Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International sign Finders. I'm
your host J Rabernathy. Glad you're with us again. And
hopefully he got out hit the pavement, got some great
pictures of Neon, old hand painted signs, what have you heck,
even classic cars you know b Bailey Rett Bailey up
in Amarillo area. He not only does signs, he does
(00:45):
old movie theaters from all those little dy BT talents
up in the Panhandle. And then he does some really
cool like rusted out you know, Patina whatever. Uh it's
bus uh those cars and you know he's shares them
with everybody, So feel free to share those things with us,
all the venn diagrams of everybody within the sign hunting community.
(01:08):
We like to see each other's stuff. And also I
need to say happy birthday to my oldest daughter. She
turned ten today as of the day that we're recording this.
He's my big, redheaded girl and she's taller than all
my aunts. So yeah, a happy birthday to her. And
today we're gonna head to the Tampa Bay area to
(01:32):
Saint Petersburg and we're going to interview the one and
only Todd Bates. I don't get your last name, right,
you did, y'all good, Todd Bates. I have a hard
time with names sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Todd Vin pitched Vintage Neon project. I'm so glad to
talk with him, because if if you have experience this year,
like everybody else has, it's been one for the record
books in so many different ways, and especially Florida being
hit by Helene and Milton. You know, Helene going up
(02:07):
into the western praier of North Carolina, and I my
heart goes out to them because, you know, being a
North Carolina boy, you know, even though I'm from eastern
North Carolina, that's those are still my brothers and sisters
are in the western present state and still Florida too.
My gosh, all the craziness is just going on. But
you know, Todd takes some awesome pictures wherever he goes.
(02:30):
He's got some stuff from wild Wood, from the San
Francisco area and of course Florida. So welcome to the show,
Todd Bates.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Thank you. It's great here.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, glad to have you. And holy cow, you know,
we'll get into the whole craziness of Florida. Just what
you've gone through over the past three months. Hasn't been
three months for the both of the hurricanes or four months.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's just it seems like forever. It's really only a
couple months, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
You know, the last two months have been the longest
decade in our lives.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So you know, we'll get in all that here in
a bit. But first, let's introduce yourself to the sign
finding community if they don't already know you.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Sure, Yeah, like you said, my name is Todd Bates.
I go buy vincitin Neon Project. And I have been
into signs and roadside attractions and the like pretty much
my whole life. But you know, just really got into
(03:39):
it here in the past, you know, twenty years or so.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Okay, Now, were you one of those kids that wanted
to stop at every like welcome center on a road
trip to get to go in and just see if
they have any maps or anything crazy like that?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh yeah, well, you know, I have these these really
fond memories of being a kid growing up in Florida
and traveling on the Turnpike. You had these service centers
every so often, and and they had those machines.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I can't remember what they're called, but.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They would mold a model out of wax, and I
always wanted those, And you know, I just have so
many fond memories of road trips with the family and
just you know, watching these attractions and the signs go by,
and that's just always stuck with me.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Seck, my mouth just fell down. See this is live
when we're recording it, so that I turned you off.
But you know, those wax figurines. The only place I
remember seeing those as a kid, unfortunately, was the Oklahoma
City Zoo and one was a gorilla one. I think
it was an elephant that you could get, and I
(04:54):
remember I may have best with one just a little
too soon and it kind of kind of warped on me. So, yeah,
you don't want to touch those when they're hot.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
No, I think those were called I think they were
mold Omatic, so.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I'm remembering correctly, but I very likely could be. Rock
watched me look this up and uh mold Omadic.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Uh well there's a Moldomatic fabrication company. Well, well we
can look.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That up later.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Uh yeah, that's that's the ADHD kicking in already. I've
already taken both my pills for head of all. But
uh now, when you talk about signs going wherever you're going.
You know, you live in Florida. And as we were
talking before the interview started, you have seen the disnification.
(05:53):
Is that the correct term? We're making a new term.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
The disnification instead of Californication, like the red hot chili
peper sing about the disonification of Florida. And we could
get into this even more in depth after the break.
But how is that kind of influenced you now?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh jeez, well, you know, well, I know that it
really goes back to you. Well, let me start from
the beginning. I grew up in Fort Lauderdale and my father,
he was the he ran. He was the head of
the photography department of the newspaper there, and you know,
(06:40):
he got a lot of perks just from working in
a newspaper.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And one of those perks was.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That we got to go to Disney for the grand opening.
And that was in nineteen seventy one. Oh wow, And
I have this great photograph of my mom in hot
pants and go Go boots and me and my brother
(07:08):
both heads. I'm in the stroller and we're on Main
Street in Disney with Cinderella's Castle in the background. But
the thing that you'll notice in this photo is that
there's no one around. There's like one other person you
can see off to the side because we got to
go to Press Day, which was the day before Disney opened.
(07:33):
They opened the park only to the press, and you know,
so that was pretty cool. You know, my dad at
the at the dinner the night before, he sat next
to Walter Cronkite.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And it was just this big to do.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was just, you know, a toddler at the time,
so I don't really remember any of it, but you know,
it's that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's in my blood.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, I've just grown up witnessing all of these
pre Disney mom and pop roadside attractions. I just watched
them slowly start to die off and close, and you know,
the ruins of a lot of these places stuck around
for quite some time. And I even back in the
(08:21):
year two thousand and I like the song from What
Was It.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Going and O'Brien Gone and O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So I decided just to drive around the state and
just document what was left.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And I just I Chris, okay e separate there, because
that's a great segue into our next segment. And I
know this is kind of awkward for me to stop
you right there.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
We will. When we come back, We're going to talk
to Pod Bay Vintage Neon Project about how he has seen,
you know, basically the introduction of Disney into Florida.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That sounds so weird.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It's like you're introducing an animal into a new environment.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
And they become feral.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And when we come back, we're you talk about Todd's
criss crossing at Florida to document the change. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(09:49):
I'm your host, Rabernati and you just got to hear
me sing an awful false set of the previous segment.
But that brings us to our next segment. We talked
going to Todd Bates Ben tog Noon Project, and you know,
growing up in Florida, you know, he has seen Florida
from the inception of Disney World to Florida and the
(10:17):
the mega the mega and whatever you want to call it.
You know, mega influence has had across the state and
that helped him go and do other really cool things.
And I'll let Todd take it over and we'll ask
questions as we go along. But before we got into
(10:38):
the break, we talked about, you know, the beginnings of
Disney and Disney taking over and the Mama Pops are
going away, and that led you to hit the road.
So what did you find? Of course you're gonna find signs,
this is a sign podcast, duh. But what did you
find in your.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Journeys across the state?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It was saying, you know, I I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I didn't really have a concerted effort in documenting these
things up until that trip, okay, and it was basically
working towards a show that I was going to do,
and you know, it was it was really interesting because
I got to drive on a lot of the you know,
the old tourist routes, and you know, I think it
(11:25):
dressed people nuts when they're driving with me, because I
always had an eye on, you know, what's going by,
just always looking for you know, a sign or just
some interesting just old relic on the side of the road.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And you know, I.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Found just tons of stuff back then. And you know,
I think the one that really stood out for me
was Marine Land, which was, Yeah, Marine Land is where
they filmed creature from the Black Lagoon. And it was
just this old, you know, marine park that had been
(12:05):
around since I don't know, the twenties or thirties, and
it was just kind of in ruins almost. I think
that they had they had suffered some hurricane damage sometime,
you know, when the within a year or two of
when I visited, and it just it was just a
ghost town. And I was just wandering around there and
(12:28):
and there was no one there and just great signage
and you know, just the architecture. It was just it
was just like a kid in a candy land for me.
You know, A different from urban ex I know, urban exploration.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know, I've talked to people do urbex you know,
kind of going into buildings, abandoned buildings. Sometimes one of
them would go up to the top of skyscrapers that
you'd figure out how to do that. This is kind
of a like a rule urban that's an oxymor but
a real exploration. I've abandoned places.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Oh, there's there's so many great places here in Florida,
you know, And I'll have to I'll have to post
some of those images on my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, they haven't seen the light of day.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
In a while.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Another one of the great things from Marine Land on
that trip was they had a Movie Dix cocktail bar,
like right there overlooking the ocean and it was closed,
but on the inside it had a full like old
chip nautical theme.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And oh, it's just so amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, yeah, sort from because the twelve year old and
me came out.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I'm so sorry, but that was that was a great trip,
you know, And and it really just that that was
the that got it all going for me. You know,
I had I had photographed stuff here and there just because.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I thought it looked cool or whatever. You know. I
was in I was in photography.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
School in the mid nineties in Daytona Beach, so you know,
I documented a lot of stuff in that area, just
out wandering around, you.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Know, the photo student looking for stuff to shoot.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And I mean Daytona Beach at spring break. I mean
that is ultimate people watching, uh like headquarters capital of
the United States.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, and I hated it there, I really did.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I would leave every weekend and come back to Tampa
just because I wanted to be with my friends and
party and I did not want to be in Daytona.
But the data Daytona Beach is really great when it
comes to you know, just all that old, you know,
great signage. I think one of my favorites there is
(15:03):
the Hawaii Motel.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
On your Yeah, that's a great sign Yeah, my Ada,
she's coming out. I'm interrupting you. I'm sorry, but that.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Hawaiian Now.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Is is Daytona Beach comparable to Wildwood with its old signage?
