January 1, 2025 • 46 mins
Cindy, therealtx, joins the show and we talk about the Niftee50ees car shows, Her love of cars and Mid-century cars, Leakey, TX, and do we share our grievances?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Signfinder. Sorry, it's
been a couple of weeks since I've last done a show.
It's just been a heckedic holy col December, you know,
getting into January, finishing up school, doing all that stuff
I've had to Certain things have taken more importance than others, unfortunately.
And we're back here. We got the podcast back, and
(00:36):
tonight we've got a great guest. She goes by the
real tx N if you want to the real text
in of course, if you're wondering what that was. Sometimes
I need flash cards myself to understand things. But she
has a love for vintage, not just vintage. But when
we talk about vintage cars, we're not talking about stuff
(00:56):
from the necessarily from the seventies and eighties. We're talking
a little bit further back. But she is. Any time
she finds a cool Marquee or a cool Neon signed,
she sends me a message and shares it with me.
And I love that. I appreciate that because it shows
that the community is within other vinn diagrams, if that
(01:19):
makes sense, and that we can communicate, you know, no
matter whether it's on the timeline or behind the scenes,
we still share our love and our passion for whether
it's classic cars, Neon, antiques, what have you. So we'd
like to welcome to the show tonight, Cindy, Welcome to
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, hey, Drew, thanks so much for inviting me, please
to be here and honored to be on on Christmas.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, so Happy Christmas, Happy Honukkah, Happy Festivus.
I'm sure we'll get to our list of grievances later on.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Absolutely, yeah, we'll say happy holidays because there are so
many wonderful things.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh yeah, time of year to celebrate exactly. So once
you introduce yourself to the community, I'm sure they know you,
but it doesn't hurt. Sure if there's a new person
listening to let them know, Hey, what is Cindy all about?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, hey, absolutely Well, as I share on my Instagram page,
I am a very very proud eighth generation Texan, a
second generation Houstonian. I still live here in Houston, in
the Greater Houston area, and you know, I absolutely adore
all things vintage. I mean you kind of named it, Drew,
(02:33):
to be honest, everything from vintage Neon to historical architecture.
To you said it, my number one is absolutely mid
century classic cars. And although you know I love cars
of all kinds, actually I love things with wheels, if
I'm truthful, not just cars. I photograph trains, I photograph motorcycles,
(02:54):
you name it. If it moves, it moves me. And
really I'm all for make being sure that we have
an opportunity to share out into whatever universe we circulate
in our history, our history, because so much of where
we're at today, as we all know, is a product
of where we've been. And there's been some great design
(03:14):
and historic moments and time specifically from the forties say
to the sixties, where architecture was morphing, and design was morphing,
car design was morphing, our lives were changing, so many
things were introduced during that time frame. It just really
made it such a monumental time frame in our history
(03:37):
for me to get stuck on. There's always something interesting
about it. I've just recently said to someone I can
go to a historical building and photograph, which I do
have one that I call my muse, time and time
and time again, and I will always see something different,
always see something different of value and we'll want to
capture it in that new view that I can see.
(03:57):
So that's a little bit about me, yea.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And when you talk about is that because I was
listening to How Things Work podcasts and they're talking about
goog y ar architecture in the mid centry modern and
during that timeframe of the fifties, sixties, go back to
the late forties as well, there was something called what
was it techno optimism. I think it was called.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, I believe you're right. I believe you're right. I mean,
and if you think about if you know a lot
about you know, historical architecture, you know that towards the
late eighteen hundreds, the nineteen tens and twenties was still
very opulent, So lots of handcarved wood, lots of you know,
inspiration from nature, whether that was leaves or gargoyles, or
(04:45):
things that would symbolize various blessings for a home. All
of those things were very visually apparent in that era
of architecture, both internal and external. But as you kind
of moved out of that opulent Victorian even the early
Craftsman error and get into more of the late thirties
and into the forties and fifties, there was a true
(05:09):
desire not only an industry but also in home life
to modernize, and there was a ton to use the
frame that's the word optimism, there was a ton of
optimism about creating a more modern, inconvenient world. And let's
be honest, if anyone listening has lived in a Victorian
(05:29):
Victorian home, they know that there is a lot of
upkeep that comes with living in a home with that
much woodwork and frontwork on the outside and wood sighting
and so forth. And so that kind of simplicity and
modernization was really to be done out of convenience, but
it also came from an inspiration of wanting to create
(05:51):
a simpler, cleaner space with which to live in and
work in. And Texas is actually a really great example
