
signs because despite how you know, dar and Communists kind
of you know, the bricks or really not even bricks,
concrete brutalism, everything that brutalism. Yes, I think that's probably
where it was invented. Honestly, it would not be surprised.
(46:13):
It may not have been, but it definitely was one
of the more common uses of it. And they still
have some rather interesting Neon signage that a lot of
people don't talk about because, I mean, for one thing,
the Russian language in neon is interesting in itself, and
other countries too, not just Russia, but as part as
(46:34):
the US yeah, that too. I love to see Portland
and New York. I've not properly done anything outside of
the JFK Airport, which was one of my stops from
Spain to come back to Dallas, so that's all I
did there is just changed planes, so nothing. Really. I
can't really consider New York somewhere I've truly been, and
(46:57):
i'd love to see some of the things like the
Radio Sign and Times Square. Las Vegas I've never been.
I'd love to see that, and Reno. I'd like to
revisit Branson and never been to Nashville. I'd love to
see that. There's all sorts of places. Miami Beach with
the Arctico and the Neon would be nice. I haven't
(47:18):
properly explored Oklahoma City with neon. I've seen a couple
of it, but I haven't seen much. And I need
to go back to Santa Fe and Albuquerque with their neon.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
And.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
And in San Francisco has quite a bit of neon
too that I haven't checked out, which nice thing is.
Even though it's also sad. My mom moved to the
Bay Area in June, and so I do have an
excuse to go out there more often now for a reason,
and so I can check that out at least, and
Los Angeles even too. Yeah, Alameda and San Diego.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
And I'll say this about Alameda, I think a real
devil doll.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
She's an awesome throwback. She's in like a rockabilly punk band,
you know, has this really cool vibe tour. I loved
interviewing talking with her. But she does in her little
town right there outside of Oakland. I want to say,
it's Alameda. It's an island, and she does guided tours
of a neon in downtown Alameda. And uh, and even
(48:27):
that little that little neck of the woods. You would
never think that's just a port city, you know, that's
just but even then, it has its own neon vibe.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
It's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty neat. I have to check
it out then. And I mean there's so many places
Portland too, and Seattle I still need to explore, Yes,
Vancouver and Toronto. I need to explore Austin more and
even Houston area. There's a lot of stuff that you
posted that I didn't even I couldn't imagine existed there either,
And I was surprised, and I was like, hey, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
If you need a map, I've got one.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Oh, I would definitely love it. I've got a couple
of friends down there, so I have reasons to be
in those areas. And even San Antonio. I haven't really
checked out a lot there, and I do post whenever
I go on vacations. I do try to post pictures
if I find me on and regrettably, there was some
stuff in San Antonio when I was down in South
Padre and San Antonio area, just I didn't take pictures
(49:28):
of There were some signs that I wish I did.
I was going to, but I don't remember why I didn't.
So there's lots of stuff, you know, all over the place.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
And also little towns like yes, I need to get
into and dig around. Is Chickashe Oklahoma?
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Oh yes, that's how it was just Chickasaw.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Okay, Well there's Chicka Saw which is the Chickasaw Nation,
the chicken There's.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Except Okay, that's right, Oklahoma is Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yes, weird pronunciaations. But like downtown Chickashet has the Washita
Movie Theater, which I posted recently. But also if you
look around the corner off Main Street, there's a ton
more oldly on signed and there's a guy oh south
of town on a place called Muscle Car Ranch. I
(50:18):
wanted to stop and take a picture. I think he
had the old Maverick motels, the old Raygun Gothic has
that arrow from the seventies, late sixties, early seventies with
you know, the motel signed. I was about to stop
and take a picture, and we were oppressed for time.
My wife's like, nope, it's right there. But you know
(50:39):
light tales like like El Reno, Oklahoma. Yeah, not the
Guyman again, Boise City out in the Panhandle, which is
it's Oklahoma but it's not.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah. So that Amarillo too, Yeah, so much and Arkansas.
I mean, there's so many places. It's just unreal. This
there's so much more of this if you look. And
that's what I think I'm trying to, along with obviously others,
raise awareness to the fact that maybe it isn't entirely
over either, and in this society of l ed, this
(51:16):
l ed that you know, we are finding a resurgence overall,
mostly nationwide, in the idea of you know, using actual
neon exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Well, that brings to the end of our show. Thank
you so much for being on.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Having me.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, and I'm also glad we could finally connect. Yeah,
a few weeks, might be happy.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
I'm sure same here. Yeah. Sorry, no, no.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
No, no, You're fine. I completely understand. I've been. I've
been to Oklahoma twice in the past month.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I've been the I've been to California, South Padre, Kerrville,
s Waco, Killeen, Austin, and I've been all over the
place Johnny Cash recently, I've been everywhere. Yes, it is,
it is.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Are there is there any other place besides Instagram that
folks can find you and maybe connect.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
So I have a admittedly not well maintained YouTube channel
which is linked in my Instagram bio, that I try
to film and upload animated signs primarily, but hopefully it
can if it gains more traction, which in fairness, I
need to make the effort to also upload more and
that's part of getting more subscribers. But if it gets
(52:38):
enough traction and views, I'd like to grow it into
also maybe having you know, oh gosh, slideshows is what
I want to say, There we go and other and
other types of things of static neon signs, which I
have done one of the state there, which that's a
whole other topic. The state fairs. Neon is incredible and
I can't believe I didn't even mention that at all.
(53:01):
And I have YouTube channels for my other hobbies. I
have a lighting channel, and I have a ceiling fan channel,
which I forgot to mention. I collect ceiling fans and fans.