Not these days?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
No? Okay, no there, you know there there are so
few places that have embraced the old signage like Wildwood has. Yeah,
you know, I think well, you know, most communities in
the you know, late seventies early eighties they tried to
(15:46):
get rid of as much neon as they could because
they thought they thought it was gaudy and and you know,
dated and brought in the way. Yeah wow yeah, So
what we needed was more backlit plastic. Oh yeah, yeah,
beggs my skin crawl.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Wah wah wah.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Now, so it's kind of like the backlit plastic that
looks kind of cool. Are those old corrugated signs with
the really cool mid century lettering on top of it.
There's one here in Houston over Rice Village, and it's
an old Trophy old trophy manufacturing place, and it's got
(16:28):
that cool corrugated sign and this is this is an
exception rather than the rule. It does approve the rule.
It's just an exception to the rule. And like talking
to F nine two five, it seems like there's a
lot of that up in New Jersey, not so much
no neon signs, but that you know, they made art
(16:48):
out of something that could be so mundane.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, and that's where yeah, and you know that that
brings me to you.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know, I love that regionality you get out of
places like Wildwood too, you know, where the signs.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
There they don't feel like anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And you see that in other in other cities that
you go to as well. It's it's always just so
interesting to me, you know, just that And obviously that
comes out of just who the different sign companies were
in each city, and you know who was working there.
But you know, and and I spent eight years in Seattle,
(17:31):
and you know, so I I was in the shadow
of you know, the great b Amerfield's work there and
you know, at one point lived two blocks from the
the Pink Allison car wash.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The big one.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, and that's that's really the sign that I attribute
to me starting my vintage Neon project, because that's that's
when I the bug really bit me, and you know,
I got a little crazy about I've got to start
shooting all the signs and I've just never stopped.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
You know, as if not too five says, is the
oh Dad, not again principle?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know, my good head.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I have dragged her.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
On so many sign hunting trips and uh, you know,
one of them being Wildwood. The first time I went
to Wildwood, we were just driving through. I was like,
I had an hour to shoot as many signs as
I could, and that's that's that's impossible. You know, there's
just so many and like, okay, I'm going back, and
(18:44):
did go back this past year prior to the season beginning,
which was perfect because there was no one there and
we had it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
All to ourselves and it was just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
We'll talk about that we come to the end of
a Sex two when we come back. Let's get into
Wildwood and remember it's do Wop design, not Googie. Got
to get that right if you're in wild Wood. I
listened to a podcast about Googie design, you know, like
the Googy coffee shops and and car washes and stuff
(19:20):
like that. And they brought in Wildwood and they there
was an article where it's like it is do Wop
not Google. Okay, we'll go with that. Just polish that turn, baby.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I mean, if they.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Weren't calling that, go right ahead. So uh here, I'm
bringing class to this joint. You're listening to International sign Finders.
(19:58):
Welcome back to International Signfinders. Glad you're still with us
after that last segment of me just going off the rails.
We have the amazing vintage Neon project. Todd bates with us,
and you know he talked about going to Marine World
is that correct there in Florida? And my inner twelve
(20:19):
year old came out during his explanation of one of
the cool bars there and go and look up the
Hawaii Hotel there in Daytona Beach.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It has that.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Really cool l like inverted trapezoid, you know, mid century
shape to it. I don't know that that's a terrible description.
It's the only way I can describe it. And now
we're talking about the post hour trip to Wildwood, New Jersey,
because you know, I was talking to one of my buddies,
(20:52):
your buddy spooky. That's what he goes by on Instagram.
Here man, it has to be about a month and
a half ago. He was visiting Houston. I went up
to his job site and I got to talk with him,
and he talked about how in Wildwood and a lot
of those Jersey Shore We're not talking about this city
(21:14):
where Jersey Shore was shot. We're talking about like the
whole Jersey Shore. There's a lot of places that kind
of keep up that old vintage feel and people come
back for that. They just love it. They love the nostalgia,
and it makes it feel like they're a kid or
a teenager or when they were first in love, and
just makes them come back and like even wah wah,
(21:35):
you know, the wah wah sheets wars.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
We won't get into that.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You know, there's a Dayton on the of the podcast
for both of the unless we're talking about cheesecakes then
or cheese steaks. I think Richard Gutman said the oh
what town is he from is north of Philly. They
do better cheese steaks than Philly does. I was like,
that is You're getting me in trouble right there, buddy.
(22:02):
But Wildwood. I know, I've taken up like nine minutes
of your segment just me introducing this. Let's get into
the Wildwood. You know, they're called the Homo Duo. And
you know, if you want something outside of Googi that's
still kind of within the Googie family because it's only
no place there in La and maybe some places of Vegas,
(22:26):
depending on what expert you want to talk to Wildwood.
What is it for you about Wildwood? There's some I
mean you got the Caribbea, the bell Air, all those
really cruel signs and so much more. I'm not even
scratching the surface. Get into Wildwood for us?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, I you know, like I said, I had driven
through for an hour, knew I had to go back.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And the opportunity came up.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
We had planned it a trip to New York City,
and my girlfriend and I both decided we didn't really
want to do the city experience. So I was like, hey,
what about if we were to go.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
To wild once?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And she was game, and we booked at the Caribbean.
We we were the only people staying there at the
time because it was the weekend before the season started,
so there was no one there and yeah, so you know,
(23:30):
we just had the run of the place, and you know,
it's just it's just so magical there, the whole the
fake palm tree thing that's just everywhere, Like it seems
like every motel there has their own fake palm trees.
Who whoever is providing the fake palm trees.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It must be a.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Really good business to be in in wild Wood. But
I mean, it's just it was just so much fun.
And you know, I love that the Kitch has survived
in a place like that and that it's alive and well,
and it was just just such a great experience. And
(24:09):
you know, I still didn't shoot everything that I wanted to,
but I found myself going back to some of my
old favorites, you know, like the uh, the the Lollipop
motel is the one just signed ever the clown till Yeah,
that the pink Champagne Motel. I saw there's a place
(24:34):
called Kelly's that that sign is gone now it's been
repurposed into something. What was some of the other favorites, Oh,
surf Haven, Shelly Roger, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Its just it really, you know, growing up in Fort Lauderdale,
it really reminded me of those days because you know,
back in the seventies, you know, as a kid, there
was still that that feel to it before Fort Lauderdale
kind of you know, kicked out the spring Breakers and
cleaned things up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Oh yeah, Miami was really staunch about we don't want
you hear the Drew spring Breaker, go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Myrtle Beach. They you want to avoid Myrtle Beach, Gurry
spring Break and also Bite Week. There's a lot of
crazy oness that goes through goes down up there now.
I you know, just going through your uh, your photos,
the one that strikes me is the one that has
no neon lit the surf Comber Motel.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
It looks dead. It looks deader than a doornail.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
But you know talking about that, you know that rule,
you know, abandoned place, liminal space type of stuff. The
Surfcomber kind of has that where everything else is lit
up and it's like it's not here, and you know,
some one as crazy as me it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Is like I gotta go there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, it was just you know, everything felt dead there
the week we were we were around and I would
have loved to just you know, I didn't want to
be there with the crowds, but I would have liked
to experience what does it look like after they flip
that switch and seasons open and everything's lit up.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But you know, one of the things for me is
I I don't really shoot signs at night. I love
shooting neon during the day because my background is in,
you know, besides being a photographer, is in graphic design,
and I just really appreciate the design of these signs,
(26:55):
the artistry that went into them, and you know, on
top off of that, the aging and the patina. I
just love seeing that that, you know, the whole package together.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
It just it just makes my heart go pitter.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Pat every time I.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I find a new one on the side of the road.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's kind of like what retro roadside Photography says. She says,
every time I see a sign, I see art, I am.
And you know, she talked about, you know, traveling across
country new college graduate there in the mid two thousands
or double lots where you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
And she stops at the soup.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Hi, uh, they're in Arizona, and she's like, I found
my I found my uh my calling in a way,
this is what I want to shoot. I want to
shoot Neon and he was a grafted designer, you know,
it seems I don't know if you've seen like F
nine two five stuff where he like zone stuff, which
(27:52):
is awesome. I just saw one of your reimagined signs
where it's a it's a sign in water. Yeah, I
gotta figure out how you do like that, you know,
the dirt on the sign type stuff, because I love
doing stuff like that too, just making deposits and taking
(28:13):
different signs and adding them to scenes to kind of
add dramatic you know, dramaticism, a dramatic effect.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That's better. Yeah. That that was a fun little series
to do. Although you know, I it's funny.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I don't like doing composites anymore because I feel like
in the age of AI, it's kind of taken the
fun out of it. It's it's just it's opened it
up to any anyone with a computer, and you know,
I I just don't it's the love isn't there for
(28:51):
me anymore for stuff like that. But those were, Yeah,
those were fun to do at the time. My favorite
from that, I don't know if you saw it, it's
the letters the b in the surf and yeah, those
are the letters from the bonn Air Motel here on
(29:11):
Saint Pete Beach. And you know, to do that, I actually,
you know, I put in the work. I actually like
cut the letter the letters out out of out of
wood and propped them up in the water. And I
have a drone shot that I took of while I
was shooting that. But you know, I appreciate when someone
(29:35):
puts the effort into something, and I feel like AI
has just kind of sucked that away and made things
a little too easy.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Uh, Like I was taking photoshop my Photoshop two class,
uh in college because I'm going back to school and
I'm about to finish up my multi multi media the certificate,
which means I'm a jack of all trades, a master
of none in a way like video effects, video editing,
(30:10):
you know, graphic design, photoshopping and stuff like that. And
my teacher, Professor Irving, She's amazing. She drills you, she
pushes you, you know, doing like a photo restoration by
Hey to say it, but bye bye hand not by Ai.