of a place where if you look across the you know,
hundreds of counties that we have in our state, I
think it's one hundreds, not one hundreds, probably mid one fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Two. Yeah, it's two hundred and fifty four.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Thank you. So if you look across the state, so
many of our historic courthouses that were built in the
eighteen hundreds were actually sadly demolished in the forties and
fifties and were placed with a more modern esthetic courthouse,
and so people, I know, I'm always sad when I
go to a new county for the first time and
(06:31):
visit and want to go see the courthouse and I
find a modern courthouse. I'm initially very disappointed, But then
I find myself asking myself, what is there about this
courthouse that's beautiful? And modern architecture is truly can be
very beautiful if you look for the details, and so
for me, it's really about identifying that. But yeah, I mean,
(06:53):
if we turn that to the automotive side, I mean,
I think if you are familiar with classic cars, even antiques,
you know that those business coups that were sold during
the twenties and thirties started to morph into larger cars
in the forties, and then when you got into the fifties,
it was all that's were off from a from a size,
from a chrome, from a feature perspective, you know, the
(07:17):
cars started to really take on a life of their
own lines perspective. Yeah, and so the architecture was becoming
very modern. You know, the cars themselves were also modernizing
as well. But it translated very differently and the automotive
industry than it did in architecture. You know, classic cars
from the fifties are around, they are long, they have
(07:39):
big fins and lots of chrome, and so you know,
I actually own a nineteen fifty six Laire, so I
can say firsthand, driving a car of that age and
that size is like driving a yacht. It was what
I imagine like driving a yacht on land would be like.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And also you kind of see that, you know, that
transformation from the thirties to fouries like the old Dela
Hayze and the Auburn. Yes, because you know those Dela
I want to say, the Della Hayes. It's it begins
with the d They were long, they were around. They
still had that Art deco feel to.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It, very much so, very much so.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
But you can see where everything's rounding out, and it
seems like, I guess in my mind just observing, still
learning all this stuff, they they took the roundness and
kind of I don't want to say, make a compact,
but they started flattening out the lines a little bit
to make it a little more sleek. Because you see
those beautiful lines with the bel air. You're talking about
(08:32):
the Edsel the uh Jesus, you know, we're talking. Oh man,
it's gonna it's gonna hit me because I just painted
one on one on on a painting of mine. If
the mercury thers and stuff like that, you see those
lines changing and forming and going from that, you know,
art deco, you know, opulent look to almost, for a
(08:55):
lack of a better term, the jetson space age feel well.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, you described it perfectly. So if you look at
those you know, nineteen forty nine, nineteen fifty, fifty one
and even into fifty two, a rounder backed sedan and
and or coop, you know, with loose sight or bake
light handles on the and the interior for the heater
or perhaps for the radio, or even some of the
(09:21):
other details like coat hooks, wow, materials that you would
recognize from being very popular during the thirties and forties
still being used as kind of that decor, if you will,
which was functional in those models of cars. You might
have some chrome, but it wasn't so much about the
chrome yet. It was really about what I like to
(09:42):
call the hips of the of the fenders, and you know,
really the hood being really long and large. You know,
you had this large, you know, very powerful engine at
the time, which by the way, was probably just a
V six to moving into first taking the car and
giving it a real trunk that you could identify as
(10:04):
a trunk, you know, in forty three fifty four ish era.
But then when you started to hit fifty five to
your point, that trunk started to elongate, and the details
of the bake light and the loose sight and so
forth on the interior became chrome, and it really became
more about the bigger the better, and cars started to
be advertised as family vehicles. You can cross the country,
(10:28):
you know, in your you know, see the USA, Yeah, exactly,
but that's exactly what they began to market tours, and
so the car designs themselves became very elongated, and the
advertisements would always show a family placing their luggage into
the large, generously sized trunk and the children piling into
(10:51):
the box seat. And it really just as as that
decade prolonged, the cars got longer.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, so that's a perfect place to to stop in
this segment. And also you could say, you know, with
a longer trunk, you can hid more bodies in there right.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh wait, that's a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Well, when we come back, we're to continue our conversation
with Cindy the Real Text and go follow her on
Instagram and we'll get into other places. You could probably
find her on the internet as well. You're listening to
International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad
(11:38):
you're still with us. I'm your host, Drew Abernathy. I
don't say that very often because it's not about me.
