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September 29, 2024 • 58 mins
@yourbuddyspooky joins the podcast and he talks about pop culture, how signs influence or reflect the businesses they represent, Wildwood, and getting out to Amish Country.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome everybody to International Sign Finders. Glad you're with us.
I'm your host, you raveren Athy, and hopefully you got
out of this past weekend and hit the pavement, got out,
found something on signs or even handpain a sides, those
are pretty cool. Two or if your vid diagram fatures
out to urban exploration or to cool old cars, hey,
that's within our wheelhouse too. We love seeing those things, antiques, whatever,

(00:39):
So get out there. Tag us heck, send me a
message in my DMS, either International Sign Finders or Houston
Underscore sign Underscore Hunting, and I'd be glad to either
share it or put it up on my stories so
we can share with everybody else your hobbies outside of
sign finding or those other signs that you can you

(01:03):
can get out and find. So tonight we have a
special guest all the way from the East Coast. We're
both meeting here in Houston right now, kind of a
central place. He's at work. I'm venturing out to the
hinterlands of Houston almost Katie. And right now, what's what's
interesting about where we're at is I'm looking out of

(01:24):
the fifteenth stories. We're in the fifteenth story right Spooky. Yeah.
So we're on the fifteenth story and right belowis is
mac Heike Chevrolet with the really cool animated peacock sign.
You got a new Neon sign Woodi's house. I think
down there you've got twin peaks. You have the the
Neon Ihoff sign, which I did get a picture of
it at Golden Hour. But tonight our guest is Spooky.

(01:48):
Your buddy Spooky is your buddy Spooky on Instagram, yep
on Instagram and Twitter, Instagram and Twitter. And we've been,
you know, shooting the breeze here while he gets things
set up at work. Uh, I braved my car being
overheating and the GPS and to me a mile up

(02:09):
the road and watching the heat. So I got my
steps in today. But we like to welcome to the show, Spooky.
Welcome to the show, bud Hey. But yeah, so tell
us a little bit about yourself. Introduce yourself to everybody
else in the sign finding NN diagrams of everything else comunities.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
I'm a new person to the sign finding communities. To
be honest, there aren't that many signs of note where
where I'm from. It they tend to be coming up
and coming down just as quickly. Yeah, New Jersey is
they've they've got some of the older ones, but they
don't really have them for too long.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Fortunately. That's frustrating, it is it, It really is it
For starters, it's very easy to find your way if
you've saw that the signs that were there thirty years ago. Yeah,
but unfortunately there aren't that many there that that there
remaining that long. There.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
There there are the here's a little shop rates that
keep their signs up for the longest time. But again,
long march of progress. Yeah, and that's what they call it.
That's that's what that's what they'd say it is. Yeah,
but you know, it's it's at the same time it's frustrating,
but it's also late. With the old comes the news.

(03:26):
Sometimes there are better signs that come out true. But yeah,
I know it's personally, I you know, my attention has
always been to pop culture.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Okay, you know I was gonna say, like pop culture
uses neon any part of it. Yeah, yeah, what did
I interviewed Johnny Boomoo mathis he's up in uh Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
and you, I don't know if you know much about Wisconsin.
There's tons of awesome Neon up in the hinter lanes

(03:58):
of nor in Wisconsin and stuff like that. Place that
you think, Okay, Milwaukee bigger city. I mean it's probably
a third the size of Houston. It's size wise. I
think he's only one hundred fourteenth square miles deserve. Yeah,
that's a cuton Oh my gosh, Homeston is six hundred
fifty six square miles. If you add in water six

(04:19):
hundred and sixty, you're basically thought in like the entirety
of within Jersey. Yeah. Yeah, so you know, uh, Milwaukee's
got some good stuff, but you start getting up to
the northern person with suparate clubs and things like that.
But that's a that's me going off on a side tangent,
which I usually do in the shows. Yeah, I'm pretty

(04:40):
good for it. We might talk about Bigfoot. The best
part is when you go into the yeah, and that
that's kind of where we were going. It was one
of the points that he wanted to bring up. He's like,
sometimes you don't realize the signs that are in the background,
Like I even brought up in our little conversation Guardians
of the Galaxy when they're on Nowhere, you're teaching alien

(05:03):
planet whatever. But there's some really cool neo sized ape
design for the show. Exactly. What are some other ones
that you've noticed in pop because we're kind of talking
about this the other night and in the chat and uh,
well go ahead. So, I mean most of the stuff
that I'm.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Noticing is a lot like specifically me on like, but
one of the best sources of like, you know, easter
eggs for thingsle yeah, like TV shows and things like that.
My favorite, you know, my wife and I are a
favorite show right now is Bob's Burgers. Okay, it's a sitcom,
it's an I mean, it's to come on Fox.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
It's been airing since at least twenty thirteen, I believe,
so yeah, yeah, like that, it's it's fourteen. See who
I think I know of it? Yeah? I have never
watched an episode. You really do you need? I'm such
a bad person.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
So here's the thing, just to give you a little
bit of background and a little bit more tangent. My
wife and I we love it because primarily it it
doesn't do the normal sitcom thing that every sitcom falls into.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
With like the dopey, stupid dance. Yeah, the intelligent there's
above intelligent level. Kids and mom and things like that.
Everyone's an idiot. That's great. Every single person, I feel
attlet hung down. They're all got the same little stupid
It's fine, but they're they're they're happy, and they love
each other.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
It's clearly they love each other. And that's one of
the biggest things we love about. The other thing is,
so we got into it around twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen,
and around that time is when her mother, my wife's mother,
my wither in law, she passed away. Okay, the thing
that we started noticing while we were watching it is