(30:33):
You learn that there has to be almost a love
for doing that because it was not easy. I had
probably about ten to fifteen thousand tiny little black dots
that somehow got on the digital photo and I had
to go in. It probably wasn't ten thousand, but it
(30:53):
felt like it had to go in and take care
of all those before I could start touching up the
photo anyway. Maddening, absolutely, mad Na, Oh go ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Anyone who has scanned old slides has plenty of experience
with that.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
And I worked at a what is a photo processing plant,
like a school photo processing plant, and they created a
special machine, which they call the Frank Grabber, where it
would uh take you know, like a roll of film.
This is before we had digital cameras as accessible as
they are now two thousand and two, two thousand and three,
(31:37):
and it would go through and take you know, photo,
you know, take the negatives and digitize them and uh,
you know, that was the beginnings of the digital revolution.
Now you don't have to do that. You just bring
in your memory card, plug it in and go. Yeah.
So you because it looks like those letters are like
(31:59):
ten fifteen feet tall. So those are small, little like wooden.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Characters. Oh no, those were those were I think the
bee was.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Probably about six feet tall. But yeah, I tried to
do them two size.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, that was a fun one to do. People were
looking at me like I was crazy when I was
out there shooting that. Well you were, yeah, yeah, if
you just accepted embrace it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
That's what I uh, I do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I accept the crazy.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
But but that's something that someone from like I hate
to say this, but that's like a hobby lobby thing,
you know. I could see, uh, you know, like a
housewife three four kids love to be crafty and stuff
like that. She'd see them like, I want that my wall.
(33:01):
That's how I mean. I'm not trying to corporatize it
or hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm belittling it. It's
just it's just that stunning. I love it. Speak proud
of that. Yeah, you're welcome. And that will bring us
to the end of segment three. This show goes by
so fast when you're doing it. When we come back,
we're going to talk about get a little more serious.
(33:24):
As Todd I think as alluded to her said, you know,
he was supposed to go to Arizona when Milton hit
you know, Milton, Helene, how does some of the signs
hold up? And one of the signs that you've shown
on your feed has to be made of just like adamantium.
How well it withstood those hurricanes.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I'm boggled by how amazing it's set up. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(34:15):
Segment four. We've changed this from a four segment show
to a five segment show. Why I ask, iHeart about that?
Why we do that now? And you can find us
on you know, major podcasting platforms including iHeart Apple and
a few others. A speaker that's another place that you
can find us on as well. If you want to
listen to us or share us with your friends, your neighbors,
(34:37):
whatever to that share it.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Let everybody know.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Uh, come for the guests, not the host that's crazy
as a bat as a loon. So I'm Drew Abernathy
and we have Vintage Neon Project and he's from Florida, Sat.
Pete area or Saint Petersburg. He's at the the like
(35:00):
the correct term, Yeah, yeah, I Sat Pete, Saint Peter,
all the above. We'll just call it that sp if
you're really you know, from Idaho and instead of calling
Idaho falls as if uh so, uh hurricanes Milton Kalade,
we don't have to you know, retell the stories.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You know the damage.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You know, Helene hit Florida, did a lot of damage
of Florida went up to western North Carolina, which is
not prepared for that amount of rain in those hill
in the mountains, they're mountains, spokes. If you're from the
west and you call the Appalachians Hills and you're in
North Carolina or Tennessee, be prepared. I'm just going to
(35:45):
tell you that you do not want to get a
hill bill or even a swamp billy in my case.
But you've shown some of the aftermath that yeah, that's
the correct term of how some of these signs have
held up during the hurricane. And the one that just
(36:09):
whoever made it needs a ward posthumously whatever for how
well it was stood.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I know it had some damage.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
But the Sandman motel, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Gonna be singel status. That's sort of a gun.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
It's made of adamantium, and Wolverine is proud of this thing.
You know. Uh, it's about some of those signs, like
you know, the Sandman that's sort of a gun is tough.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, it's looking a little worse for wear, for sure,
but yeah, yeah, I mean it still it held up
pretty well. I'm always really surprised how well the actual
neon tubing survives in these storms because the Sandman, you know,
I'm looking at the picture of it now that I
(36:59):
took here a few days ago, and it's it's all
pretty much there. Of course, the you know, the the
backlit panel has blown away, but beyond that, this thing
looks the same. It's just, you know, it's it's kind
of sad the Sandman. You know, I don't know who
(37:22):
owns it, and I've tried to find the owner, but
it's just some LLC. And you know, I've just run
into roadblocks, but I've wanted to approach them and just
be like, listen, I will help you raise money to,
you know, restore this sign.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Let's just make it happen.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Come on, because it's it's it's falling apart before our eyes,
and it's just such a sad sight to see, you know,
it's it's such a wonderful sign.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
But you get Heather David on on this, you know,
Heather David out in San Jose, the San Jose Science
Project and things like that she helped. She worked with oh,
I forget the name of the the group there in
restoration San Jose or something like that there in Seneze, California.
And you know, she created the San Jose Sign Guide
(38:14):
and you know she helped get the restoration of a
lot of signs in San Jose. Maybe if we find
her or the folks that neon speaks, because don't they
write the book on how to start a restoration project.
Plus it also depends on the city laws and what
you can't can't do with the sign and you have
(38:36):
to do it on the spot, which is so dumb,
uh to say it's stupid, But the same man, you
know that is that's history.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's just not nostalgia. That's history right there.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, yeah, and that's yeah, that's one of the miniatures
that I I made.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Here in the past year. I don't know if you
saw the video.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yes, I finally I finally took it out to do
the comparison shot.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And man, that was a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
But anyways, back with back to wereroud of it?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Seriously be prevant back to the signs surviving Milton.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You know it's it's a mixed bag, uh A CJ
Motel out on Treasure Island. That one, it's looking it's
got a lot of damage, like half the letters are falling.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Off a bit.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
But but they had stripped the neon off of that
sign within the past couple of years.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
And yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
You know, the bones are there, but you know, it
was it was sad to see it. Even before the
hurricane and the Sands Motel another great sign out that way.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
It was fine.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You know, it's like these these these signs were were
built to last, you know, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Most of them did.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
I'm you know, I've been going around just as I'm
driving around town, I'm like, oh, let's see how this
sign did.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That sign did?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Yeah, we have a Norge ball that Yeah, I think
a norse ball would not stand up to one hundred
mile per hour winds. But you would be wrong because
the one that we have over next to my daughter's
high school, it's still.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
There, no damage at all.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
The food one, yeah, oh that is amazing. I'm looking
at your boom shots are amazing. I don't I know
you told me they're not drones, but I remember doing.
My buddy bought a boom for his camera in college.
He took out, you know, some student loans and he
(40:53):
got a boom and playing with that thing was so
much fun.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
And I don't know if you're getting in a trucking.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Out or or whatever or however you're doing it, I'm
gonna call it a boom shot.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah, but no, that's that's that's a good description. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
But of the norgeball and also your video of the
Masonic Temple sign there in Saint Pete, that that sign
is one of the I call it the mixed bag
of you know of signage. You want to see it
restored to its former glory where there's something about Betina
(41:31):
and damage that. Oh yeah, that head's character too. It's
like I just survived her hurricane.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Dad, gum it.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
I'm still stand Well, that sign is is prety damaged,
and that was from the storm because uh, you know,
I compared it with some shots from about a year
ago and it gets it's looking pretty rough. But that
that sign probably won't be around much longer. I know
that that building just sold couple of years ago and
(42:02):
they're don't I don't know if they're going to tear
it down or repurpose the building, but I don't think
they'll keep the sign.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
This is where I know people have mixed feelings about
private collections. I get that, but boy, if there was
a private collection that could say save that sign, that'd
be awesome.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
You know. I'm I'm all for.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Signs that are coming down owing to a collection. Someone's
going to restore it. That's great.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The thing that I really don't like is the people
that are actively going out, you know, grabbing these signs
that really didn't need to be saved, especially Route sixty six.
You know, I did a trip where I covered New
Mexico and Arizona a few years back, and you know,
(42:58):
we drove through Santa Rosa, which I love, Santa Rose,
so many great signs there, and the Club Cafe sign
I was. You know, I got a bunch of shots
of that. I get back from my trip and a
week later I see that it had been taken down. What. Yeah,
there's a collector in Albuquerque.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
I won't mention his name, but.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I have been blocked. He has blocked me. That's wow.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I was. I was very I was very vocal.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
About, you know, some of the signs that he was
taking down from that area, because you know, those signs
of what bring people to Santa Rosa. They want to
go there, they want to see these old signs. And
if they all go away, then you know, these these
little little towns on the side of the road there,
(43:52):
they're just not going to get the people coming through
because the charm is gone. And you know that's why
I'm I'm a bigs or in place, conserve, preserve and
place kind of person whenever possible. I know it's not always, but.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Oh but sho, I'm looking at the like even the
billboard has so much character, like that hand painted Mexican
food murgeritas, like that script for Mexican uh is is amazing,
so mid century.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
And the and the smiling guy who must.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Be the owner, uh, I don't know who he is,
but they have this smiling guy uh in like a
roundel uh you know, in front of the cafe back
in the day. And like they not only have like
the big I'm describing this for all the people who are.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Or listening.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Uh, you have like the big club cafe up top,
then you have like a mid century arrow just underneath
it talk about redundant, the redundant department of redundancy.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
This got the iron work on the sign as well.
It's it's a really it was.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Great but it's gone now.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and too bad that Santa Rosa didn't go through
the preservation phase that too can carry had because you
know that, I know people one hundred million people taking
pictures of the blue Swallow. I'm one hundred million one.