It's about the people I interview. And tonight we have
a great, great interview with Cindy the Real Textan. She's
joining me here on Christmas. This is a Christmas tree
for all of us. Go and find her on Instagram
the Real Textan. We've been talking about the evolution of
(11:58):
the car. She is a She is a gearhead. Go
and look on her Instagram account. Like my wife because
of my schedule, I have the audist schedule, like on
the weekends or workover nights, so my wife will fix
the car. Sometimes it's probably that the same type of gearhead.
But you know, she fixed my brakes because I avoided
(12:19):
an accident on East tex Freeway that killed my breaks.
But we're talking about the cars, and now you are
the official photographers at right of the nifty fifties like
Car Club.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I am, yeah, so I joined nifty to Fifties. It's
a team of individuals who are committed to the preservation
of the mid century modern classic cars. What does that mean, Well,
Randy Shannon is actually the founder of the group twenty
two years ago. Randy, Well, first and foremost, you need
(12:53):
to know that Randy grew up during the golden age
of the fifties and sixties. Oh cool, and so naturally
he has a deeply seated passion and great memories of
that time frame. And so, you know, twenty two years ago,
as he was reaching retirement age, he you know, really
was looking for a way to you know, gather his
like minded friends who all owned and were maintaining meticulously
(13:16):
restored mid century classic cars, and said, you know, we're
gonna We're going to start, you know, gathering some friends
together on Saturday nights. And that was twenty two years ago,
you know, and he went from I think first meet.
If you were to interview interview him, he would tell
you had ten people there. Fast forward, over the years,
as you know, words spread and as you know, more
(13:38):
individuals started to purchase, you know, pick up these old
classics as they were either going to make their way
permanently into someone's garage or sadly into a junk yard.
He reached a pinnacle of where he had at any
given Saturday night in the in the peak of the spring,
you know, lovely weather in Houston, so that's really the
only time that's palataole before you get to summertime, he
(14:01):
would have anywhere from twenty five hundred to three thousand
cars cycle through on a Saturday night, and on Halloween's
you know, he would host trunk retreats before that was
really a thing, and he'd have seven thousand cars parked.
It's amazing with kids experiencing those cars, and so a few.
You know, I've been taking out our fifty six to
(14:24):
his meets for over fifteen years, so I Randy and
I have cross paths many many times over the years.
But a handful of years ago, right as he was
resuming meeting up after the pandemic had kind of lightened
up in our area. You know, he ran into me
one Saturday night. It had rained heavily and he had
a really low turnout. I think that night he probably
(14:45):
had fifteen cars, not a lot sitting in a parking lot,
and I was out there taking pictures and he approached
me and he was like, you know, I've seen you
out here, and I feel like I know you, but
I can't quite place where. And we got into a
conversation and he was like, would you be to come
out and take a few pictures, And so I started
going out every Saturday night. I've got over ten thousand
(15:05):
photographs that have been taken at nifty fifties Saturday night
cruisers over the last few years. You know, of sometimes
honestly drew the same car every single weekend. I treat
cars the same way I treat historical buildings. I can
look at a car ten times and see something different,
and so, you know, and then thousands of others that
(15:26):
may be visited once or twice over the season. And
it's it's been such an enriching experience because while, yeah,
as I've shared, I absolutely love cars, there's nothing quite
like the community of classic car owners. You know, each
of them are experts in their own make and model,
(15:46):
and you know, during the fifties and sixties there were
so many different makes and models of cars. That don't
exist today, Packered ed Sel, which I think you mentioned
at one point in our conversation too. You know your
every day the Hudson, oh my god, the Hudson Hornets,
and of course all the other ones we know, the oldmobiles,
the Buicks, the Chevyes, the Pontiacs, you know, certainly, but
(16:10):
that classic car community and their knowledge and expertise, and
quite honestly, kind of to reference what you said about
your wife helping out with the car, the know how
of being able to work on those cars, that age
of car is so simplistic to work on. It's not
what you experienced, the modern car. And they they just
want to see those cars continue to drive down the
(16:32):
road and say they would do anything to help each
other out. And I think that's such a beautiful thing.