I don't shove that into here. It's actually part of
my job too for that matter. It's working on fans,
So I do that and that's a big hobby of mine,
and so I have Instagrams for them as well, but
(53:26):
I'm again admit, not the greatest set maintaining it. And
then I have a car Instagram account for my Lincoln
Town car.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
I love talking about you.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
So they're all I probably should just try to find
a way to plug them in on my Neon sign
channel to make it easier for everyone. But I will
definitely let I'll text you all the different you know,
user names so that you can So I'm a private
person in other respects, so I won't probably share my
(54:01):
actual private Instagram. I just mainly use for myself or
what my generation would call our main Instagram, So which
has the least followers out of all of them, really,
which is fine.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
We'll keep that a secret. Yeah, they'll have to go
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
I mean it's private anyway, so it's uh, you know,
you have to be accepted as cool.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Well, that'll bring you to the end of the show.
As I'd like to say to everybody when we finish
each episode, have a great weekend. Get out there hitting
the pavement, finding signs, take a pictures of them, connect
with Dallas theand enthusiasts, connect with Deborah Jane Seltzer, who
does roadside Architecture. I think the Sea people.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Uh oh, I love that. That website's great.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah. And also I'm gonna give a Steven Spiegel, uh
probably one of the he if you want to kind
of him and roadside Peek or probably two of the
best hubs for sign finding that you will start finding
really cool people through those people. Steven Spiegel was an imagineer,
(55:10):
is an imagineer. He hasn't retired yet. He didn't work
on cars.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
But he know he Uh, if you go back and
listen to that episode, you kind of give you some
inside inside information about you know, just you know, when
you can plan on seeing the cars exhibit light up.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Well, that'll do it for this week's episode of International
Sign Finders. Until next time,
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Sign Finders. Glad
you're with us. Hopefully you had another great weekend of
hitting the pavement and get out there and getting signs
of whether it's Neon or who painted. Don't overlook those
really cool handpainted signs. There is an artistry behind that.
Don't overlook that. And one book I wish I would
have bought is Handpainted Los Angeles. That is chock full
(00:39):
and I think they just sold their last few books recently.
But on tonight is another. We're sticking to the Dallas
Fort Worth area. Last week we had Danger Dave from
Fort Worth and tonight we have Dallas Neon Enthusiast. That's
Dallas dot Neon dot Enthusiast. You're finding him on Instagram
and we'll find out where his other socials or wherever
(01:01):
you find him here in a little bit, but there's
that treasure trove that is Dallas Fort Worth and he
is in the thick of it all. Welcome to the show,
Dallas and the enthusiasm. Or do you have like a
name that you'd like to go.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
By or usually go by? Josh is fine, right, Josh cool.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, that's how quickly my memory escapes me.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So all good.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So tell us a little bit about yourself, Josh.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, I have quite a few different hobbies, I guess,
to put it bluntly, from cars to lighting the ceiling fans,
to music, to architecture, to infrastructure like highways and roadways
in session. And the lighting extends even to street lights,
which I actually have a fairly sizable collection of those,
(01:52):
which is something odd to imagine. But that's not the
only one. I'm not hearing about that before.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've actually there's somebody here in Houston who's no longer
on Instagram, old analog photography, and he would take pictures
of lights as well, like the old like Haligen lights
and yeah, yeah, yeah. And the one thing when I
moved to Houston was were the amount of Edison lights
(02:19):
that people have in their backyards. I call them the
Houston you know Louisiana by you look.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Now, you mean those bucket lights, I guess you know
where they look kind of like a plastic, kind of
no stifled bucket.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
You know, the like the Edison lights. Uh, there are
led lights that will like the old Edison lights from.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Oh you actually mean that? Okay, I'm sorry forgive me
I'm kind of used to people not exactly saying the
right thing to this, so I was kind of like
trying to decipher maybe if you meant something else.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
I'm pretty good at getting the wrong terms, trust me,
I'm really good at it. But you're talking about, like,
you know, old cars, that is definitely within the wheelhouse
of sign finding. Now are you old cars or are
you also like supercars or.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I mean I mainly I kind of like what most
would consider the forgotten cars the most. I guess, like
things that cash for clunkers, for example, really ruined, you know,
in two thousand and eight, with things like your grandma's
old mobile Toronado or something. You know, Like I think
(03:32):
things that people don't really think of when I think
of a classic car, I mean, yeah, or the Dodge,
the original Dodge Magnum, not the station wagon saying they
made in the early two thousands. Yeah, the original one,
not the silly thing that should have been called the Neon.
But and I like a lot of variety. Really, I
(03:54):
love old cars. I always say that I drive a
Lincoln town Car. That tells you a lot about me.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
That's kind of where I'm at with that. I just
it's nice to see something different, and so I'll break
my neck for a Chevy celebrity or a Ford Escort wagon,
which ironically, there's actually a Mercury Tracer wagon on my
route to work that I drive alongside, and I'm like, wow,
I can't believe this really survived the claw.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I was picking up my kids from school and we're
on our way home and we're in traffic there in
the Kingwood area of Houston. It's technically a suburb, but
it's part of Houston. Yeah, I know it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I know it is. It's like Highland Park to Dallas. Yeah. Yeah,
it's city but also not Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, it makes no sense, and they try to have
it downtown. It's worthy effort. But do you know, do
you know about citruins or cries? Of course, Yeah, Soul
was driving a two CV the other day.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Oh wow, that's awesome to see.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And by the time I could get my phone out
to take a picture, they had taken off one. I
don't know if you could really take off in a
two CPE.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No, there's not a lot of power there, but it
makes up another area, as I suppose.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
But it was just such a cool thing to see
you know the two those two pointy thingies. I don't
know what they're called. They're not really chevrons, but kind
of are pointed chevrons. I'll just call them that just
for sake of argument. Yeah, and seeing that weird like
roller skate boxy.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Look, it was such an odd it looks like a
rolling boot almost. They are pretty cool. You can change
the tires with and it will stay level with only
three tires. With the way that the hydraulic suspension operates,
it's fascinating. You can literally drive around with three wheels
(06:00):
about it's quite interesting. And you can raise and level
the suspension with a lever and it actually centers the
wheel for you when you turn the car on if
it's not already centered.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's such forward thinking.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The French had some cool cars back in the day.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yeah. Uh, the main cars I remember were hugeos.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeahs. The British people call it Persia's because kind of
don't know how to you're right, but for some reason
they throw that R in there and then citron. It's
really you know, yeah, put that extra into it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Make everybody know that what you're driving exactly maybe heard
from about half a block away, right, so you know,
that were kind of you know, we talk about all
the different hobbies that we have and I like to
touch on different hobbies in the show. Uh, it kind
of shows I don't know, we're saying the headspace of
(06:58):
where people go when they're looking for stuff. Probably not
the right way to say that, but it will go
with it. And since we're talked about cars are going
for the the the unusual, the out of the way.