(06:53):
that we will save this to each other on a
regular basis. At this point, it's almost like the Mother
and the show Lynda belt Sure is like a carbon
copy of my mother. Oh yeah, I wish I was kidding.
You could basically let every single thing that like, It's
almost like someone followed my mother in law around with
a camera and just decided, look, we're gonna take this

(07:16):
person and make a character out of them, and that's it.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Like, between that and the fact that it's.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Just an extremely relatable show and so very fresh her
after all the time, it's like, this is what the citizens,
I think was aiming for when it went past fifteen.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, that's it's like. But the problem that the Simpson
that I think is like it's worn out as well. Yeah,
it is beating a dead horse and away, No, this
will too rough? No, so what susand I think the
problem with them is I think the best phrasing was

(07:52):
in Lord of the Rings of the falloon o builbot
de straps how these like leathers stretched a little too
then gotcha like it's it's it's way too far a past.
It probably should have been killed at like exit their
seating plane. Okay, you know it's it's it's a it

(08:15):
was a good show, it was a great show.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
It should have then stopped at the certain point. And
I guarantee, like Bobsbergers will probably get that point at
a certain point. But I'm glad that they haven't. They
won't hope for a very long time. But either way,
uh So, And the reason I don't and bring that
up is just to get back on focus here a
little bit. Uh In the intro for the show and

(08:37):
throughout every episode, you notice so part of the the
thing with animation and pop culture, people are very averse
to using existing signs or like you know, franchises and
things like that. Companies are rarely very happy to let
you use them and product the lesson. They're them not

(08:58):
tictaming the use to it. So what a lot of
animybies have been doing, and a lot of like you
see this, like especially throughout all science fiction, especially Star
Treks starts.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
With some very pig stores for you story, Yeah you
sit there and you can hit pause, but but they
get back to me saying that again, yes, we're good,
we love the sign promise, we love the raids.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Basically in the intro for Bob Fergus, every single episode
they start like they think like the very beginning and
can you assem?

Speaker 1 (09:32):
And then they assemble a burger.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
They assembled the family in the front, and then they
did show the front of the store and then the
source of the stores that are next to them. But
one is always the same as if you were a
part of the next one is all like every episode
is shown as being empty or leasing. Yeah you have
to like put a four least side up in there,
but during the intro it has assignment like there's and

(09:55):
now I can't even remember, like I can't think of
any of the top of the head. But there's it's always
something relevant. It's always something like fresh like for a
Halloween episode.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
They have like uh scary costs. Oh cool? Or what's
that one company that takes over ay for your health? Yeah,
let me just turn this down. Sorry everybody, Okay, there
we go.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
But yeah, so, but like it's it's it's a it's
a little it's a little dad puns and it's relevant
and I think it says a lot because one of
the things I've noticed is companies like that that spraying
about of nowhere and I'm done, Like here's thaying on
twelve kind of thing. They put a lot of effort
into the name, and then they don't put a lot

(10:37):
of effort into.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
The actual effort and the product. Correct. Those places that
put a lot of stuff into the product, they're there
for like fifty six. One thing that I liked about
Spirit it was Spirit right, yeah, very early there was
that weird meme where you know, it was like a
McMansion type place and it had this weird little room
in the middle of the house and somebody up on

(11:00):
tops like what would you put here? And then some
soul from Spirit Halloween's put a spirit Halloween Sabord. I'm there,
so you got to give them credit for that. So
that brings to the end of our first segment of
International sign Finders. When we come back, we'll talk more
about pop culture, maybe about you've been to wild Wood,
haven't you had the whole of do Wop? Yeah, I'm

(11:22):
the home of a very special wall Oh that's oh
yeah Walla while Wan sheets the rivalry. Yeah, I don't
think I've ever been to either one. Dang it. So
we'll be right back here after a few moments. Welcome

(12:00):
back to International sign Finders. Glad you're back with us.
We have your buddy Spooky with us. You can follow
him on Instagram on Twitter both at your Buddy Spooky.
We've been following each other on Twitter for a while
and I didn't reckon. It wasn't until we were at
a stream with Johnny. We we watched our friend Johnny
micro who's a microbiologist. It's not relating to anything else

(12:22):
that he's had. The one that one meeting is like,
you know, zero dias and someone mentioned my deck. Yeah, yeah,
poor guy. He's probably one of the most salt of
the Earth people that you'll ever meet uh in the world. Yeah,
but uh, I I recognized your handle, but I didn't

(12:44):
put it together that we've been following each other for
about a year or two on Twitter. Thing you used
to wrik for suspens No, okay, no, I'm not that cool.
Uh No, that's Drew uh McCoy. There you go, JOm Cooley. Yeah,
I at one point I wanted to be a political commentator,

(13:04):
didn't the other one. I grew up joining Twitter with
the with the hopes of one day they can get
them too, like Fosters or something. Oh heaven. Yeah, I
grew up. I grew up. And then we'll realized Yeah,
I know. Yeah, it's like numpster fire like older she wrote,
ass spade, I got the crass and steams. Uh that
it can't turn spin in the like all those people

(13:26):
do die in the dumpster fire full care. And then
your actual host of intelligent people out there like hell,
it's the ship. Yeah. Oh yeah, she frightens me, she fights. Yeah. Yeah,
but you know, we've been following each other for a
little while, and then, uh, we just kind of happened
to get even I hate to use the term closer,

(13:47):
but we've talked more lately. Does this sinence make sense?
We talk more lazy. I'd blame the twlther Albora. Yes,
I followed a lot of people for a very long
time that like all of a sudden, I'm like.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Wait a second, I already followed him for years on it.
How the hell I'm not noticing Moore?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Now, what's the weird is with the Twitter algorithm. There
are people that like Damon Damn tole Is maybe Lawyer
the Manny's Lawyer won the best trolls on on Twitter.
He's an artist, yeah, and he's followed by everybody, both
sides of the political perspection. They just love him because

(14:28):
he's such a turn to everybody. And so uh, there
was a period of two weeks I didn't see him
in my Twitter out in my Twitter feed, and I
was checking both following and for you neither Why I
just sticked to for you at this point because I'm
just like, yeah, you know, what of him? I'm just
whatever I over here it take me down, take me

(14:51):
to the boy. And yes, but it was kind of
cool when you're talking about pop culture and signs and
things like that, because you know, for the reason the
first thing that possible in my mind is Red Fox
sand for and Sons. Just that old jel yard run down.
I think it had a hand painted sign above it.