It's a it's a sense of community, it's friendship, it's camaraderie,
and it's a joint commitment to make sure that those
classic cars that could end up in the junkyard actually
end up back out on the road, hopefully with a
new steward who's going to help that car continue to
(16:55):
be a rolling piece of our history.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's hands on expertise because you know, some people will
study and things like that, but when you when you
restore a car. I'm just going through h Randy is
his name is.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Randy, right, Randy Shannon, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I'm going through his man. I sometimes I forget names.
I've actually forgotten my people that I'm interviewing names before,
which sucks. But just going through the his Instagram feed
if you want to follow him, it's n I F
T E E five zero E E s, nifty fifties
and just some of the cars that come through there.
(17:34):
And it's not just American muscle. You've got like, uh,
I don't there's like a nineteen twenties like racers had upfront.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's had Morris Minors come through it.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Oh yeah, Morris Minor. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah. I mean I tell people, if you want to see,
if you want to see cars you have never seen,
don't let the name whole you. You could come out
there and I bet that racer that you're seeing is
actually one. It's the one that's got a number, a
race number on the side, and that's burgundy colored, hand built.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Oh right, this is a different one.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
From another racer. I mean, it's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, this is a different one. It's a white one. Yes, Yeah,
it's like a touring car slash racer, which is Oh,
those those things fascinate me. This is one of those
things where I wish I knew more about cars because
I'm looking at is like pretty you know, yeah, I'm
at that level of expertise. But just seeing all the
(18:38):
classic lines going from the forties and fifties to the
sixties and seventies, like the Torino's and the Challengers and
the the road Runners all through there, and also like
the old v W vans and the the old pickup
flatbed pickup v W van, which yes, I collect, I
(19:00):
have tons of hot wheels. My wife wishes I didn't,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
With you, I know that addiction.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah. And one of my favorite, uh uh what is
it car cars I've gotten is the v W flatban.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh. You don't see those very often, do I mean?
If you're like me, I double take, I'm like what
is that?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So, and there's actually a Dodge version of a v
very similar. Yeah, similar era, similar design, but distinctively Dodge.
That's something for you to look out for.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, And that's one thing about Houston. I've noticed is
going down, like Northside Village, near Side, Northside, the Heights.
I don't know about river Oaks, but like even Acres
homes and and all the little super neighborhoods. You're going
to find a classic car eventually. It's not a matter
of if it's going to be win and I try
(19:56):
to take a picture of them. One of my favorite
classic cars that I found in here Houston was uh,
it was at a dealership south side of Houston. I
just can't can't remember the place at. But you know,
like when Henry Ford said, what color you know his
car should be in? You know there's always black, you know,
or absolutely or darker black type of thing, So black
(20:20):
or blacker, that's right. And so somebody took a model
T and painted it poisoned green. I have it displayed
and I thought that was so cool when I found it.
But that'll bring us to the end of our second segment.
When we come back, we're going to get into some
of Cindy's travels because she doesn't just stick around like Texas.
(20:42):
She goes all over Texas, don't get me wrong. And
when she talks about those classic courthouses, if you want
a place to go for some amazing classic courthouses. Uh,
that that's a tongue twister. Go up the two eighty
seven corridor between Dallas and Amarillo and and you'll see
some amazing old courthouses from the late eighteen hundreds right
(21:05):
up there. So when we come back, we're getting to
some of her travels. We'll talk about this on International
sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad you're
(21:28):
still with us. We're in segment three. I'm actually keeping
track this time of our conversation with the real Texan,
the t h E R e A L t X,
and the real Texan Cindy. She is the official photographer
for nififty fifties. The car club here in the Houston area.
I think they're out of Spring right now.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, it's Houston right here in Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, Spring Spring maybe a different town, but it's it's
part of It's like Humble, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But will tell them that in Houston. I tell people
all the time. I'm like, you know, the reality is is,
whether we like it or not, the way Houston's grown
is ear regardless of what your community name is, You're
still Houston.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
That's right. I'm in a task Asita and uh, you know,
two and a half miles one way is a Houston
city limit and then another five miles another way is
Lake Houston city limits.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, I know that, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Surprised there's certain parts of that have a Houston zip
code aren't officially Houston yet if they make sense.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It is interesting. I live in Cyphair and my zip
code and address are cy Fhair. And by the way,
sy Fhair was never an incorporated community, so it's not
like we don't have the infrastructure that some of the
other communities in quote unquote Houston have. My father is
directly across a major thoroughfare right here, has a Houston
address with a Houston zip code, but is not inside
(22:58):
the city limits. So Houston so therefore cannot vote on
anything that relates to Houston public policy.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Or those extra taxable areas or like ex t or
some weird.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Like they're called exts, which are or correct, exactly correct,
their extra taxable areas. So essentially they were areas that
were annexed for taxation purposes, but the city limits were
not actually extended to include them. It's a really you
know it's a uniquely Houston thing. And you know, I
always tell people that move from other places to Houston.