What got you into looking for neon signs? Now you
look at other types of lighting, other cool, unique things.
(07:23):
What is it about going for sign hunting?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Well, I would say that I was fortunate enough to
grow up in the DFW area, which kind of defied,
at least in the last twenty five thirty forty years,
the erasing of all neon and you know, new installations especially,
And I grew up with a lot of signage being
(07:48):
installed in the trendy areas, and you know all the
restaurants that come from here, like on the board of Chili's.
I mean, I guess Papa Thos is from Houston, but
they're still very much big up here. And so all
of those restaurants always had elaborate neon signs and Pabas
L Phoenix, Yes, El Chico. Yeah, really, all sorts of
(08:10):
Mexican places, especially Uncle Julio's is a great example. They
always have those animated incandescent flashing arrow signs. Well most
of them don't flash anymore, but they're still lit up.
But yeah, they kind of captivated me as a kid.
And I also grew up going to the West end
of Dallas, Downtown Dallas, which used to have I'm not
(08:32):
sure if we've ever seen pictures, but if you scroll
down following up on my Instagram account, you'll find I
didn't know what else to posts. I posted some Internet
pictures from back in the day of the Neon arches
in what they used to call the Dallas Alley in
the Western Marketplace, which was a mall that was built
in an old I don't remember what kind of factory
(08:55):
it was, actually, but it was some It was a
giant red brick factory, and the Spaghetti ware House, the
original Spaghetti ware House, was right next door. And that's
another reason I like Neon. They had a very nice sign, yeah,
and so I just kind of always loved the way
it looked, the noise of the buzz when the transformers
(09:17):
are kind of going bad, and just the colors, everything
about it, the fact that it's quite literally art with light,
which is fascinating in itself because it's something that you
cannot replicate with anything else really, in which they try to,
but it will never be imitated properly.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I think I said something like that, like you're talking
about those arches with the neon around about West.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, that it was. You could see it from three
sixty six, which is what all rogers. That Trench Freeway
they goes through downtown and it separates downtown from the uptown, which,
in my opinion, they're kind of the same. Because nowadays
the skyline seems to extend far beyond what it used
to be.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
It's kind of like Houston. Yeah, we have downtown, Midtown,
the GALERYA. Yeah, there was a skyline in the Galleria,
and there's even that many little skyline over Memorial City
on the west side of town.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yeah, we've got the office building skylines as I call them,
here in the Downsport Worths as well, where you can
just go. Hell, even where I live, Plano has its
own skyline. Now that's not in downtown. The Legacy West development,
which has to be on in it as well, which
was could you not about ten years ago or less?
(10:36):
It was just fields so so fast it developed. I
mean there was part of it was already built, but
a lot of it was not, and it just kind
of shot up. The growth here has been exponential, and
with that has brought more neon. So I've kind of
always liked it, you know, It's just something that I
don't know, has always been fascinating to me. And I
(10:57):
got to see animated science as a kid, so yeah,
that was a big helper.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now you actually have a picture of a Neon seven eleven.
Granted it's yes room.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
But all of downtown Dallas neon sign or seven elevens,
which they are about five maybe maybe less now, all
of them were had neon or have rather and I
think some of the ones in uptown do as well
because seven eleven is from Dallas, so I guess they
felt the need to do something special. And that's another thing.
(11:29):
Downtown has a lot of it as well, and that's
what I kind of remember.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Sorry to interrupt, No, no, I'm interrupting too, My apologies,
but like we had to when we're going up to
on Oklahoma City. Over the past month. We went up
there twice and yeah, some times we had to go
through downtown Dallas, which.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
On thirty five I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Actually we're coming around forty five to go around all
the traffic on that, you know, when forty five becomes
seventy seven up to thirty five W.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, seven, yeah, all the we call it Intertint three
forty five. If you like highways, that's what you call it.
It's an unassigned elevated freeway that connects seventy five to
forty five.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
And you actually have a picture of what I was
trying to talk about. I just wouldn't remember the term
the historic West End. We went by there a few times,
and right now there is there's a really Kareni's Italian
restaurant that's nearby, and the Majestic is just down the street. Yes,
oh man, there's so many cool things.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And then there's the old Joseph A. Bank Neon sign
which has been rebuilt into saying Pegasus Brewery Pegasus City
Brewery Brewery. Actually, I have a picture somewhere I don't
remember where of when it used to actually say Joseph A.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Bank.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I don't know if it's a particularly great photo because
I know we were moving, but I shortly after I
took that photo it might not be posted. I don't remember.
After I took that. It had a bag over it
for over two years, maybe three, and I was like,
oh man, that sucks. And then it finally was revealed
with the new sign, same white lettering, same styling of everything,
(13:15):
and it just says Pegasus City Brewery, I guess because
they were kind of relating to the fact that nearby
is the very famous Pegasus Neon sign on the Mobile
or sorry Magnolia building for Mobile Oil and Gas, which
that also has something from my childhood that I loved.
The rotating Pegasus on top of the building that was
(13:38):
actually a replacement for the original one which is now
the original one that's in front of the Omni Hotel
on a much shorter post that you can actually get
up really close to it, and it's absolutely incredible. If
you're in town again, you should check it out. It's well,
I mean, you could just look up the Omni Hotel.