(15:12):
There's you know, there's something very endearing charming about it.
Even sometimes even a badly done hey painted sign put
because you know, someone took the time to go out
their way paint it. And sometimes it's done haphazardly, but
there's a but it gets to the point of overall

(15:32):
of they took the time to do something, yeah, put
some effort at as opposed to just slapping it a slow yeah,
which again is what really is the endearing part about
that Pumpsburg. It's like it's not only saying, hey, this happens.
Everyone sees it every like you know, you see these

(15:53):
businesses come yeah through, but you also see the other
ones that are actually in there every single day the
same stupid job. Yeah, and they're therefore us because everybody,
like they do a Fay cats it up and like
again us he told them that they told all if
like I hate going back to about Fergus, but it
makes sense here She's like, yeah, you get ready at that. Yeah.

(16:15):
So but but the thing the thing about the show
is like this. Uh, it's a burger drug and the
guy just makes burgers. He doesn't do breakfast, doesn't do
anything else. It just makes luncheon dinner. Yeah, he does fergus.
He does a special murder every day. He's got the
same menu he sticks to. His dad did the same
menu of self runs his own dinner under the center

(16:35):
Town and it's like he's he's super focused on just
doing the burks, and it's hand of lead. Some of
the barbecue places in North Carolina. Uh, I lived in
a part of northeast North Carolina where the cloak. For
the longest time, the closest barbecue joint was two hours away,
so we we didn't have it except for like once

(16:56):
a year. It was a special occasion. But there are
places in like Aiden Gardener Area. I mean it's just
a brick building that is stayed by uh yeah, by
vinegar stains. Oh yeah, and there is a line around
the corner. They only take cash and they give it
you those you know those a little cup you know

(17:18):
the oh yeah, the checker. Is this just cheap, isn't
it can be. There's two places in Philly that are
lake Yeah. Uh, they're right across the Street, which really
didn't choose its places. G knows it, Pats yeah, and
everyone of them. Yeah, yeah, everybody's heard of them. Yeah,
but like they all they do. They just make cheese
stings and then they give you special options on them. Yeah,

(17:40):
they just meet the cheese sticks. And these places are
like cheaply built as they can be, and they're making
money hand over fist and they're just worried about to take
care of this.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
And there's there's places all of it like that. There's
local shops that do that's sort of been so the
place in Jesus City called the way manat Okay, they
just meet these slider burgers.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
You might be able that didn't drink there once, but
the White Flight of ergas, the White Man of Slide
of Erbers among the best things you do to consistently come. Yeah,
but there's that there's like I can mean, like I
can connameing this is off tome that yeah say, but
it's it's like these places had like those are the

(18:17):
places that have been enduring for the longest time that
will probably be there as long as somebody does the
right thing and teaches their kids how to like run
the place and keep things someone's at this are now
they'll be different, and it's kind of like on the
West Coast, you know, like among all the Googi architecture,
like Bob's Big Boy, the original one. Uh, Googie's still

(18:39):
Norns Mills. Uh. They have iconic signs which you know
and you're you're automatically attracted to. But there's a reason
why they've been there for so long. They may have
changed management here and there, but they're still building a punt. Uh.
There's you know, it was as Surising Newton said, we
stand on the shoulders of giants, those that came before us,

(19:01):
and so yeah, management may change, the kids may change,
the kids may grow up and do something else, but
people are still making a quality products. It's kind of
like where's the best pizza and people will always say Chicago,
New York, But then you're throw in new Haven the
pizza or the a pizza, Yeah, the pizza option, and

(19:27):
now you're like, wait a minute, new Haven. And Uh,
there's a guy that I've talked to F nine two
five and that's what it means, F nine to five jobs. Yeah,
so he takes pictures of you know, he does in
the on but I don't know if you've seen those
corrugated board signs where kind of go get in and out,

(19:47):
in and out, and those old school type you know,
scripts on top of it. Those have been there forever orever.
We're talking like since the forties of fifties. But there's
a reason why they're still there because, like you said,
they make a quality product and depending on you know,

(20:10):
how they want to present themselves, they're either good to
their customers or they have a sarcastic bite that brings
people back kind of like that. I don't know if
you've heard that. I forget the name of the diner
in Chicago where you go there purposely to be insulted.
I've heard, yeah, And there's a place in Jackson Hole
like that too. It's like if you're a woman who
goes in there and they do this jokingly, like they'll

(20:34):
give you they'll give a woman a fork with with
corpse on it because she doesn't poker eye out. I
know it's blatantly sexist, but you know that going into
it type of thing. But we have come up to
the end of our second segment. Holy cow, this thing
goes by so fast. When we come back after the break,
we will talk about wild Wood because you've got some

(20:55):
pictures of Wildwood and other parts of Pennsylvania. We're listen
our guests, that is your buddy Spooky and you're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.