(23:32):
I was like, you are unlikely to find other cities
that have grown the way that Houston does. And Houston's actually,
you know, I mean, Houston considers itself to be the
modern city. I mean, this is definitely a city where
so much of our growth was the product of modernization.
And so you know, we praise modernization, but sometimes it
creates these really weird spaces that are unincorporated. But also Houston.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, and also part of that modernization was Lady Bird
Johnson killing all the billboards with the beautification and also
talking to do you know the al Cop? I do not,
Uh Robert, I think Robert Anderson. I think that's his name, Altcop.
If you if, I'm as if I didn't get your
(24:20):
real name, I'm so sorry. I got to have him
on He's he tells me some of the ins and
outs of you know, like because Houston used to be
a hotbed of neon. I have a video I found
videos on of on YouTube, like nineteen sixties Houston nightlife,
the like the Tiki Room and the downtown was just
(24:41):
covered a neon and apparently in the seventies a councilwoman
came along as like, if you don't you know, as
soon as they come out of disrepair, you got to
take it down and change it.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's the thing. I mean, that's that whole modernization piece.
And people, you know, people will talk about Houston and
lacking and historical buildings and so forth, and that, I mean,
the drive behind that was the consistent modern movement in
Houston eradicated a lot of historical buildings because they weren't
up kept. So during the same time that those neon
(25:14):
signs were being removed, the historical buildings were being torn
down because they'd either fallen into disrepair or they were
going to be replaced by a much more modern building.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah. And and you see remnants of the old every
so often. It's kind of like that electrical power station.
Like you're going out it's either Polk Street or the
next street over, there's an old arc deco building that's
a power station building. As you're going out to warts
Highland Dairy. I could see where it's at because I
(25:47):
travel it all the time. I used to travel that
way all the time at night looking for signs and
you'll see those really cool old school like arc deco,
you know, kind of like the penguin arms, the penguin arms.
Over on Revere Street, it's the only Google apartment building
in Houston, and it is the quirkiest looking building. But
(26:11):
it looks like somebody said, it looks like a Batman
villain layer. I love it well, and.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I love the ones that have survived, right the one
somehow like the modernization skipped that block.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, that is the best way to put it, because
it's so quirky. You'll see all those you know, you know,
the gentrified homes come in, come in, come in, theyt saying,
you know, you've got old fifties sixties apartment buildings. Then
unfortunately they've taken down the old cool script. The script
(26:47):
that's on the side of the building now is just
like you no ten to fifty Constitutional Way or whatever
it is, Commonwealth. But you know, they still try to
keep a little bit of the old there with a
modern twist. Know over in the Heights and Montrose they
do that with a few of those, but there's still
that they can't escape at one hundred percent in Houston.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well they can't. And I think you know there there
definitely is, you know, an undercurrent of desire to protect
what remains right, and I'm so grateful for that. I
think that, you know, one of the beautiful, beautiful things
about the melting pot that is Houston is that as
people move in and move out, there's always this new
(27:31):
renewed interest in the history of the city that kind
of keeps that undercurrent moving because without that, I do
think that some of those buildings that were quote unquote missed,
you know, would eventually find their way to a demolition
ball or to such an overhaul that the historical detail
(27:51):
would be lost in the mix. So you mentioned how
you drive around looking for vintage shines. I think you
know my one of my I call it probably vintage
Neon sign eleanor is the Spex liquor sign that has
the bunny rabbit foot to one of that well, you know,
so I love that you asked that question. Yeah, so
(28:15):
if you find it, I will I'll pay you a
finder's fee. Growing up, we always rode trips to Dallas,
which is where my cousins lived. And as a little kid,
like I don't remember a lot as most of us don't.
But the one thing I always remembered, and it was
the sign to me that we were back in Houston.
Was there was a spec Spex on the North Freeway,
(28:36):
so forty five north of downtown, right around where Gallery
Furniture is located today, that had a giant Neon sign.