Actually I don't remember Oli Street, but.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Like everything quite together. Yeah, and that was oh go ahead.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It was built in nineteen thirty three, I believe it
was when that sign was built. It's absolutely ancient, and
it's just it's just plain old clear neon tubing, nothing fancy,
but it looks great.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
You know what, simple does it? Sometimes I love the complex.
I love the like the Seagulls liquor that is such
a cool mid century Oh yeah, the there's so about
that and those other complicated ones. But sometimes just a
simple sign just it sells. It sells what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Oh yeah, exactly. But it has to of course draw
someonet of oh obviously.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah. But that'll bring us to the end of our
first segment. Trust me, this show flies by so fast.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I'm back so much more I could say, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Oh yeah, time, you have time. Yeah uh. And we're
talking to Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Go and find them on Instagram.
I'll have how the link out with him in the
show notes. We'll get all that done. And you're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International Signfinders. Glad
(15:20):
you're still with us. We have Dallas Neon enthusiasts with us.
We got Houston sign finding Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Last week.
We had someone from Fort Worth. We're just getting the
you know all points of the triangle. We got to
find somebody from San Antonio. I know somebody in Austin
that does neon and Knight Austin.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, I quitely enjoy his uh account. Lots of good
stuff in Austin. Have to say, yeah, I think they might, okay,
give us a run for our money.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yes. And what just blows my mind is all the
neons still up in Dallas because Houston is If you
could see videos of old film from like the sixties
and seventies of all the neon in Houston and what
is here now, you would slap somebody. That's how much
(16:11):
we've lost over the past forty years, fifty years. Part
of that comes from laws and you know iceore laws,
h Old Council people wanted to get rid of all
the neon down Westheimer and it leaves you and you know,
good on all the people still trying to keep it up.
That's kind of reason why I got into this in Houston.
(16:32):
Is it pissed me off I couldn't find off finding
all the neon that you find in like Denver, Salt Lake, La, Seattle, Portland,
all those big cities. There's still a lot of neon there,
even though like in Denver, a lot of it's going away,
especially down what is the Colfax. But yeah, Dallas deep Elum.
(16:54):
I noticed that you've got quite a few pictures of
Deep Eleum, and I talked to Danger Dave last last week.
We you know Deep Elum. Is it kind of an
arts area?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I would say it's kind of more entertainment but also
art because really most of it seems to be from
my experience, just a lot of music clubs and stuff,
and also trendy restaurants. But the one thing that does
kind of set it apart is that the city of
Dallas actually allows people to make their own art and
(17:27):
murals on some of the city property. Like if you
go underneath the forty five which is really three forty
five bridge on streets like Canton or Maine or Elm
or whatever, commerce, all the pillars underneath the bridge are
actually painted by different artists they're local to Deep Elum
(17:50):
in other areas of Dallas, and they get to sign
their name on it, and they even have spotlights on
them at night, So they kind of embrace the arts
a little bit, but also music because it's kind of
our our version of like Beale Street or Sixth Street
in Austin, or you know, Bourbon Street, and I don't
(18:13):
remember the name of the street in Nashville, but that road, yeah,
Music Avenue, yeah, Music Row whatever. So it's in the
stockyards for that matter in Fort Worth, which is kind
of their equivalent of deepa LM. I guess for different things,
but a lot of it is kind of the same.
And the neon there is quite nice, and they keep
(18:37):
putting in new signs and all this stuff, so it's fun.
The dog park even has a neon sign for To
give you an idea, which is that is a very
awesome thing to do. I have to say Austin does,
I wouldn't. I don't know if it's exactly more, but
it just seems more. Maybe it's because admittedly I am
(18:59):
one of the only people out here in this side
of the metroplex that because we have you know, East
and West cause two cities. It's like Minneapolis and Saint Paul,
so it's easy to stay and be entertained on your
quote unquote side. So I haven't found anybody else doing
what I'm doing in this region of Dallas Fort Worth
(19:21):
on the Dallas side, so I kind of it is
a little bit pressure to I feel a little bit
of pressure to have, you know, the only account at
least based on that. But I feel like maybe it's
just because I haven't had a chance to find and
document everything that it seems like maybe Austin has more,
(19:42):
I guess, but yeah, I would. Sorry you go to say.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Like Congress Street, you know, I need to get up
to Austin so bad.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
South Congress is great.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, yeah, And then you know, I've done on Google
Maps and I've got my own like you know, things
of Google Maps, you know, Google Maps points of not
places wherever you want to call him, I don't know what. Yeah,
the term is, uh set up in Austin when I
go there, But I kind of understand where you're coming from.
(20:13):
And I know some other people from Dallas, the Dallas
wor Ward theory like old motel signs, but yes, all
over the place.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, some of these, some of these accounts that are
based here do travel. Like there's also jf Po. Yeah,
he's based here, but he also takes pictures of a
lot more things than just Neon Sense too, which is fine.
And I'm trying to do the same thing myself.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
But it's just you know, assuming, yeah, time consuming, and
you know DV over DT he does a lot of
and Dallas Juke Juke Joint.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I need to talk to him as well. But what
you're doing is amazing because you know, like the Doubberly
Motor Company.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Oh yes, I love. I don't know if it's Doubly
or really do really sounds cooler to me, but.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I like maybe it's my North Carolinian that's coming out
in me. But also like the Lancaster Theater, the in
Wood Theater, the Uh, I know, I'm just telling you
stuff that you already know, but just going through your feed.