And that sign on the side of the road is majestic. Uh.
(45:37):
The old other one that stopped me into my tracks
like that was the Tower Theater in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Just amazing signs.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
But I also went in because I was like, you know,
something's nagging me to ask permission, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
If I could talk to people, I can. But a
lot of times i'm dry by photographer. I just lean
out the window in my van.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Victoris.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, especially at some rupper parts of Houston. So uh,
you know he shout out to the Bloody Nickel, but uh,
you know I went in there, and you know, he
was helping a customer who's going to stay there for
the night, and I asked him, so, hey, is okay
to take a picture of your side. The look the
(46:26):
visible look of relief on his space when I asked
him that was you could tell that he kind of
has to deal with it in a way. I mean
the yeah, you know, trust are gonna be tourist, you know,
but someone coming in and saying, hey, can I do this?
And he let you know, people can walk the grounds whatever.
(46:47):
But he's like, go with if I remember right, he
was like walk around the grounds and doing that, I
got a deeper appreciation for the restoration of a blue
swallow and also what is seen. You know, it's eight
o'clock at night. I'm not knocking on someone's doors, Like, so,
(47:07):
what does the blue Swallow mean to you? Kind of rip?
But like the Sandman, you've kind of talked about what
that means to you?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Oh what is it?
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Go to deeper detail. We'll go a little bit extra
on this segment. What does the Sandman mean to you
as someone from the Saint Pete area, Because it's pretty iconic.
I mean, that is a crazy wild It's streams Florida.
I know that there, you know, there isn't like signs
(47:43):
shapes indicative to an area. I get that it's miss
century modern. Everything's unique, But for some reason, that Sandman,
it's almost like the Western appliance signed there in San Jose,
the the was it the Salt Lake Costume Company? Any
they're in Salt Lake City where the apartment building that
(48:05):
pore down the original costume shop save that sign and
put it up on the side of their apartment complex.
What does the same What does the Sandman mean to
you as someone from the area, Well.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
You know, it's it's just it's that, it's what's the
what's the best way to describe this. It's it's a
signpost of our past, you know. It's it's it's history
right there. It's like real history of what Florida used
(48:40):
to be. And and you know, as I drive down
the road that the Sandman is on is thirty fourth
And every time I drive along there, I'm always looking
at the buildings along that way and they're they're all
something different now, but you can tell which ones were
(49:02):
from that era.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
We're back in the day where.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
You know, either motels or bitchy little restaurants. And I'm
just imagine what it must have been like driving down
the road in the nineteen fifties, you know where that
there's still orange groves around, and you just have these
just you know, occasional motels with a sign beckoning you
(49:27):
in I just what I wouldn't give to be able
to see what that looked like back then. And you know,
I have to give Saint Petersburg credit because they actually
have recognized the importance of the signs in the area here,
actually actually published this document called Saint Petersburg, Florida's Signs
(49:52):
of Historic Significance, where you know, they they have a
record of what is still around and what used to be,
so you know, at least there's some acknowledgment there, and
you know that that they want to remember Sat. Pete's
past and not just you know, tear everything down and
(50:16):
build new structures, although as of late it seems like
that is where they want to go.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
But yeah, well that's a great place for us to
In segment four when we come back, we'll get it
to some of Todd's bucket list places where he'd like
to go to shoot signs. We're listening to International you're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(50:59):
I'm your hoaster.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Grabbern anthy.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Glad you're still with us and we have Vintage Neon project.
Go and follow him on Instagram. Are there any other
places that you're located at for your for your art
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
Vintage Neon Project dot com is my website. I am
on TikTok. I have some videos on there, but it's
just repurposed stuff from Instagram.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So yeah, for the kids, for the kids, uh yeah,
uh so we'll have links to those in the show
notes when when this comes out. So we've talked about
you know, the sandman.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Uh, you know, you getting blocked.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Restoration, which is amazing. You know, we sometimes we do
endorse that type of behavior, not outwardly, but you know,
read between the lines.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So we've talked about all that. Now let's get it
to your bucket list. Places where would you like to
go to take pictures of signs or roadside kitsch or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Well, I had tickets purchased and was headed to Tucson
back in early October, but with the approach of Hurricane
Milton and being in Saint Petersburg, we had to cancel
that trip and focus on you know, battening down the hatches.
(52:36):
So you know, I'll still fine and getting out to
Tucson one of these days. You have mentioned Oklahoma's Oklahoma City.
Definitely want to go there, you know, and I've only
done stretches of Route sixty six, and my biggest dream
is to do Root sixty six in its entirety.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
And the only thing that is keeping me from doing that.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
Is the rental car, you know, because they charge you
an extra thousand dollars to rent it in Chicago and
return it in LA and I just haven't just I
haven't been able to justify that yet.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
But one of these days I'll bite the bullet.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
There's somebody at Austin that restores classic cars. Ryan what
Ryan Richards ninety two? Maybe you know you can hook
up with him and he can let you use one
of his cars to go down sixty six. I know
you'd have to go to Austin to drive it up,
but I'm not promising any other thing.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
I'm just saying Ryan Richard's ninety two, help a guy out,
and that, you know, it's just fine.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
In the time, I jumped back into the corporate world
here a few years ago, and after being a freelance
photographer slash disnem there for about eight years, and I
really miss having the ability to just, you know, if
I wanted to go on a two week road trip,
I could do it and these days it's not quite
(54:09):
as ev.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
But you know you still find the time. Yeah, and
you know I want to go back to LA again.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
I went out for a a neon bending workshop at
Mona a few years back with Casey Lee's and you know,
it was dual purpose. I wanted to try my hand
at bending me on. But I've spent every waking moment
driving around LA shooting the signs there, and I want
(54:41):
to go back because I know there are just so
many more that I missed.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
It's just such a great area, man.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
I That's that's how my bucket lists too, because you
know I've been to LA for weddings mostly. Yeah, that's
the only reason why I've gone to LA is for weddings.
It's surprisingly enough. But you know, we were there in
Santa Monica and I was so focused on you know,
getting to you know, where the wedding was taking place,
(55:10):
and then getting to food afterwards and all those things,
getting back to Rancho Cucamonga or up to Ventura County. That, yeah,
I don't need to remember seeing a neon sign the
whole time.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Time.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Oh well, and I can't tell you how many times
I have been on a work trip, Like I went
on one to Fort Worth last year and I was
just chomping at the bit because there's so many great
signs out there and I just could not get away.
There's just never enough time.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Do I need to come up there and give you
any excuse to come out and play or something like that.
I'll bring a note? Why is this written a crayon?
He's coming with me? I'm sure they'd go like a
fart in church? Yeah, yeah, uh so, yeah, deb wrapp
(56:05):
things up for this episode of International Sign Finders. Todd,
thank you so much for joining us. Uh Are there
anybody that you want to give us special thanks to before?
Speaker 3 (56:15):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (56:15):
You hear in the background my kids. I'm up here
in the living room. My kids are kind of laughing
and stuff like that, and it adds to the flavor.
But here anybody that you'd like to give a special
thanks to before we take off? You know?
Speaker 3 (56:29):
Yes, there is Deborah Jane Seltzer.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
Yes, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (56:34):
I when whenever I am going on a trip, a
sign hunting trip or wherever it, her website is always
the first place I go when I'm starting to build
out my my sign list. I mean, it's She is
just such an incredible person.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
I cannot believe how deep.
Speaker 3 (56:56):
Her knowledge is of not just the signs, but everything
else around them, you know, as far as roadside attractions.
And it's just it's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
He's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
And and I always appreciate it when you know, things happen,
we make mistakes, and she, uh, you know, she'll message me, hey,
here's what that.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Actually, We've we've.
Speaker 3 (57:21):
All we've all been corrected at one time or another. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
But and it's great too.
Speaker 3 (57:28):
And whenever I see, like if a sign has been
taken down and she doesn't have any info on that yet,
I'll I'll send her a message and let her know, hey,
the sign is no longer around.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
And yeah, and and also for those listening, that's not
us trying to one up Deborah, because Deborah's won up
this perpetuity. Uh, that's just us helping her. Yeah, her
little elbs. Well, she's on this mission of Santanas going
(58:02):
across the country. H Instead of bringing gifts to good
little boys and girls, she's bringing gifts to the whole
you know, sign finding community, sign hunting community of what's
still out there, what we have lost. You got to
mention that as well. Uh, and what can be so? Oh,
(58:24):
she's amazing. I just called her Santa Claus. I don't
know how she'll feel about that, so uh, that will
wrap things up for this episode of International Sign Finders.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Go to the show notes.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
Uh, follow Todd and just you know, I haven't talked
to anybody specifically from Florida yet, so Todd is my
first person for Florida.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
But go and see his stuff. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
And also to you out there, get out, hit the pavement,
have fun, have fun. Remember that, keep your head on
the swibble because you know sometimes you'll go with the
places that you know might be a little rougher than others.
But keep your head in a swivel. And if somebody
asks you what you do and say, hey, I'm here
taking a photo of the sign. Not everybody likes that,
but whatever, take the picture, get out of there, have fun,
(59:15):
and until next time, happy sign finding everybody,
Welcome everybody to another episode of International sign Finders. I'm
your host J Rabernathy. Glad you're with us again. And
hopefully he got out hit the pavement, got some great
pictures of Neon, old hand painted signs, what have you heck,
even classic cars you know b Bailey Rett Bailey up
in Amarillo area. He not only does signs, he does
(00:45):
old movie theaters from all those little dy BT talents
up in the Panhandle. And then he does some really
cool like rusted out you know, Patina whatever. Uh it's
bus uh those cars and you know he's shares them
with everybody, So feel free to share those things with us,
all the venn diagrams of everybody within the sign hunting community.