(21:21):
Let me get my words right. I am. I'm stumbling
out of the gate like I normally do. We have
your buddy Spooky with us. He's been We've been talking
about pop culture. We talking about those mama pops that
stay there for ages, for ages because why they do
a good They make a good product and people recognize that. Now,

(21:41):
when you're talking about Google architecture, that can be a
little controversial because not every myth center side is Google,
and not every Googie architecture has a missage. You're signed
with it, but there's that anomaly. Wildwood, New Jersey. Do wah.

(22:05):
They don't call it Googy, they call it do wat Okay,
they're very Yeah, Wildwood is a crazy place for just
uh jitty pictures of the outsides. I was taught to
someone I forget who it was. I want to say
Macaronic where she was at wild Wood. It's like, after
a while, you just got to stop. You just can't
get everything. What is it about Wildwood? It's there a

(22:29):
Jersey Shore, right, yeah, so and this is the case
alone most of the most of the Jersey Shore period,
like where Wildwood is the one that's like the big,
the big heavy, everyone been there there most of the
road cleans there in a way, you know, wild Wood,
kid may h Pleasant and Beach Long Long Beach Long

(22:54):
there's a well, there's Long Beach Island. There is Long
Long Branch.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
That's branch okay, so yeah, but there's like there's they're
in the quintessential Jersey short towns. They're also in a
way stuck in a particular period of time.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay. Like the boardwalk, especially for all these towns, is
it's not all connected. It's not like one straight boardwalk
all the way down. Yeah, from top to bottom of
the short It's like every town has its own little
operation on the board topic. And they had the same
signs in place for the longest tip specifically, because when
you do that, you're you're welcoming the family that grew

(23:32):
up there, Like they have kids coming into the eighties. Now,
they've got kids of the road. Now, they've got their
rand kids now they've got their other kids. The nostalgia
the factor because you can show them this is what
it looked like back then. Yeah, this is how it
looked back because largely you're talking about the Short and
I'm from Jersey. We call it the shore. You go
down the shore, you know, yeah, the beach, you go

(23:54):
to the short Let's like outer banks in North Carolina.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yes, but like you're talking about all this stuff and
you're like, honestly, the sand doesn't change the boardwalk itself.
The only thing that changes on the boardwalk is the
fact that you're not talking about.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Actual wood anymore. Or it's literally like trecks, okay, some
kind of like fancy, like well put together material that
stands attest the time. Like it's not gonna splitter right,
walk their barefoot and you gonna be fine. Yeah, it's
not gonna burn your feet either, I got yeah. But no.
So it's like.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
On especially is known for a lot of these do
woppish signs, do woppish like you know that that kind
of like buying that they've kept going from the longest tie.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
The shore is.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
One of those weird places where it's like they specifically
try to keep things just the same, they'll teared out
those signs. They don't like rebuild half the thing this
they have time. People have tried to commit to do it,
but the most they've been able to do is like
I like on the edges, Okay, in the edges of town,
you put.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
This on anything in there. One of the places, like
if we mentioned the report, uh his wall, yeah, which
you know, Wilma wasn't around like they they just had
just started in like six six eight, one of the
like back in the like late sixties, so they weren't
around for the early bewop era about swimmer thing. But

(25:27):
when they came to town, they recognized this is the
vibe that people have got here. Yeah, adapt to that,
which is great for the company to recognize that, and
they kept it in place and they kept it fresh
and making sure that when they have to replace this
is you know, these things had yeah to replace. And
he also had the modern eye modernized. But also you're
talking like this is a short town. We've had our

(25:49):
share of hurricanes. Sandy is the most recent one. Pyrene
before that, you know, I mean we can go all
the way back to was it harred you worried? Okay,
that's when I was a kid. Yeah, I was like ten,
I remember that. Womans, Yeah, they like it. We've had
our share of like a lot of different things coming

(26:11):
up and down the pipe, so they've had the replace
things whatsoever. But the point has been they recognize this
is how people want be are out here. You want
to be here. You have to adapt to them, not yeah,
adapt to you. Most towns wa those in and wa
is walla. Yeah, they recognize that time I'm like ten

(26:32):
miles away, it's like Bucky exactly. Qute. Yeah, all those
yeah quick, Like there's a the sheets. We won't talk
about sheets because those dirty people look sheet people are. Okay,
they just haven't they have it evolved. They haven't gone
not at the point when they enjoy the wald war yet. Okay, gotcha.

(26:53):
Oh they everyone enjoyed the wild. We welcome all covers.
Resist it's this hortile yeah, but it's it's it's literally
just like it's a it's such a recognized thing that
when people when people go into wild with it takes

(27:14):
them minute because like that's a wall, that's that's a wall.
That's yeah, it's it. It takes as you're passing, like
driving past it and they're like traffick like and you
go inside and inside the store, it's exactly the same
as any of the wall. Yeah, but outside for the
gas pumps. From the signage outside you be hard pressed

(27:39):
to follow apart from the big w A w A
lighters up and they can't reminds me. In southern California
there's an old bowling alley. I can't remember what it is.
And Debora Jane, you probably will remind me of this
if you're listening. I know you're listening. But all the
I want to say, all these took it over, and

(27:59):
they adapted the sign to they adapted their sign to
the mid century sign and uh and the only other
like extreme excession of this. And I can't remember the
town's name, but where it's at. But in order to
have a business there, you have to look like you're
a Bavarian. Uh. All the sides are done in like

(28:21):
a Bavarian font Like even the McDonald's. It's not the
big lit up golden arches. It's like across between uh,
you know the old shops that you would see in
Bavaria in Ireland, kind of a mix like that. Yeah,
old wooden stuff and it's kind of interesting that wild

(28:43):
Wood and those places on the Jersey Shore would do that.
But then you have Denver. In my mind, you have
all the people from Denver. They kind of you know,
they're they're going towards the future. I get that they're
they're progressive, they're moving forward, but they don't have the
same type of nostalgia for their old signs. There's a