Uh what was the one Lakewoods Lucas.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Uh, Lucas B and B. Yes, yeah, wow, I need
I need to take a video of the sign across
the street from it Lucky's Cafe. It's also animated, and
I don't I might have a picture of it on
my account. I don't remember, And I now have a
lot more posts than I used to, so I kind
of forget what I have and haven't posted. Oh with you,
(21:42):
it's it's pretty nice. And then of course Papado has
their sign, and Papado is actually who's maintaining that. Lucas
B and B signed they assumed responsibility for it when they,
you know, occupied the previous space of the actual restaurant
which my grandma on my dad's side actually remembers going
to back in the day.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And my head is off to Papado or the papist family. Yeah,
they they take over a lot of Neon and uh
there's one Uh, I think Papado is either Papa do
or no. Papasito's right next to it up in the
north northwest side of Houston and they actually have an
old North National Plumbing sign. I think when the old sign.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I think that I think I might have seen that before.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
And they salvaged it. And also like Dot Coffee Shop,
which is a Houston staple. Uh, they they own Dot
Coffee Shop as well and they keep that up. But
one of the one of the things I talk about
when you're going out and you know you're planning to
take photos of signs is you know you got to
(22:53):
account for time to get there, try to maybe find parking.
But a third one, maybe a fourth one, is the
awe factor, were you just have to step back. What
is the off factor of like a lucas or lakewood
or a seagulls liquor. I know you've seen them all,
you know, growing up, But the off factor for you
(23:15):
of seeing that lit up at night.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean, honestly, the I think about the now that
I know how they're made, and I have, I guess
for a couple of years now, the effort put into
something like that to be like, most artists, for example,
wouldn't want their art to be exposed to the possibility
of damage from the elements, right, So that's why we
(23:41):
put the Mona Lisa in such special you know, procedures
to preserve it and things. But neon artists or glass blowers,
whatever you want to call them, they have this pride
and in the sense that they know it's going to
get messed up, possible or very likely, and they still
(24:03):
put it out there. They still build it to be
you know, elaborate and beautiful of course too, generally the
specifications of their customers. But still they put all this
effort a lot of times with open tubes, for example,
which in Texas, as you know, I'm sure requires a
lot of replacement because of our ferocious skies. Yes, and
(24:25):
just looking back at the effort taken all of the
for one thing, just how from a technical standpoint, how
they even work, that something so chemical and mechanical can
be so pretty is just fascinating to me. And it
never gets old. Those signs you mentioned, I still feel
(24:46):
when I go to look at them again, since I
have to revisit things to check on them, you know,
as such as one does. It feels like I've just
seen it for the first time again because it's always that.
I guess it also takes me in to the past,
which is funny because I'm not really that old. I'm
twenty three almost, so heck, yeah, I guess that ties
(25:10):
back to this lineal thing. A lot of people my
age do feel a strong yearning for an era that
we never even existed in it all for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yeah, hold, I thought real fast. We're coming up on
a break. We will dive into that topic here after
we come back from a commercial break. We're listening. We're
talking to Dallas Neon enthusiasts. Go and follow him on Instagram.
He's got a great point. You need to stick around
after this break and we'll talk about it. Welcome back
(25:57):
to International Signfinders. Glad you're with us. We have the
amazing Dallas neon enthusiasts go and follow him. He is
doing the Lord's work up in Dallas. As as he said,
you know, there are people who focus on Fort Worth, uh, Dallas.
You know, people do focus on Dallas, but he's trying
to get that hyper focus where he's not just going
(26:18):
to the trendy places. He's going on side streets that
you know, you may not think of going down inside
of the art field areas of Dallas. Now. One of
the things when I was talking to Nick Girlish. Nick
Girlich is a professor at West Texas A and M,
and you know, he kind of, you know, encourages his
(26:41):
students to you know, get out and wander to watch cars,
because that's kind of a intro to me for neon signs,
because you know, when they're doing the stroll down Main
Street and all the need outcomes on that is such
a breathtaking visual. It is very much so. And he
(27:01):
encourages his students to get out there. Who are some
of them, you know, you know they're eighteen nineteen, they
don't remember seeing cars when it first came out in
the theater because they weren't born yet and he's talking
about the wonder lust of the younger generations, and you
kind of touched upon that, And let's expound upon that
(27:23):
point a little bit more, because you know, there's some
some of the older generations think that Gen Z and
the millennials are just lazy, which I think is a
very bad They just have a focus that's different than theirs. Yeah,
in a way. And I also think once you slather
you know, a generation like that, it's kind of you know,
(27:46):
sometimes it's hard to shake those, you know, the older
the older generation thinking that way. Now, you talked about
your friends getting out there and hitting the pavement and
finding these old side feeling like they were born in
the wrong generation. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Pretty much? I mean, honestly, it extends beyond neon signs too.
We have the abundance of older architecture here, even though
it's been lee. Dallas isn't always the greatest preserving history,
but they've done better than other cities, I guess.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So there's no better than Houston, way better than and so.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
And also music too. Music's a big car and cars
and everything else. And it's just I guess maybe it's
because of Post nine to eleven. Honestly, not a lot
of people want to touch up on that, but I
think that, honestly might kind of and maybe also the
dying of American consumerism as we knew it back in
(28:50):
the day, because we grew up in the time where
malls were at their absolute peak and then they just
fell off briefly after, Like malls were probably the best
they had gotten overall in the early two thousands and
the late two thousands, and then as Amazon, you know,
encroached upon us, and not even just malls but stores
(29:12):
in general, the way that American retail was for so
long has been dying, and I guess it kind of
creates a nostalgia that we didn't even really fully experience
because it's we just feel transported away from the not
(29:34):
so great things going on at the moment to an
idealistic world where we can live like maybe the movies,
I guess, yeah, And Neon does really play a big
role in a lot of movies even today, so it
is kind of everywhere. And when you think about movies
like Cars, like you said, which was I meant to
(29:55):
mention that earlier because that's a great That is also
something that really set me on the scene of how
they animated every sign coming on was truly incredible, the
intention of detail the entire movie. I mean, they even
took the time to put mercury vapor street lights on
Los Angeles highways, which was something that did still exist
(30:18):
at the time there and even in Dallas, and possibly
even in some parts of Houston, but probably not as much,
And so they touched on things like that, and for
kids like me, that was kind of a cool representation
of the more interesting and overlooked parts of life that
people don't really pay attention to as much when they
(30:41):
get older, because most people, a neon sign, unless it's
truly breathtaking, is just a sign to them because you know,
it's advertisement, which is why people don't. It is sad
when they get removed, but honestly they do. I mean,
I don't have any studies. I'm just pulling this out
(31:02):
of the air, but I honestly do believe this is
probably true that they do make more money for the
businesses that have them. It certainly seems the more successful
restaurants are always the ones with semi elaborate neon signs,
even if they're yeah or Chili's is a great example too,
Chewi's Chili's Uncle, Julio's a Buelow's, many many many barbecue
(31:29):
places to do this. And so even if it's just
the open channel letters where which they're protected from the elements,
but they're still And even olive garden, although I think
a lot of them have started to take those away.