(01:08):
We like to see each other's stuff. And also I
need to say happy birthday to my oldest daughter. She
turned ten today as of the day that we're recording this.
He's my big, redheaded girl and she's taller than all
my aunts. So yeah, a happy birthday to her. And
today we're gonna head to the Tampa Bay area to
(01:32):
Saint Petersburg and we're going to interview the one and
only Todd Bates. I don't get your last name, right,
you did, y'all good, Todd Bates. I have a hard
time with names sometimes.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Todd Vin pitched Vintage Neon project. I'm so glad to
talk with him, because if if you have experience this year,
like everybody else has, it's been one for the record
books in so many different ways, and especially Florida being
hit by Helene and Milton. You know, Helene going up
(02:07):
into the western praier of North Carolina, and I my
heart goes out to them because, you know, being a
North Carolina boy, you know, even though I'm from eastern
North Carolina, that's those are still my brothers and sisters
are in the western present state and still Florida too.
My gosh, all the craziness is just going on. But
you know, Todd takes some awesome pictures wherever he goes.
(02:30):
He's got some stuff from wild Wood, from the San
Francisco area and of course Florida. So welcome to the show,
Todd Bates.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Thank you. It's great here.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, glad to have you. And holy cow, you know,
we'll get into the whole craziness of Florida. Just what
you've gone through over the past three months. Hasn't been
three months for the both of the hurricanes or four months.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's just it seems like forever. It's really only a
couple months, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
You know, the last two months have been the longest
decade in our lives.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
You know, yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So you know, we'll get in all that here in
a bit. But first, let's introduce yourself to the sign
finding community if they don't already know you.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Sure, Yeah, like you said, my name is Todd Bates.
I go buy vincitin Neon Project. And I have been
into signs and roadside attractions and the like pretty much
my whole life. But you know, just really got into
(03:39):
it here in the past, you know, twenty years or so.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Okay, Now, were you one of those kids that wanted
to stop at every like welcome center on a road
trip to get to go in and just see if
they have any maps or anything crazy like that?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh yeah, well, you know, I have these these really
fond memories of being a kid growing up in Florida
and traveling on the Turnpike. You had these service centers
every so often, and and they had those machines.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I can't remember what they're called, but.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
They would mold a model out of wax, and I
always wanted those, And you know, I just have so
many fond memories of road trips with the family and
just you know, watching these attractions and the signs go by,
and that's just always stuck with me.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Seck, my mouth just fell down. See this is live
when we're recording it, so that I turned you off.
But you know, those wax figurines. The only place I
remember seeing those as a kid, unfortunately, was the Oklahoma
City Zoo and one was a gorilla one. I think
it was an elephant that you could get, and I
(04:54):
remember I may have best with one just a little
too soon and it kind of kind of warped on me. So, yeah,
you don't want to touch those when they're hot.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
No, I think those were called I think they were
mold Omatic, so.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I'm remembering correctly, but I very likely could be. Rock
watched me look this up and uh mold Omadic.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Uh well there's a Moldomatic fabrication company. Well, well we
can look.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
That up later.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Uh yeah, that's that's the ADHD kicking in already. I've
already taken both my pills for head of all. But
uh now, when you talk about signs going wherever you're going.
You know, you live in Florida. And as we were
talking before the interview started, you have seen the disnification.
(05:53):
Is that the correct term? We're making a new term.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
The disnification instead of Californication, like the red hot chili
peper sing about the disonification of Florida. And we could
get into this even more in depth after the break.
But how is that kind of influenced you now?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh jeez, well, you know, well, I know that it
really goes back to you. Well, let me start from
the beginning. I grew up in Fort Lauderdale and my father,
he was the he ran. He was the head of
the photography department of the newspaper there, and you know,
(06:40):
he got a lot of perks just from working in
a newspaper.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And one of those perks was.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
That we got to go to Disney for the grand opening.
And that was in nineteen seventy one. Oh wow, And
I have this great photograph of my mom in hot
pants and go Go boots and me and my brother
(07:08):
both heads. I'm in the stroller and we're on Main
Street in Disney with Cinderella's Castle in the background. But
the thing that you'll notice in this photo is that
there's no one around. There's like one other person you
can see off to the side because we got to
go to Press Day, which was the day before Disney opened.
(07:33):
They opened the park only to the press, and you know,
so that was pretty cool. You know, my dad at
the at the dinner the night before, he sat next
to Walter Cronkite.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And it was just this big to do.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was just, you know, a toddler at the time,
so I don't really remember any of it, but you know,
it's that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's in my blood.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
You know, I've just grown up witnessing all of these
pre Disney mom and pop roadside attractions. I just watched
them slowly start to die off and close, and you know,
the ruins of a lot of these places stuck around
for quite some time. And I even back in the
(08:21):
year two thousand and I like the song from What
Was It.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Going and O'Brien Gone and O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So I decided just to drive around the state and
just document what was left.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And I just I Chris, okay e separate there, because
that's a great segue into our next segment. And I
know this is kind of awkward for me to stop
you right there.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
But.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
We will. When we come back, We're going to talk
to Pod Bay Vintage Neon Project about how he has seen,
you know, basically the introduction of Disney into Florida.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
That sounds so weird.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It's like you're introducing an animal into a new environment.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
And they become feral.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And when we come back, we're you talk about Todd's
criss crossing at Florida to document the change. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(09:49):
I'm your host, Rabernati and you just got to hear
me sing an awful false set of the previous segment.
But that brings us to our next segment. We talked
going to Todd Bates Ben tog Noon Project, and you know,
growing up in Florida, you know, he has seen Florida
from the inception of Disney World to Florida and the
(10:17):
the mega the mega and whatever you want to call it.
You know, mega influence has had across the state and
that helped him go and do other really cool things.
And I'll let Todd take it over and we'll ask
questions as we go along. But before we got into
(10:38):
the break, we talked about, you know, the beginnings of
Disney and Disney taking over and the Mama Pops are
going away, and that led you to hit the road.
So what did you find? Of course you're gonna find signs,
this is a sign podcast, duh. But what did you
find in your.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Journeys across the state?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It was saying, you know, I I hadn't.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
I didn't really have a concerted effort in documenting these
things up until that trip, okay, and it was basically
working towards a show that I was going to do,
and you know, it was it was really interesting because
I got to drive on a lot of the you know,
the old tourist routes, and you know, I think it
(11:25):
dressed people nuts when they're driving with me, because I
always had an eye on, you know, what's going by,
just always looking for you know, a sign or just
some interesting just old relic on the side of the road.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And you know, I.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Found just tons of stuff back then. And you know,
I think the one that really stood out for me
was Marine Land, which was, Yeah, Marine Land is where
they filmed creature from the Black Lagoon. And it was
just this old, you know, marine park that had been
(12:05):
around since I don't know, the twenties or thirties, and
it was just kind of in ruins almost. I think
that they had they had suffered some hurricane damage sometime,
you know, when the within a year or two of
when I visited, and it just it was just a
ghost town. And I was just wandering around there and
(12:28):
and there was no one there and just great signage
and you know, just the architecture. It was just it
was just like a kid in a candy land for me.
You know, A different from urban ex I know, urban exploration.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know, I've talked to people do urbex you know,
kind of going into buildings, abandoned buildings. Sometimes one of
them would go up to the top of skyscrapers that
you'd figure out how to do that. This is kind
of a like a rule urban that's an oxymor but
a real exploration. I've abandoned places.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Oh, there's there's so many great places here in Florida,
you know, And I'll have to I'll have to post
some of those images on my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, they haven't seen the light of day.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
In a while.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Another one of the great things from Marine Land on
that trip was they had a Movie Dix cocktail bar,
like right there overlooking the ocean and it was closed,
but on the inside it had a full like old
chip nautical theme.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
And oh, it's just so amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, yeah, sort from because the twelve year old and
me came out.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
I'm so sorry, but that was that was a great trip,
you know, And and it really just that that was
the that got it all going for me. You know,
I had I had photographed stuff here and there just because.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I thought it looked cool or whatever. You know. I
was in I was in photography.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
School in the mid nineties in Daytona Beach, so you know,
I documented a lot of stuff in that area, just
out wandering around, you.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Know, the photo student looking for stuff to shoot.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
And I mean Daytona Beach at spring break. I mean
that is ultimate people watching, uh like headquarters capital of
the United States.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, and I hated it there, I really did.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I would leave every weekend and come back to Tampa
just because I wanted to be with my friends and
party and I did not want to be in Daytona.
But the data Daytona Beach is really great when it
comes to you know, just all that old, you know,
great signage. I think one of my favorites there is
(15:03):
the Hawaii Motel.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
On your Yeah, that's a great sign Yeah, my Ada,
she's coming out. I'm interrupting you. I'm sorry, but that.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Hawaiian Now.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Is is Daytona Beach comparable to Wildwood with its old signage?
Not these days?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
No? Okay, no there, you know there there are so
few places that have embraced the old signage like Wildwood has. Yeah,
you know, I think well, you know, most communities in
the you know, late seventies early eighties they tried to
(15:46):
get rid of as much neon as they could because
they thought they thought it was gaudy and and you know,
dated and brought in the way. Yeah wow yeah, So
what we needed was more backlit plastic. Oh yeah, yeah,
beggs my skin crawl.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Wah wah wah.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Now, so it's kind of like the backlit plastic that
looks kind of cool. Are those old corrugated signs with
the really cool mid century lettering on top of it.