(29:04):
few Corky Todd if you're listening, Yeah, you guys do
a great job trying to upkeep and sit set save
those signs in Denver and Aurora. But in Aura there
in Denver there isn't the same sense of history, Like
Houston has the shortest memory of them all. Uh. Like

(29:27):
there was this there's an old law, alcop You'll have
to remind me of it. Where in the seventies there
was a council woman who basically said, if you have
an old if you have anon signed, it falls in disrepair,
you got to get rid of it. So finding those
old style signs like right here, mack hike, we're looking
at it. That's a newer sign that has to be nineties,

(29:47):
two thousands. Yeah, that doesn't look that old. No, it's
not super old. I mean, mack Hike's been around here
for a while. But then you have an exception to
that rule, which is Tommy Vaughan and the Heights, which
still has that old it's got to be a sixty
foot sign. It's got scaffolding up to a big, huge

(30:07):
Missitrus side. You know, there's still sub Pakinson Houston, but
Houston's got amnesia from the past. Oh. Then Wildwood has
built a reputation of nostalgia and has that allowed walk
in your opinion, has that allowed Wildwood to survive COVID

(30:31):
downturns in the economy and stuff like that because nostalgia
people are like, we want to get back there because
we know it. I think that's part of it. I
think the other part of it is that like they
have so part of the reason that, for example, Wildwood
survived so far and places like our name is no

(30:55):
time right to the North Atlantic City. Yeah, the reason
than that Atlantic City is more known for uh, it's
more on for casino as it is for like a
short being a literally it's why all the shore is
ten minutes away from from what I'm sorry that it's

(31:16):
like maybe about half hour drive or some north that's
it's not it's not like some great distance someone doesn't
that's the point. It's at its own airport that just closed,
and they like had some a while they also, but
it's like it's everyone knows it is a casine uptown
more than a short tom because that's what they through
their bread and butter in us, Like it's more of

(31:39):
a casine, it's more the biggest of the East. Yeah,
and not in a good way. It's yeah, it's not
family friendly. It's not really known for that. They threw
in with that very early on and that's what kept
been going. The song under the Boardwalk was it about
Atlantic City was and so is the game Monopoly. Yeah.

(32:00):
All the streets, every single Yeah, the street of the
original like poor of the town are are from them.
But but again it's like the bulk of what people know,
and you know, when you sit make your place in
the the pop culture memory. Yeah, as something like if

(32:21):
you if you strike your place as a casino of him,
that's all people are gonna remember. Like Vegas tried to
rebrain themselves and didn't hurt him. So no, Vegas will
always be Vegas. Vegas is always going to be just
the the home of casinos. No matter what happens, you
can close the casino fromorrow all and they'll still be noticed.

(32:42):
The casino playgrounds. I'd let me say, tried that to
a lesser extent, the kind of successful. But it's limping
on like that. And their problem is that locally they're
known ass. So there's known as asn't been. Depending on
where you look from you there either the Newark of
a candom in the south stairs Newark and Camden, Yeah,

(33:05):
were the worst hounds in the state. Yeah, Camden actually
had most of It's like the government and police force
taken over by the state and like late nighties. Every
single mayor of Camdenen going back thirty forty years in
this morning, has spent some time in jail, kind of
like Illinois governors. Yeah, it's like it's like a revolving

(33:26):
door rave to prison. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
I like they they they've made a lot of progress,
I will give them that. Beyond that, like it's Atlantic
City is not very well regarding them.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
That gotcha. So it's thee again. It depends on where
you hang your hat.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Everyone every other Jersey short town saw that and they
were like we don't want that at all. The other
major like very well known for bad reputation short time
would be Heights and everyone knows it because of the show.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Dracy for it. I was wondering if that was Jersey Shore. Yeah. Fact,
every time.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Every time we we my family does has done to
some Jersey short times because a lot of those short times.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Like to do draw us up the beach. Okay, put
up a big inflatable projection screen. That's cool.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah, And they put up at this and they just
play a copy of Jaws like someone rather be be
from length the library and they just played Jaws.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yea on the beach? Uh half the fiandmal trugless depending
on the town. They're just thought about. I think because
of the FBI the rules about copyright if you charge admission,
he didn't break the copyright rules or some funk. Yeah,
I can't say see this deal. Maart's gonna have so
much of a problem. He'll probably come down and join
them exactly. Yeah, by George Lucas, if you can get

(34:53):
them defending, Yeah, who defending you're talking about? When we'll
be talking about that's Yeah, it's gonna have it. But
but to be premently elis. They're like, yeah, no, just
come on down and like watch it. We've gone to
play the lake. Typically we go to Point Plus because
that's where we usually link to go the first place.
We've been going there a few years. Excuse me, when

(35:14):
it's available, we'll go, depending on how far it epps.
One of the towns that sasn't me is been Seaside Heights,
And it's the only problem with Seaside Heights is smoking
parking because everyone else's going there is typically someone who's
watched Jersey Shore trying to park. Like the place where

(35:35):
they hold the where they have the draws on the
beach is typically about a block away from the Jersey
short House And I make your quotes of my dance here,
but it's the Jersey Shorthouse where those guys filmed that
show for. I don't know. I don't even nominally sea.
I don't have to still them. Yeah, if I don't watch,
I can be perfectly happy to say I've never seen

(35:57):
an episode of Jersey Shore. I know one of like.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
One of my former bosses a couple of jobs back,
was obsessed with the show.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
He's like, oh my god, those people were all plastic Jersey.
I'm like, no, all like one of the I think
there's one thereotypical or thing. There's there's stereotypical New Yorkers
who vacation in New Jersey. Ah. Yeah, because vacationing in Jersey.
For when you live in New York. Everything in Jersey
is about half as much as a cost to do
anything in New York. Gotcha. Like New York has a