But when I was a kid, olive garden in Plano,
(31:49):
which is the closest one to where I grew up
in Richardson, was had a big old green neon sign
that I was oddly enough also lit up with metal
health lights, I guess because they wanted everything to stand out,
not just the olive garden, but the the the grapes
and everything else. So that kind of stuff kind of
(32:12):
takes us all away.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, and about you know being kind of you know,
kind of in a floating It sounds like a floating
generation there there isn't like yeah, uh like gen X,
what do we have we had being left at home
last kids being you know, you go outside until it's dusk.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
To which we honestly did that too, And that's the
thing people forget. Yeah, I would I would say that
the first half of gen Z, which is where I
obviously reside in was the last generation two collectively and
more commonly play outside without anything else. And I guess
(32:59):
for some reason old people forget it or they don't
know how to separate us from the maybe out of laziness,
which is funny, they call us lazy.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
But here's why that they don't necessarily associate that because
about the time when you were growing up higot ten eleven,
maybe a little bit earlier, is when you started getting
stories like out of Maryland, where you know, a mother
let her kids go down the street to play at
the playground and she gets arrested by CPS for abandoning
(33:34):
her kids.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
That is true.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, so it's kind of a weird mix of you
have all these hyper focused karens. They're like, you can't
let your kids play outside? But then do you have
like the reality? And I even see this now in
parts of Houston, going down some on the SI Screeen,
You'll see kids outdoors, playing, running up to down the streets,
having fun and the parents are within the arms reach. Yeah,
(33:58):
then do you have like the hyper Since the people
they kind of ruined the landscape of how they view
the upcoming generation by calling DPS, calling the cops, calling
all these things, yeah, and making it kind of ruining
it for your generation.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And also I guess as I'll see out about this, okay.
And there's also the I've noticed this even with people
who now I'm at the age where some of my
peers are parents, which is odd to me, but you know,
it's part of growing up, I guess it is.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
And so I've noticed since I writ my job, I
work in homes, so I actually see American life the
little window of what people let somebody who's working in
their home see. And I've noticed that a lot of
younger parents that have younger kids, they because of how
demanding today is with you know, and you need to
(34:58):
really have both parents working to survive. Anymore technology is
just thrown at kids because there's no time to actually
care for your kids attention that they require. You know,
that's a horrible way to put it. Sorry about the fact,
but you know, it's like we call the iPad generation.
(35:20):
Within my part of the generation, we call either late
Gen Z and Gen Alpha, the whole scibity toilet generation.
You know, all that stuff. I don't even understand that
tolet what you don't even want to go down that
rabbit hole. I don't even understand it. Really.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
It's like the term salty. I still haven't figured out
what salty.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Now that makes a little bit more sense, because I
mean it's sour salty. You know, things that are salty
aren't like you have sweets, so salty that makes more sense,
But yeah, it still doesn't make sense to some. I
get it, yeah, but like, yeah, the iPad generation is
what we call it because for iPad kids, because the
social development time of a child is when these kids
(36:06):
are getting technology shoved in their face to shut up,
plain and simple. I've literally watched this in homes and
it's baffling to me. And I truly hope that whenever
I do become a parent, that I do not resort
to that myself, because I get the easiness of it.
I understand entirely and just but it's we didn't get that.
(36:31):
You nor I got that as a kid because our parents.
For me, yes, the technology kind of existed back then,
but it was expensive and also my parents just didn't
view things that way. I did get my first smartphone
in seventh grade, which seems early for some, but I
(36:52):
have now seen third graders with actual smartphones with internet
and cell service access, which is unreal to me. I
can't what's the how horrible the internet is? I can't
imagine that. And so the old people see that and
decide that it's everyone because it is easier to just
(37:15):
do that instead of discerning who is and who isn't
that way, and I guess it's also part of you know,
just old people tend to label group says something they're
not exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
And I will admit that I'm a little guilty about that.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Because I mean, I am too. I'm sorry to become
a boomer someone.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Uh, there's a possibility of narcolepsy, and this is kind
of going around. I'm telling some I'm telling some tea
on myself.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
And hey, there's right there.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's an old Southern term. Yeah.
And so when I was at home taking care of
my daughter, I could drink a uh that's you know,
a bang energy drink, take my adderall and pass out
for two hours. So we will watch a lot of YouTube.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
And I hated it.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I honestly hated it, but I couldn't. There's a possibility
have anarcolepsy, but I always made sure I was available,
Like if my daughter needed something, all she had to
do was shake me and uh and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
And I'm just resting my eyes.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
But when you're snoring and your daughter wakes you up saying, Dad,
you snore, it's kind of hard. Excuse.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Oh my dad used it. Definitely quite a bit, so grandpase.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, that's maybe that ties us all together.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Old Southern stuff right there, exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Well, that'll bring us to the end of our third segment,
holy cow. Or when we come back, we'll get into
maybe some buckets places uh for for Josh and uh
may maybe talk about some other crazy stuffs, maybe some
intergenerational stuff that we don't necessarily know that we have
in common. You're listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back
(39:24):
to our fourth and final installment, no installment segment. I
thought that sounded cooler, but soon as it came out
as like, dude, fourth and final segment of International sign Finders,
glad you're with us. We have Dallas Neon Enthusiasts. That's
Dallas dot Neon dot enthusiast. You know, spell them out
the correct way. You can find them on Instagram. I
will have how to get in contact with him in
(39:45):
the show notes, maybe some other places he likes the plug.