There's one here in Houston over Rice Village, and it's
an old Trophy old trophy manufacturing place, and it's got
(16:28):
that cool corrugated sign and this is this is an
exception rather than the rule. It does approve the rule.
It's just an exception to the rule. And like talking
to F nine two five, it seems like there's a
lot of that up in New Jersey, not so much
no neon signs, but that you know, they made art
(16:48):
out of something that could be so mundane.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah, and that's where yeah, and you know that that
brings me to you.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know, I love that regionality you get out of
places like Wildwood too, you know, where the signs.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
There they don't feel like anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
And you see that in other in other cities that
you go to as well. It's it's always just so
interesting to me, you know, just that And obviously that
comes out of just who the different sign companies were
in each city, and you know who was working there.
But you know, and and I spent eight years in Seattle,
(17:31):
and you know, so I I was in the shadow
of you know, the great b Amerfield's work there and
you know, at one point lived two blocks from the
the Pink Allison car wash.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The big one.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, and that's that's really the sign that I attribute
to me starting my vintage Neon project, because that's that's
when I the bug really bit me, and you know,
I got a little crazy about I've got to start
shooting all the signs and I've just never stopped.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
You know, as if not too five says, is the
oh Dad, not again principle?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know, my good head.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
I have dragged her.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
On so many sign hunting trips and uh, you know,
one of them being Wildwood. The first time I went
to Wildwood, we were just driving through. I was like,
I had an hour to shoot as many signs as
I could, and that's that's that's impossible. You know, there's
just so many and like, okay, I'm going back, and
(18:44):
did go back this past year prior to the season beginning,
which was perfect because there was no one there and
we had it.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
All to ourselves and it was just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
We'll talk about that we come to the end of
a Sex two when we come back. Let's get into
Wildwood and remember it's do Wop design, not Googie. Got
to get that right if you're in wild Wood. I
listened to a podcast about Googie design, you know, like
the Googy coffee shops and and car washes and stuff
(19:20):
like that. And they brought in Wildwood and they there
was an article where it's like it is do Wop
not Google. Okay, we'll go with that. Just polish that turn, baby.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I mean, if they.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Weren't calling that, go right ahead. So uh here, I'm
bringing class to this joint. You're listening to International sign Finders.
(19:58):
Welcome back to International Signfinders. Glad you're still with us
after that last segment of me just going off the rails.
We have the amazing vintage Neon project. Todd bates with us,
and you know he talked about going to Marine World
is that correct there in Florida? And my inner twelve
(20:19):
year old came out during his explanation of one of
the cool bars there and go and look up the
Hawaii Hotel there in Daytona Beach.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
It has that.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Really cool l like inverted trapezoid, you know, mid century
shape to it. I don't know that that's a terrible description.
It's the only way I can describe it. And now
we're talking about the post hour trip to Wildwood, New Jersey,
because you know, I was talking to one of my buddies,
(20:52):
your buddy spooky. That's what he goes by on Instagram.
Here man, it has to be about a month and
a half ago. He was visiting Houston. I went up
to his job site and I got to talk with him,
and he talked about how in Wildwood and a lot
of those Jersey Shore We're not talking about this city
(21:14):
where Jersey Shore was shot. We're talking about like the
whole Jersey Shore. There's a lot of places that kind
of keep up that old vintage feel and people come
back for that. They just love it. They love the nostalgia,
and it makes it feel like they're a kid or
a teenager or when they were first in love, and
just makes them come back and like even wah wah,
(21:35):
you know, the wah wah sheets wars.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
We won't get into that.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
You know, there's a Dayton on the of the podcast
for both of the unless we're talking about cheesecakes then
or cheese steaks. I think Richard Gutman said the oh
what town is he from is north of Philly. They
do better cheese steaks than Philly does. I was like,
that is You're getting me in trouble right there, buddy.
(22:02):
But Wildwood. I know, I've taken up like nine minutes
of your segment just me introducing this. Let's get into
the Wildwood. You know, they're called the Homo Duo. And
you know, if you want something outside of Googi that's
still kind of within the Googie family because it's only
no place there in La and maybe some places of Vegas,
(22:26):
depending on what expert you want to talk to Wildwood.
What is it for you about Wildwood? There's some I
mean you got the Caribbea, the bell Air, all those
really cruel signs and so much more. I'm not even
scratching the surface. Get into Wildwood for us?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Well, I you know, like I said, I had driven
through for an hour, knew I had to go back.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And the opportunity came up.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
We had planned it a trip to New York City,
and my girlfriend and I both decided we didn't really
want to do the city experience. So I was like, hey,
what about if we were to go.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
To wild once?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
And she was game, and we booked at the Caribbean.
We we were the only people staying there at the
time because it was the weekend before the season started,
so there was no one there and yeah, so you know,
(23:30):
we just had the run of the place, and you know,
it's just it's just so magical there, the whole the
fake palm tree thing that's just everywhere, Like it seems
like every motel there has their own fake palm trees.
Who whoever is providing the fake palm trees.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It must be a.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Really good business to be in in wild Wood. But
I mean, it's just it was just so much fun.
And you know, I love that the Kitch has survived
in a place like that and that it's alive and well,
and it was just just such a great experience. And
(24:09):
you know, I still didn't shoot everything that I wanted to,
but I found myself going back to some of my
old favorites, you know, like the uh, the the Lollipop
motel is the one just signed ever the clown till Yeah,
that the pink Champagne Motel. I saw there's a place
(24:34):
called Kelly's that that sign is gone now it's been
repurposed into something. What was some of the other favorites, Oh,
surf Haven, Shelly Roger, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
You go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Its just it really, you know, growing up in Fort Lauderdale,
it really reminded me of those days because you know,
back in the seventies, you know, as a kid, there
was still that that feel to it before Fort Lauderdale
kind of you know, kicked out the spring Breakers and
cleaned things up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Oh yeah, Miami was really staunch about we don't want
you hear the Drew spring Breaker, go somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
Myrtle Beach. They you want to avoid Myrtle Beach, Gurry
spring Break and also Bite Week. There's a lot of
crazy oness that goes through goes down up there now.
I you know, just going through your uh, your photos,
the one that strikes me is the one that has
no neon lit the surf Comber Motel.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
It looks dead. It looks deader than a doornail.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
But you know talking about that, you know that rule,
you know, abandoned place, liminal space type of stuff. The
Surfcomber kind of has that where everything else is lit
up and it's like it's not here, and you know,
some one as crazy as me it.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Is like I gotta go there. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, it was just you know, everything felt dead there
the week we were we were around and I would
have loved to just you know, I didn't want to
be there with the crowds, but I would have liked
to experience what does it look like after they flip
that switch and seasons open and everything's lit up.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But you know, one of the things for me is
I I don't really shoot signs at night. I love
shooting neon during the day because my background is in,
you know, besides being a photographer, is in graphic design,
and I just really appreciate the design of these signs,
(26:55):
the artistry that went into them, and you know, on
top off of that, the aging and the patina. I
just love seeing that that, you know, the whole package together.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
It just it just makes my heart go pitter.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Pat every time I.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I find a new one on the side of the road.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It's kind of like what retro roadside Photography says. She says,
every time I see a sign, I see art, I am.
And you know, she talked about, you know, traveling across
country new college graduate there in the mid two thousands
or double lots where you want to call it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
And she stops at the soup.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Hi, uh, they're in Arizona, and she's like, I found
my I found my uh my calling in a way,
this is what I want to shoot. I want to
shoot Neon and he was a grafted designer, you know,
it seems I don't know if you've seen like F
nine two five stuff where he like zone stuff, which
(27:52):
is awesome. I just saw one of your reimagined signs
where it's a it's a sign in water. Yeah, I
gotta figure out how you do like that, you know,
the dirt on the sign type stuff, because I love
doing stuff like that too, just making deposits and taking
(28:13):
different signs and adding them to scenes to kind of
add dramatic you know, dramaticism, a dramatic effect.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That's better. Yeah. That that was a fun little series
to do. Although you know, I it's funny.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
I don't like doing composites anymore because I feel like
in the age of AI, it's kind of taken the
fun out of it. It's it's just it's opened it
up to any anyone with a computer, and you know,
I I just don't it's the love isn't there for
(28:51):
me anymore for stuff like that. But those were, Yeah,
those were fun to do at the time. My favorite
from that, I don't know if you saw it, it's
the letters the b in the surf and yeah, those
are the letters from the bonn Air Motel here on
(29:11):
Saint Pete Beach. And you know, to do that, I actually,
you know, I put in the work. I actually like
cut the letter the letters out out of out of
wood and propped them up in the water. And I
have a drone shot that I took of while I
was shooting that. But you know, I appreciate when someone
(29:35):
puts the effort into something, and I feel like AI
has just kind of sucked that away and made things
a little too easy.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Uh, Like I was taking photoshop my Photoshop two class,
uh in college because I'm going back to school and
I'm about to finish up my multi multi media the certificate,
which means I'm a jack of all trades, a master
of none in a way like video effects, video editing,
(30:10):
you know, graphic design, photoshopping and stuff like that. And
my teacher, Professor Irving, She's amazing. She drills you, she
pushes you, you know, doing like a photo restoration by
Hey to say it, but bye bye hand not by Ai.