(36:31):
couple of free things here and there, but you actually
have to make your way there to get it. But
if you had, if you know someone with a car,
You're not going to Jones's Beach, You're going to the
Jersey Shore.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
Got clear, Mostly because the Jersey short And then I
don't think a lot of people realize this. There's places
in the Jersey Shore that can can absolutely reach by ferry.
There are like a lot of the Jersey Shore towns
live there and you can just hop on the ferry
and just over to New York within about half.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
High orfore have mens good heavens. Yeah, that's wild. Well,
that will bring you to the end. That's an interesting
stopping place to stop. We'll take the ferry on through
the break. When we come back, we'll talk about the
places that Spooky wants to go, maybe some other pop
cultural insights that he has. You're listening to International signe Finders.

(37:38):
Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad you're with us.
We have your buddy Spooky with us, Our buddy Spooky,
everybody's buddy Spooky's with us. You can follow him on
Instagram and Twitter. His handle is your Buddy Spooky all
one word and you can follow him on either platform.
We've been talking about pop culture and even even the

(38:00):
local flair pop culture maybe not getting outside of like Jersey,
like Wild Woods and your Cape Mays and your Point Pleasance,
where they have a local, a local industry of appealing
to either locals or people who want that type of

(38:21):
nostalgia in their life. It's kind of like, I want
to say, it's like Outerbanks in North Carolina, but that's
become You won't find hardy North Carolinian in parts of
the Outer Banks anymore, unfortunately, because everybody's coming from everywhere
else and uh, it's a vacation spot. Yeah, it's it's

(38:43):
like put it this thing and the movie draws so
the chi road his way asked to the local, She's
like well, how do I become an islander? And you
not one? Do you know the island? It's like that's
what they say in Ocracoke Island. That's it. Uh And
unfortunately the oak Cookers, the island people, there's only about
one hundred fifty speed the old broke, which is if

(39:05):
you ever hear the hoy TOOI to the sales hoyd
that that old English broke that they still speak in
okra cub Like. There's this one guy he'd lived I
saw an interview wolf from does. He's a liquist from
North Carolina State. So he's done a lot of documentaries
about okra Coke Island, about African American vernatular Appalachian English,

(39:31):
which is almost a different beast than other parts of
the state. Then you get little pockets on the on
the shore that have similar sayings as those in the
appalachis because they both have that Scott's Irish heritage in
a way. Where's it going with this? Oh? In that
I remember we were talking about how do I become

(39:52):
an islander? There was a guy who'd lived there. You
know they're talking to some people, this older guy who
you know and a raised or pocok Island and this
guy who married a island a girl from down East.
They call him down Easters as well, and he's like,
I've lived here for thirty years. He's like, but you
weren't born here, that's it. Yeah, that matter. Yeah, so

(40:15):
if you're I'm born there or not that yeah exactly. Now.
One of the things I asked at the end of
the show are what are your buckal list places, especially
for like sign finding, even at urban exploration. We've had
some guys who does urban exploration, Godless Titan and uh
At bitcher Dan. If I didn't remember their names, they

(40:35):
would come and get me. Yeah they would, because the
bitcher Dan has climbed skyscrapers in Dallas and got past
security and gotten a put out. That takes a lot
of That takes a lot of he is. I mean,
his IQ's got to be one hundred points higher than mine.
I think I think I finally reached fifteen from IQ.

(41:01):
Listen Maynas has something on me, so yeah, you go, yeah,
I'm barely room temperature, but you just put a toe
tag on me and I'll be I'll be uh, I'll
be in the morgue. But what are the places you
would like to go either for pop culture vacation, because

(41:22):
this is kind of a different interview than what I
normally do. Where's the place that you'd like to go
and why would you like to go there? It could
be for historical reasons, it could be antiquing, where'd you
like to go?

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Honestly, one of the things I've been like really looking
forward to is being able to like take a weekend
at some point and just go through.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Firstle Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
So I say this because my wife and I when
we moved up here, like toward the we moved up
during COVID, and we started looking around the places and
things to do with the kids and whatnot. One of
the things that had started coming back around that time
was driving peers.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yes, there's a beer out in Leehingen, pennsylvani Okay, that's
about an hour and a half from where we are.
Not too bad, that's not too it's a pretty best
class and they have like they have a lot of
little it's it's called the Mahoning Driver. Okay. It's actually
been around there for good I want to say.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
Fifty sixty years. There's an old there's a there's a
bold documentary on it. At the drive Okay, and it's
run by the same thing. Like they've been running this
place for the longest time. They've recently, in the past
ten to fifteen years started doing specialty events, okay, like
they have themes they have For example, they have they

(42:50):
just had what's their Camp Blood weekend, which is based
around the part of the fifteenth.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Okay, gosh, you'll have like for example, that's why didn't
know it because I've never watched for these thirteens. Well so,
and the reasoning appeals to us is because Riday the
thirteenth was something that was filmed about twenty of this
from where we live, okay, gotcha, Like the kid the
camp Crystal Lake actually is called pamp Nubidos Okay. It's

(43:19):
a camp about twenty minutes south of where we are.
And we got into that we you know, we started
going to these are bad things that they've been holding.
We just went to their tenth adversary of Camp Blood
where they would do like the first day is the
first Friday of the thirteenth, and then every night after
that that they two or three movies. How many Fridays

(43:41):
thirteens have there been about thirteen I believe. Oddly enough,
the only way that is the only one I can't
remember is Freddy versus Jason. Yeah, that's one of most
people go to. Uh, like, I saw it a sci
fi channel. Yeah, and all I remember from it, unfortunately,
is at the end where Jason's holding Freddy's head and

(44:02):
Freddy look turns around of winks at the camera. Yeah,
that's all I remember. I mean, that's that's that's just
what you expect from this kind of money. Yeah. Like,
but but then they have other things like for example,
Vincent Price Night, Oh yeah, where they have like they'll
do they'll do some nights where it's like once a year,
twice a year.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Sometimes they'll do like they've got the uh some of
these movies, like they've got the tailor, the you know,
a bottle, the Lota vibes, really grand and weird picks
out of his career that you just like that.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
That doesn't seem like it does. Go Okay, sure, let's
go with that. It's time.