We may put those in the show notes as well.
But we've been talking about kind of the the floatingness
of the new generations, you know, like the greatest you know,
the World War Two people when they were kids coming up,
they didn't have TVs. They had movie theaters, and they
(40:06):
were spending every day, sometimes twice a day, and also
had some of those places at ac as opposed to
their homes. So you go there watch like fifteen thousand
hours of movies. They think that, you know, Gen X
was bad watching all the TV. Growing up, they watched
movies all day. And then you have like the silent generation,
the Boomers, the Gen X, there's always seems to be
(40:28):
something that kind of hands them down. You're talking about
nine to eleven. Me growing up, it was the Challenger explosion.
I remember being in second grade sitting there. We brought
you know, that was still when the Space Shuttle was
super novel. My teacher brought in the TV. So we're
watching the Challenger go up, and it also was very
(40:50):
exciting for teachers because Sally Read, the first teacher in space,
was going up on the Challenger about five ten minutes
into the flight, boom, and we didn't have any Do
you want to talk about this? They We watched the
rerun of it like three or four times until they
(41:11):
turn it off and too get out and we're like, Okay,
what happened there? You know, I'm eight years old. I
don't know what happened. YEA told you to come down
from them that stuff, you know, certain things like that
define generations, like nine to eleven with the millennials, gen Z.
Maybe it's COVID. Maybe COVID is the thing that kind
(41:34):
of ties it down.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Is the I mean, I guess, or the recession, I mean,
I don't know one could.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
You can, or.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Just the ongoing even though the wars didn't actually really
affect us, I guess still the hearing about it a lot.
And yeah, they probably the recession maybe, and yeah maybe
in COVID and really interesting twenty sixteen election, no matter
how you feel about it, it was definitely interesting, way interesting,
(42:09):
so that that would definitely go down the whole presidential
race and all that stuff, which.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Instead of it being one one event, it's several events.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, I guess. So it seem to me.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
It's kind of like the boomers with Vietnam.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Yeah, and Korea too.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Korea, Yeah, the Inter Korean War into Vietnam, and that
was an event over technically, Vietnam was thirty years. We
were involved for a long time. Yeah, but that's a
different topic for a different day. So, you know, the floating,
(42:49):
the need to pin down to something that's solid. I
get that. Oh my gosh, I get that. I still
have that. Maybe that's the reason why I'm so into.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Well. They seem to be somewhat eternal because even if
they're not around in person, they're well represented in all
sorts of forms of media. It seems because they are
just timeless.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
And like you said about your grandmother there at Lucas
B and B restaurant, she had that tie with you,
so you may have not talked about it a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
I love allaceulstry.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yes, I still need to learn more about Houston history.
And also I come from North Carolina. It's still a
ton of We just found out the Khakis were invented
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
And there's all sorts of cool stuff from this country.
It seems that most places neat ideas have come from
about anybody. Really, it's quite remarkable that we allow such
a thing to happen. I love it. Wouldn't want to
be anywhere else exactly.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I don't mind visiting other places.
Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, me too. I've been to Spain and England and
that's it. I haven't been to the neighboring countries yet.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Did you get confused by old water.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
No, I actually already knew some British people, but yeah,
I like some British music, so that was definitely.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
I listened to a lot of the old style dubstep
from Freyden, South London, Bristol, not as much Manchester, but
that old, deep, dark dungeony sound. I still listen to that,
that style of dubstep, not so much of the random
acts of robotics. But uh yeah, and that'll let me
(44:47):
get focused. Yeah yeah, I get off in the side change.
It's really bad, me too, I haven't. I actually took
an extra pill of adderall before I did all this
so I can stay focused. Because it's hard doing two
interviews in a row. It's tough. Oh yeah yeah, and
it also takes a lot out of you, like energy wise,
(45:09):
but bucket list places, okay, Dallas, we know that's your
main bucket list, But is there any other place in
the in the world's let's let's not limit it to
the US the world that you would love to go
to for like sign finding, car find I mean Cuba,
for Heaven's sake, with old calls.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
Oh, I know, it's quite something, honestly, I there's so
many places. I know, there's some cool spots in France
and some other areas that have some great Neon and uh,
Germany too and so forth. Yes, and even even the
(45:50):
Eastern European nations have some rather interesting takes on Neon
signs because despite how you know, dar and Communists kind
of you know, the bricks or really not even bricks,
concrete brutalism, everything that brutalism. Yes, I think that's probably
where it was invented. Honestly, it would not be surprised.
(46:13):
It may not have been, but it definitely was one
of the more common uses of it. And they still
have some rather interesting Neon signage that a lot of
people don't talk about because, I mean, for one thing,
the Russian language in neon is interesting in itself, and
other countries too, not just Russia, but as part as
(46:34):
the US yeah, that too. I love to see Portland
and New York. I've not properly done anything outside of
the JFK Airport, which was one of my stops from
Spain to come back to Dallas, so that's all I
did there is just changed planes, so nothing. Really. I
can't really consider New York somewhere I've truly been, and
(46:57):
i'd love to see some of the things like the
Radio Sign and Times Square. Las Vegas I've never been.
I'd love to see that, and Reno. I'd like to
revisit Branson and never been to Nashville. I'd love to
see that. There's all sorts of places. Miami Beach with
the Arctico and the Neon would be nice. I haven't
(47:18):
properly explored Oklahoma City with neon. I've seen a couple
of it, but I haven't seen much. And I need
to go back to Santa Fe and Albuquerque with their neon.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
And.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
And in San Francisco has quite a bit of neon
too that I haven't checked out, which nice thing is.