(30:33):
You learn that there has to be almost a love
for doing that because it was not easy. I had
probably about ten to fifteen thousand tiny little black dots
that somehow got on the digital photo and I had
to go in. It probably wasn't ten thousand, but it
(30:53):
felt like it had to go in and take care
of all those before I could start touching up the
photo anyway. Maddening, absolutely, mad Na, Oh go ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Anyone who has scanned old slides has plenty of experience
with that.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
And I worked at a what is a photo processing plant,
like a school photo processing plant, and they created a
special machine, which they call the Frank Grabber, where it
would uh take you know, like a roll of film.
This is before we had digital cameras as accessible as
they are now two thousand and two, two thousand and three,
(31:37):
and it would go through and take you know, photo,
you know, take the negatives and digitize them and uh,
you know, that was the beginnings of the digital revolution.
Now you don't have to do that. You just bring
in your memory card, plug it in and go. Yeah.
So you because it looks like those letters are like
(31:59):
ten fifteen feet tall. So those are small, little like wooden.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Characters. Oh no, those were those were I think the
bee was.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Probably about six feet tall. But yeah, I tried to
do them two size.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Yeah, that was a fun one to do. People were
looking at me like I was crazy when I was
out there shooting that. Well you were, yeah, yeah, if
you just accepted embrace it.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
That's what I uh, I do a podcast.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
I accept the crazy.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
But but that's something that someone from like I hate
to say this, but that's like a hobby lobby thing,
you know. I could see, uh, you know, like a
housewife three four kids love to be crafty and stuff
like that. She'd see them like, I want that my wall.
(33:01):
That's how I mean. I'm not trying to corporatize it
or hopefully it doesn't sound like I'm belittling it. It's
just it's just that stunning. I love it. Speak proud
of that. Yeah, you're welcome. And that will bring us
to the end of segment three. This show goes by
so fast when you're doing it. When we come back,
we're going to talk about get a little more serious.
(33:24):
As Todd I think as alluded to her said, you know,
he was supposed to go to Arizona when Milton hit
you know, Milton, Helene, how does some of the signs
hold up? And one of the signs that you've shown
on your feed has to be made of just like adamantium.
How well it withstood those hurricanes.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
I'm boggled by how amazing it's set up. You're listening
to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(34:15):
Segment four. We've changed this from a four segment show
to a five segment show. Why I ask, iHeart about that?
Why we do that now? And you can find us
on you know, major podcasting platforms including iHeart Apple and
a few others. A speaker that's another place that you
can find us on as well. If you want to
listen to us or share us with your friends, your neighbors,
(34:37):
whatever to that share it.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Let everybody know.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Uh, come for the guests, not the host that's crazy
as a bat as a loon. So I'm Drew Abernathy
and we have Vintage Neon Project and he's from Florida, Sat.
Pete area or Saint Petersburg. He's at the the like
(35:00):
the correct term, Yeah, yeah, I Sat Pete, Saint Peter,
all the above. We'll just call it that sp if
you're really you know, from Idaho and instead of calling
Idaho falls as if uh so, uh hurricanes Milton Kalade,
we don't have to you know, retell the stories.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You know the damage.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
You know, Helene hit Florida, did a lot of damage
of Florida went up to western North Carolina, which is
not prepared for that amount of rain in those hill
in the mountains, they're mountains, spokes. If you're from the
west and you call the Appalachians Hills and you're in
North Carolina or Tennessee, be prepared. I'm just going to
(35:45):
tell you that you do not want to get a
hill bill or even a swamp billy in my case.
But you've shown some of the aftermath that yeah, that's
the correct term of how some of these signs have
held up during the hurricane. And the one that just
(36:09):
whoever made it needs a ward posthumously whatever for how
well it was stood.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
I know it had some damage.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
But the Sandman motel, it's.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Gonna be singel status. That's sort of a gun.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
It's made of adamantium, and Wolverine is proud of this thing.
You know. Uh, it's about some of those signs, like
you know, the Sandman that's sort of a gun is tough.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, it's looking a little worse for wear, for sure,
but yeah, yeah, I mean it still it held up
pretty well. I'm always really surprised how well the actual
neon tubing survives in these storms because the Sandman, you know,
I'm looking at the picture of it now that I
(36:59):
took here a few days ago, and it's it's all
pretty much there. Of course, the you know, the the
backlit panel has blown away, but beyond that, this thing
looks the same. It's just, you know, it's it's kind
of sad the Sandman. You know, I don't know who
(37:22):
owns it, and I've tried to find the owner, but
it's just some LLC. And you know, I've just run
into roadblocks, but I've wanted to approach them and just
be like, listen, I will help you raise money to,
you know, restore this sign.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Let's just make it happen.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Come on, because it's it's it's falling apart before our eyes,
and it's just such a sad sight to see, you know,
it's it's such a wonderful sign.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
But you get Heather David on on this, you know,
Heather David out in San Jose, the San Jose Science
Project and things like that she helped. She worked with oh,
I forget the name of the the group there in
restoration San Jose or something like that there in Seneze, California.
And you know, she created the San Jose Sign Guide
(38:14):
and you know she helped get the restoration of a
lot of signs in San Jose. Maybe if we find
her or the folks that neon speaks, because don't they
write the book on how to start a restoration project.
Plus it also depends on the city laws and what
you can't can't do with the sign and you have
(38:36):
to do it on the spot, which is so dumb,
uh to say it's stupid, But the same man, you
know that is that's history.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's just not nostalgia. That's history right there.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, yeah, and that's yeah, that's one of the miniatures
that I I made.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Here in the past year. I don't know if you
saw the video.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Yes, I finally I finally took it out to do
the comparison shot.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And man, that was a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
But anyways, back with back to wereroud of it?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Seriously be prevant back to the signs surviving Milton.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
You know it's it's a mixed bag, uh A CJ
Motel out on Treasure Island. That one, it's looking it's
got a lot of damage, like half the letters are falling.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Off a bit.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
But but they had stripped the neon off of that
sign within the past couple of years.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
And yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
You know, the bones are there, but you know, it
was it was sad to see it. Even before the
hurricane and the Sands Motel another great sign out that way.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
It was fine.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
You know, it's like these these these signs were were
built to last, you know, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Most of them did.
Speaker 3 (40:03):
I'm you know, I've been going around just as I'm
driving around town, I'm like, oh, let's see how this
sign did.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
That sign did?
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Yeah, we have a Norge ball that Yeah, I think
a norse ball would not stand up to one hundred
mile per hour winds. But you would be wrong because
the one that we have over next to my daughter's
high school, it's still.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
There, no damage at all.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
The food one, yeah, oh that is amazing. I'm looking
at your boom shots are amazing. I don't I know
you told me they're not drones, but I remember doing.
My buddy bought a boom for his camera in college.
He took out, you know, some student loans and he
(40:53):
got a boom and playing with that thing was so
much fun.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
And I don't know if you're getting in a trucking.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Out or or whatever or however you're doing it, I'm
gonna call it a boom shot.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah, but no, that's that's that's a good description. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
But of the norgeball and also your video of the
Masonic Temple sign there in Saint Pete, that that sign
is one of the I call it the mixed bag
of you know of signage. You want to see it
restored to its former glory where there's something about Betina
(41:31):
and damage that. Oh yeah, that head's character too. It's
like I just survived her hurricane.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Dad, gum it.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
I'm still stand Well, that sign is is prety damaged,
and that was from the storm because uh, you know,
I compared it with some shots from about a year
ago and it gets it's looking pretty rough. But that
that sign probably won't be around much longer. I know
that that building just sold couple of years ago and
(42:02):
they're don't I don't know if they're going to tear
it down or repurpose the building, but I don't think
they'll keep the sign.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
This is where I know people have mixed feelings about
private collections. I get that, but boy, if there was
a private collection that could say save that sign, that'd
be awesome.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
You know. I'm I'm all for.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Signs that are coming down owing to a collection. Someone's
going to restore it. That's great.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The thing that I really don't like is the people
that are actively going out, you know, grabbing these signs
that really didn't need to be saved, especially Route sixty six.
You know, I did a trip where I covered New
Mexico and Arizona a few years back, and you know,
(42:58):
we drove through Santa Rosa, which I love, Santa Rose,
so many great signs there, and the Club Cafe sign
I was. You know, I got a bunch of shots
of that. I get back from my trip and a
week later I see that it had been taken down. What. Yeah,
there's a collector in Albuquerque.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
I won't mention his name, but.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
I have been blocked. He has blocked me. That's wow.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
I was. I was very I was very vocal.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
About, you know, some of the signs that he was
taking down from that area, because you know, those signs
of what bring people to Santa Rosa. They want to
go there, they want to see these old signs. And
if they all go away, then you know, these these
little little towns on the side of the road there,
(43:52):
they're just not going to get the people coming through
because the charm is gone. And you know that's why
I'm I'm a bigs or in place, conserve, preserve and
place kind of person whenever possible. I know it's not always, but.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
Oh but sho, I'm looking at the like even the
billboard has so much character, like that hand painted Mexican
food murgeritas, like that script for Mexican uh is is amazing,
so mid century.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
And the and the smiling guy who must.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Be the owner, uh, I don't know who he is,
but they have this smiling guy uh in like a
roundel uh you know, in front of the cafe back
in the day. And like they not only have like
the big I'm describing this for all the people who are.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
Or listening.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Uh, you have like the big club cafe up top,
then you have like a mid century arrow just underneath
it talk about redundant, the redundant department of redundancy.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
This got the iron work on the sign as well.
It's it's a really it was.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Great but it's gone now.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and too bad that Santa Rosa didn't go through
the preservation phase that too can carry had because you
know that, I know people one hundred million people taking
pictures of the blue Swallow. I'm one hundred million one.