Speaker 2 (44:41):
They they wait till till dust. They make sure you've
got plenty of space in there. They sell tickets sometimes
for weekends, we bring in an r B and pluted
you know, pop it on the back and then you
you've got They have like a you know, concessions standard
they run it for with like themed some theme food
and things like that. All throughout. They do like a

(45:04):
lot of invitational things where they have people like autograph signings.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Okay, you know they have. They did recently did a
flea market. Uh, they did a they held a anniversary
edition of The Crow the movie with os Yeah brain
newly the original. The remake wasn't that good. I don't
really go to movies in this fot. Yeah I don't either.

(45:31):
I dove the old ones. I have tried it. Yeah,
that's it.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
But so one point in this is like, first off,
the holding has had that that one big fluorescent sign.
It's like a movie sign with being red arrow. Looks fantastic.
They've had that in place since they opened in late,
like I said, fifty some years ago. But driving around

(45:54):
out there and that's like does not wait Amish country, but.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
It is amish Ish. It's the periphery exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
So we got in our heads were like, okay, well
you know, we want to go through actual Amish to
see what that's like, to see like, yes, we can
go taking and things like that that be fun. But
to see, like in my mind, I want to see
the architecture. I want to see these old places. I
want to see you know a lot of these places.
Maybe they've been restored, maybe they're the same place, in

(46:23):
the same kind of place.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
The carbage tree exactly. Oh cause yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
It's like coming from so i'mil as had a mention
and like you know, there's were probably before I told you,
I'm ailing kids and my my, my, my grandmother had this.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
She loved down. She was able to purchase this great,
big mansion in Newark, Okay, because she had sixteen kids.
My mom is a little sick, that's why. Yeah, But
that's the point is like this mansion was put together
by Lewis Tiphany, one of the guys behind timping left Okay,
exactually it was so socially wedding president for his what

(47:04):
for his bride? She less an adulter sold it off
that sort of thing. We don't like her, no, no,
years ago, she still don't like her. She made the
wrong choice, but we appreciate why she made the wrong choice,
and we appreciate that she made there because well then
we would have we wouldn't have that bass Okay, okay, gotcha, yeah,
pull great, uh well, put together like architecture and little

(47:30):
neat touches here and there, and that they tried to
preserve as much. Oh that's awesome. They had to sell
off the house a while back, but you know what
it You know that there's still plenty of our houses
like that, and they got us all inspired to look
for house that was as crazy as the Winchester house.
Oh no, yeah, I heard that. They just kept built
added on and added on and added on. And it's

(47:52):
also kind of haunted too.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
I heard that, and like and and uh so actually
speaking of that, I have told this on Twitter before,
but uh at my my grandmother's house, I ran into
a ghost myself.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Oh cool. Not it wasnt cool at the time, but
it's it's since provided to so basically, like.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
As a big family, we had like a ton of
different parties and such all the time. And this was
two thousand, like New Year's Eve might have been like
ninety nine. It was it was like two thousand and
two thousand and one, okay, because it was like it
was like the low pressure on pass them. Yeah, because
why chick was just not not as it was very letdown.

(48:35):
It was just, to be honest, it was a stressful
lead up and then a letdown. Yeah, but two thousand and.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
You know, we my family is in the same neighborhood,
like my aunt is rather corner and my other aunts
around apart from her, and that's when my mom had
a house and down the block from my grandmother. So
we excited that we'd be able to like just to
win go in the back door to see out think
you go. My mom said me over that night to

(49:03):
you know, get something. And this is like, it wasn't
New Year's that. It was like the week between the
Oh jeousness. So there's it's it's cold outside, but it's
not that cole. You get over there and the lights
are on, because the lights are all on with that, okay,
it's it's like, you know, it's one of those historical
places exactly they just did did people are in there

(49:24):
most of the time anyway, it's fine, it's not too
late night, don't affect people to be yet. So I
get in there and I'm like, like, I knock on,
they go in and you know, I checked the kitchen.
Nobody's there, and I hear somebody walking around, and I'm like, okay,
that's side of something. I start calling out.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
I look around the first floor, nobody's around, and I
keep hearing somebody walking around upstairs. I'm like, okay, so
well they can't hear me. This houses me the wood
thicker than my leg.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's like there's it's built to withstand centuries, yes, exactly.
So it's like there's there's no way someone's gonna hear
me yelling in the hallway. So I'm like, I'm looking around.
I know someone that's not upstairs, so I know if
someone's upstairs, but I'm not, like, there's no one in
the first floor. So I go upstairs to look and
see who's in, and I keep hearing somebody walking upstairs,
like up further up the stairs, and it's not just