Even though it's also sad. My mom moved to the
Bay Area in June, and so I do have an
excuse to go out there more often now for a reason,
and so I can check that out at least, and
Los Angeles even too. Yeah, Alameda and San Diego.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
And I'll say this about Alameda, I think a real
devil doll.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
She's an awesome throwback. She's in like a rockabilly punk band,
you know, has this really cool vibe tour. I loved
interviewing talking with her. But she does in her little
town right there outside of Oakland. I want to say,
it's Alameda. It's an island, and she does guided tours
of a neon in downtown Alameda. And uh, and even
(48:27):
that little that little neck of the woods. You would
never think that's just a port city, you know, that's
just but even then, it has its own neon vibe.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
It's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty neat. I have to check
it out then. And I mean there's so many places
Portland too, and Seattle I still need to explore, Yes,
Vancouver and Toronto. I need to explore Austin more and
even Houston area. There's a lot of stuff that you
posted that I didn't even I couldn't imagine existed there either,
And I was surprised, and I was like, hey, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
If you need a map, I've got one.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
Oh, I would definitely love it. I've got a couple
of friends down there, so I have reasons to be
in those areas. And even San Antonio. I haven't really
checked out a lot there, and I do post whenever
I go on vacations. I do try to post pictures
if I find me on and regrettably, there was some
stuff in San Antonio when I was down in South
Padre and San Antonio area, just I didn't take pictures
(49:28):
of There were some signs that I wish I did.
I was going to, but I don't remember why I didn't.
So there's lots of stuff, you know, all over the place.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
And also little towns like yes, I need to get
into and dig around. Is Chickashe Oklahoma?
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Oh yes, that's how it was just Chickasaw.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Okay, Well there's Chicka Saw which is the Chickasaw Nation,
the chicken There's.
Speaker 2 (49:53):
Except Okay, that's right, Oklahoma is Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yes, weird pronunciaations. But like downtown Chickashet has the Washita
Movie Theater, which I posted recently. But also if you
look around the corner off Main Street, there's a ton
more oldly on signed and there's a guy oh south
of town on a place called Muscle Car Ranch. I
(50:18):
wanted to stop and take a picture. I think he
had the old Maverick motels, the old Raygun Gothic has
that arrow from the seventies, late sixties, early seventies with
you know, the motel signed. I was about to stop
and take a picture, and we were oppressed for time.
My wife's like, nope, it's right there. But you know
(50:39):
light tales like like El Reno, Oklahoma. Yeah, not the
Guyman again, Boise City out in the Panhandle, which is
it's Oklahoma but it's not.
Speaker 2 (50:52):
Yeah. So that Amarillo too, Yeah, so much and Arkansas.
I mean, there's so many places. It's just unreal. This
there's so much more of this if you look. And
that's what I think I'm trying to, along with obviously others,
raise awareness to the fact that maybe it isn't entirely
over either, and in this society of l ed, this
(51:16):
l ed that you know, we are finding a resurgence overall,
mostly nationwide, in the idea of you know, using actual
neon exactly.
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Well, that brings to the end of our show. Thank
you so much for being on.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Having me.
Speaker 1 (51:35):
Yeah, and I'm also glad we could finally connect. Yeah,
a few weeks, might be happy.
Speaker 2 (51:42):
I'm sure same here. Yeah. Sorry, no, no.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
No, no, You're fine. I completely understand. I've been. I've
been to Oklahoma twice in the past month.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
I've been the I've been to California, South Padre, Kerrville,
s Waco, Killeen, Austin, and I've been all over the
place Johnny Cash recently, I've been everywhere. Yes, it is,
it is.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Are there is there any other place besides Instagram that
folks can find you and maybe connect.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
So I have a admittedly not well maintained YouTube channel
which is linked in my Instagram bio, that I try
to film and upload animated signs primarily, but hopefully it
can if it gains more traction, which in fairness, I
need to make the effort to also upload more and
that's part of getting more subscribers. But if it gets
(52:38):
enough traction and views, I'd like to grow it into
also maybe having you know, oh gosh, slideshows is what
I want to say, There we go and other and
other types of things of static neon signs, which I
have done one of the state there, which that's a
whole other topic. The state fairs. Neon is incredible and
I can't believe I didn't even mention that at all.
(53:01):
And I have YouTube channels for my other hobbies. I
have a lighting channel, and I have a ceiling fan channel,
which I forgot to mention. I collect ceiling fans and fans.
I don't shove that into here. It's actually part of
my job too for that matter. It's working on fans,
So I do that and that's a big hobby of mine,
and so I have Instagrams for them as well, but
(53:26):
I'm again admit, not the greatest set maintaining it. And
then I have a car Instagram account for my Lincoln
Town car.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
I love talking about you.
Speaker 2 (53:37):
So they're all I probably should just try to find
a way to plug them in on my Neon sign
channel to make it easier for everyone. But I will
definitely let I'll text you all the different you know,
user names so that you can So I'm a private
person in other respects, so I won't probably share my
(54:01):
actual private Instagram. I just mainly use for myself or
what my generation would call our main Instagram, So which
has the least followers out of all of them, really,
which is fine.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
We'll keep that a secret. Yeah, they'll have to go
the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (54:15):
I mean it's private anyway, so it's uh, you know,
you have to be accepted as cool.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Well, that'll bring you to the end of the show.
As I'd like to say to everybody when we finish
each episode, have a great weekend. Get out there hitting
the pavement, finding signs, take a pictures of them, connect
with Dallas theand enthusiasts, connect with Deborah Jane Seltzer, who
does roadside Architecture. I think the Sea people.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
Uh oh, I love that. That website's great.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah. And also I'm gonna give a Steven Spiegel, uh
probably one of the he if you want to kind
of him and roadside Peek or probably two of the
best hubs for sign finding that you will start finding
really cool people through those people. Steven Spiegel was an imagineer,
(55:10):
is an imagineer. He hasn't retired yet. He didn't work
on cars.
Speaker 3 (55:16):
But he know he Uh, if you go back and
listen to that episode, you kind of give you some
inside inside information about you know, just you know, when
you can plan on seeing the cars exhibit light up.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Well, that'll do it for this week's episode of International
Sign Finders. Until next time,
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