And that sign on the side of the road is majestic. Uh.
(45:37):
The old other one that stopped me into my tracks
like that was the Tower Theater in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Just amazing signs.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
But I also went in because I was like, you know,
something's nagging me to ask permission, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
If I could talk to people, I can. But a
lot of times i'm dry by photographer. I just lean
out the window in my van.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Victoris.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, especially at some rupper parts of Houston. So uh,
you know he shout out to the Bloody Nickel, but uh,
you know I went in there, and you know, he
was helping a customer who's going to stay there for
the night, and I asked him, so, hey, is okay
to take a picture of your side. The look the
(46:26):
visible look of relief on his space when I asked
him that was you could tell that he kind of
has to deal with it in a way. I mean
the yeah, you know, trust are gonna be tourist, you know,
but someone coming in and saying, hey, can I do this?
And he let you know, people can walk the grounds whatever.
(46:47):
But he's like, go with if I remember right, he
was like walk around the grounds and doing that, I
got a deeper appreciation for the restoration of a blue
swallow and also what is seen. You know, it's eight
o'clock at night. I'm not knocking on someone's doors, Like, so,
(47:07):
what does the blue Swallow mean to you? Kind of rip?
But like the Sandman, you've kind of talked about what
that means to you?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Oh what is it?
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Go to deeper detail. We'll go a little bit extra
on this segment. What does the Sandman mean to you
as someone from the Saint Pete area, Because it's pretty iconic.
I mean, that is a crazy wild It's streams Florida.
I know that there, you know, there isn't like signs
(47:43):
shapes indicative to an area. I get that it's miss
century modern. Everything's unique, But for some reason, that Sandman,
it's almost like the Western appliance signed there in San Jose,
the the was it the Salt Lake Costume Company? Any
they're in Salt Lake City where the apartment building that
(48:05):
pore down the original costume shop save that sign and
put it up on the side of their apartment complex.
What does the same What does the Sandman mean to
you as someone from the area, Well.
Speaker 3 (48:20):
You know, it's it's just it's that, it's what's the
what's the best way to describe this. It's it's a
signpost of our past, you know. It's it's it's history
right there. It's like real history of what Florida used
(48:40):
to be. And and you know, as I drive down
the road that the Sandman is on is thirty fourth
And every time I drive along there, I'm always looking
at the buildings along that way and they're they're all
something different now, but you can tell which ones were
(49:02):
from that era.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
We're back in the day where.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
You know, either motels or bitchy little restaurants. And I'm
just imagine what it must have been like driving down
the road in the nineteen fifties, you know where that
there's still orange groves around, and you just have these
just you know, occasional motels with a sign beckoning you
(49:27):
in I just what I wouldn't give to be able
to see what that looked like back then. And you know,
I have to give Saint Petersburg credit because they actually
have recognized the importance of the signs in the area here,
actually actually published this document called Saint Petersburg, Florida's Signs
(49:52):
of Historic Significance, where you know, they they have a
record of what is still around and what used to be,
so you know, at least there's some acknowledgment there, and
you know that that they want to remember Sat. Pete's
past and not just you know, tear everything down and
(50:16):
build new structures, although as of late it seems like
that is where they want to go.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
But yeah, well that's a great place for us to
In segment four when we come back, we'll get it
to some of Todd's bucket list places where he'd like
to go to shoot signs. We're listening to International you're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(50:59):
I'm your hoaster.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Grabbern anthy.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
Glad you're still with us and we have Vintage Neon project.
Go and follow him on Instagram. Are there any other
places that you're located at for your for your art
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (51:12):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
Vintage Neon Project dot com is my website. I am
on TikTok. I have some videos on there, but it's
just repurposed stuff from Instagram.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So yeah, for the kids, for the kids, uh yeah,
uh so we'll have links to those in the show
notes when when this comes out. So we've talked about
you know, the sandman.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Uh, you know, you getting blocked.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Restoration, which is amazing. You know, we sometimes we do
endorse that type of behavior, not outwardly, but you know,
read between the lines.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:56):
So we've talked about all that. Now let's get it
to your bucket list. Places where would you like to
go to take pictures of signs or roadside kitsch or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (52:09):
Well, I had tickets purchased and was headed to Tucson
back in early October, but with the approach of Hurricane
Milton and being in Saint Petersburg, we had to cancel
that trip and focus on you know, battening down the hatches.
(52:36):
So you know, I'll still fine and getting out to
Tucson one of these days. You have mentioned Oklahoma's Oklahoma City.
Definitely want to go there, you know, and I've only
done stretches of Route sixty six, and my biggest dream
is to do Root sixty six in its entirety.
Speaker 2 (52:58):
And the only thing that is keeping me from doing that.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
Is the rental car, you know, because they charge you
an extra thousand dollars to rent it in Chicago and
return it in LA and I just haven't just I
haven't been able to justify that yet.
Speaker 2 (53:17):
But one of these days I'll bite the bullet.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
There's somebody at Austin that restores classic cars. Ryan what
Ryan Richards ninety two? Maybe you know you can hook
up with him and he can let you use one
of his cars to go down sixty six. I know
you'd have to go to Austin to drive it up,
but I'm not promising any other thing.
Speaker 2 (53:43):
I'm just saying Ryan Richard's ninety two, help a guy out,
and that, you know, it's just fine.
Speaker 3 (53:48):
In the time, I jumped back into the corporate world
here a few years ago, and after being a freelance
photographer slash disnem there for about eight years, and I
really miss having the ability to just, you know, if
I wanted to go on a two week road trip,
I could do it and these days it's not quite
(54:09):
as ev.
Speaker 2 (54:10):
But you know you still find the time. Yeah, and
you know I want to go back to LA again.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (54:18):
I went out for a a neon bending workshop at
Mona a few years back with Casey Lee's and you know,
it was dual purpose. I wanted to try my hand
at bending me on. But I've spent every waking moment
driving around LA shooting the signs there, and I want
(54:41):
to go back because I know there are just so
many more that I missed.
Speaker 2 (54:45):
It's just such a great area, man.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
I That's that's how my bucket lists too, because you
know I've been to LA for weddings mostly. Yeah, that's
the only reason why I've gone to LA is for weddings.
It's surprisingly enough. But you know, we were there in
Santa Monica and I was so focused on you know,
getting to you know, where the wedding was taking place,
(55:10):
and then getting to food afterwards and all those things,
getting back to Rancho Cucamonga or up to Ventura County. That, yeah,
I don't need to remember seeing a neon sign the
whole time.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Time.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Oh well, and I can't tell you how many times
I have been on a work trip, Like I went
on one to Fort Worth last year and I was
just chomping at the bit because there's so many great
signs out there and I just could not get away.
There's just never enough time.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Do I need to come up there and give you
any excuse to come out and play or something like that.
I'll bring a note? Why is this written a crayon?
He's coming with me? I'm sure they'd go like a
fart in church? Yeah, yeah, uh so, yeah, deb wrapp
(56:05):
things up for this episode of International Sign Finders. Todd,
thank you so much for joining us. Uh Are there
anybody that you want to give us special thanks to before?
Speaker 3 (56:15):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (56:15):
You hear in the background my kids. I'm up here
in the living room. My kids are kind of laughing
and stuff like that, and it adds to the flavor.
But here anybody that you'd like to give a special
thanks to before we take off? You know?
Speaker 3 (56:29):
Yes, there is Deborah Jane Seltzer.
Speaker 2 (56:32):
Yes, I think you know.
Speaker 3 (56:34):
I when whenever I am going on a trip, a
sign hunting trip or wherever it, her website is always
the first place I go when I'm starting to build
out my my sign list. I mean, it's She is
just such an incredible person.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
I cannot believe how deep.
Speaker 3 (56:56):
Her knowledge is of not just the signs, but everything
else around them, you know, as far as roadside attractions.
And it's just it's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
He's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:10):
And and I always appreciate it when you know, things happen,
we make mistakes, and she, uh, you know, she'll message me, hey,
here's what that.
Speaker 2 (57:19):
Actually, We've we've.
Speaker 3 (57:21):
All we've all been corrected at one time or another. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
But and it's great too.
Speaker 3 (57:28):
And whenever I see, like if a sign has been
taken down and she doesn't have any info on that yet,
I'll I'll send her a message and let her know, hey,
the sign is no longer around.
Speaker 1 (57:41):
And yeah, and and also for those listening, that's not
us trying to one up Deborah, because Deborah's won up
this perpetuity. Uh, that's just us helping her. Yeah, her
little elbs. Well, she's on this mission of Santanas going
(58:02):
across the country. H Instead of bringing gifts to good
little boys and girls, she's bringing gifts to the whole
you know, sign finding community, sign hunting community of what's
still out there, what we have lost. You got to
mention that as well. Uh, and what can be so? Oh,
(58:24):
she's amazing. I just called her Santa Claus. I don't
know how she'll feel about that, so uh, that will
wrap things up for this episode of International Sign Finders.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Go to the show notes.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
Uh, follow Todd and just you know, I haven't talked
to anybody specifically from Florida yet, so Todd is my
first person for Florida.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
But go and see his stuff. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
And also to you out there, get out, hit the pavement,
have fun, have fun. Remember that, keep your head on
the swibble because you know sometimes you'll go with the
places that you know might be a little rougher than others.
But keep your head in a swivel. And if somebody
asks you what you do and say, hey, I'm here
taking a photo of the sign. Not everybody likes that,
but whatever, take the picture, get out of there, have fun,
(59:15):
and until next time, happy sign finding everybody,
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