(50:10):
like you know, it's like it's like, yeah, like heavy steps.
So I'm like, all right, Well, I go to the
second boar. I start looking around, and I'm like, I
can hear somebody upstairs further upstairs.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Louder, and so I'm like all right. So I get
to the bottom of the stairs on the third to
the third floor, and the third floor stairs, there's like
a stop. There's a landing halfway and like during the
middle of the middle of the twentieth century, they've turned
it into a like a flyhouse.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Okay, so there's a lot of the rooms up from
the third floor up are closed off. Okay, it's closed
off as like the thirderreal apartments or things like that. Gotcha.
So the landing has a door right in the mill usually,
so you can't see up past that point. It's very dark.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
You get up there, you open the door, there's a
light on the other end. Usually there's so late at
that and I'm like, I hear somebody. But then again,
one of the apartments has one of my aunts in there,
so she probably is sitting there watching movies or something.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yet, so I get to the door and I don't
hear anything. So I turned the handle and I opened
the door. Crack on the here like he And as
I'm hearing this, I'm like, well, going on, I like,
because I hear somebody running towards me. No, And I

(51:31):
slam the door and run outside and I run home.
I'm like, I am not going back to this house
right now. That's not all. And I like, I call
my aunt, like one of my other aunts, and she's like, yeah,
we're O. We're at this other ant. Nobody there tonight.
I'm like, are you sure it is I hurt somebody?
She's like, oh you so the ghost didn't there, Like,
I don't see you, but I've heard it. I'm not

(51:53):
going back. It didn't happen. Oh man, oh my god.
See yeah, that's enough to to make you change like
area codes. Basically. Yeah. I was just like, yeah, it's
like the closest thing I've had to that. Well, two
instances when I lived in a Hoskey, North Carolina. There's
one night I was at home by myself, like my

(52:13):
family is up in Virginia, and I may have had
a car that I could drive around if I needed to,
but I'm I'm sitting there, I'm watching TV, and all
of a sudden, all the lights go off and I
hear the breaker I think, yeah, I heard the breaker
box go cook. I'm like, uh so, like any good

(52:39):
crazy person, I go towards the towards the sound as
opposed to go away from it. And uh And for
some reason, I started saying the Lord's Prayer. I have
no crew. It's not something I say very often. And
then as soon as I open up the door to
our garage where the breaker was tripped, the lights come

(53:01):
back on, and I was like, what, what the heck.
There's one night I stayed up late to watch Coda O'Brien,
and we had a VCR on the ground. It was
not hooked up to the TV, it was not hooked
up to the wall. It was in dependent. Nothing electrical

(53:22):
was coming in going out. So I'm watching Coder O'Brien.
I say, no, I seen the VCR come on and
start rewinding a tape. I'm like, it's time to go
to bed. I'm done. We're tying. You're not everybody, because
I'm wondering were we were. We built on the Indian

(53:44):
burial groundlies. I knew that. I hate to make jokes
about that, and if you're Native American, I apologize, but
that's the only thing I could think of. I mean
that it makes it. That's an old that's an old
sawt for a reason. Yeah, the reason that that's in place.
You don't disrefract the dead, no matter what they are.
But that is nothing compared to hearing footsteps running towards

(54:07):
was Lizzie Board visiting. No, no, no, no, I mean no,
was she bringing over like you know you she borrowed
some eggs, she's bringing them back or something like that.
Just a hacker father fifty two times or so. I'm like,
I'm going to ned that. But no, to put some
more color to it, the house, when it was like
a flophouse, had had a very seedy reputation. When we

(54:29):
say flophouse, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, there was actually like
they're known to have been murdered a few times, but
quite a few murders, like hadn't taken place around the
place they want to shore if it was in the house.
So I'm not my aunt, one of my aunts.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
My youngest aunt actually she like we went to school
the other and she would tell you now the time
about this. So and like there's a there's a pair
of kids who like she's seen their ghosts in the
house from time the time.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
I'm like, aren't you let you live there? She's like, uh,
it was okay, then we hell to draw the woman
so yeah but yeah, oh no, oh what ell so
we love to get on a positive note. So no

(55:17):
one that'll chill you, that's right, that's right, asking that Halloween.
There you grow that. We may do that for a Halloween.
We may rear Uh, there's a uh, there's soul. And
I've talked to Marine the Neon Queen and she's out
of Kansas City and she grew she lives in a
haunted house or she grew up in a haunted house.
So wow, and she's into the paranormal stuff like that.

(55:40):
And me, I like to listening to Coast to Coast
with Genry. That's as close, especially when they start talking
about skin Walker. No, no, thank you, I'm not and
they started talking to the Navajo police next. Yeah, you
know what. I've voted bat early tonight. But no, we
like to think your buddy Spooky will have links on

(56:03):
how you can get in contact with him, how you
can link up with him on Instagram and Twitter x
it's Twitter. Screw that whole ex bull crab. It's Twitter.
That's what it's always been. But thanks so much Spooky
for being a part of the show. It is hot
and humid up here. I think it's time to get home.
He's updating stuff. I still have a mile walk to go.

(56:26):
But yeah, so if you have any cool size that
you've taken pictures of even once we've seen let us know.
Shoot me a message on Instagram. Either Houston Underscore Signed
Underscore Hunting. I know it's confusing, just go with it.
I should have gotten rid of the Underscores a long
time ago. Or you can find me international sign finders

(56:47):
either one B. Bailey he sent me one. He went
to Happy Texas. At one point, Happy Texas had the
number one six man football team in America. They lost
in state chamampionship, but they're also called the Happy Cowboys.
You know what, if you're going to have a name,
have the Happy Cowboys. It's better than the beaver Beavers

(57:08):
out of Utah. That's just that's a little too redundant.
Hit the beaver, get the bear. But anyway, glad you're
with us, Glad you're listening, and you have any suggestions
on people who should talk to, even yourself, let me know.
I'm all for it. So until next time, Happy sign
Finding hit the pavement, be safe, keep your head on
a swivel. I'm going to have to as I walk back,

(57:31):
But I have a great evening and until next time,
see you later.
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