You know the Specs. We all know the Spex bunny,
but it's foot tapped and I just as a child,
I found that sign so mesmerizing. I just, you know,
I don't know if it was the ah, the feeling
(28:57):
of we're almost home, because that was one of the
few things I would know as a child riding in
the backseat, or if it was just the sheer fact
that in my mind it was animated right that bunny
was alive. It's tappened its foot like it's impatient. I
have heard rumor there's still one somewhere in Houston by
yet to find it. So that is my eleanor if
there's my reference to to gone in sixty seconds, you know,
(29:21):
mainly because to your point, like most of the neon
signs that still exist in Houston are not terribly well kept,
and the ones that are functional don't have that animated
motion that is so distinctly you know sixties. I mean
it was definitely sixties.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I wonder if Jimmy Hideout has it, you know, I write.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It out there. I'm gonna go there just to see
if they've got that sign.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Because that's the first person that came to mind. I
don't know who runs it, but you know, whoever runs
Hemmy hide Out, he's got all. He's got all the
Neon almost well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And part of me has always thought, well, surely Specs Downtown,
if that sign really existed, would be the one place
it would still be alive and lit. But no, so
you know, I'm in shame on them. I love Specs.
I'll take that back, not shame on them.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I love them, shame on them, I'll say it, shame
on you tell us where it's it. But it's kind
of like when you're going talking about the animated Neon.
There's money, money money there on Shepherd. The animation's kind
of gone away, but the shoes still look cool. But
the only other one I can think of right off
the top of my head, and I know that I'm
missing something in Houston. I got to go through my pictures. Oh,
(30:38):
the Deans downtown that's technically animated.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh it is. Yeah, And you know what, I absolutely
adore Deans and have for years and years and years
back to before Dean's you know what, anybody had rediscovered Deans. Yeah,
it's just one of those, you know, storefronts that really
sticks out in your mind, at least in Houston, because
there are so few that have the original storefront detail
(31:03):
and the neon and talked. You know, you'll find a
storefront now, I think where they've taken a lot of
the cladding off, or they've removed the detail, kept the
sign or vice versa. But to have them both in
one spot is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And just around the corner is the Majestic. I don't
think they call them as the Majestic Metros in Dallas
the Metro Theater, do they call them Majestic Metro?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I think they do still call the Majestic Metro if
I'm not mistaken what I am? Yeah, and I do.
I have a recent shot of it, but it was
really dark that night. I was kind of disappointed, you know.
It's photography is one of those things where it's either spot.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
On or not. Yeah, and I'm both. I will. The
only way I could get a picture of it is
if I'm driving, because they don't have it on late
at night. They only have on during business hours, so
I'll kind of have to slow down and stop and track,
take a picture and go, and I'm happy with whatever
I get. But the other animated sign that comes to
(31:58):
my mind is up in Conro. It's the Cavenders up there, Yes, and.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
That's probably a pretty I would think that signs probably
pretty long on the tooth too, because Cavenders has been
around a long time. You know, probably not in the
locations in today, but you know, there was a Cavenders
and a Schepler's in Austin at a mall location that
is no longer there. It was called Highland Mall. It's
been leveled, so anyone listening that's from Austin will know
(32:27):
where I'm talking about. And hopefully I'm not miss speaking.
I'm not an Austin expert, but both of those stores
had amazing Neon signs, and that Schepfler's held out until
Schepler's closed business. Those are probably also very desirable signs.
Who knows where those are at these days? But yeah,
I mean, westernware stores have so many options in Neon
if they could do.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
It right, oh gosh, you're not kidding. And in Oklahoma
City kind of has that feel to it. You'll find
some old Western stores still with their neon. And I
was just scrolling through your feed and I get this
to this in the next segment. I kind of like
sometimes the dirt roads we go down in the podcast. Uh,
you never know, we might talk about cryptids. Is you know,
(33:11):
going through down light in Leaky Texas the Gypsy Sally's.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So that sign you know I am. I am a
habitual or habitual vacation traveler, meaning I like to go
back to the same places. I'm kind of let's do
the traditional, like every summer we go somewhere, So this
is the every summer trip we take, and we we
go to Garner State Park like thousands of other Texans do.
(33:39):
We are the crazy ones who go in the heat
of August right as right as the majority of the
state is going back to school. Our district gives us
some extra time, so we kind of take that sweet
spot where everything is still open. Lakey, Texas, if you're
not going into CONCN, which you know is the kind
(34:00):
of what I like to call the resort town, Lakey
is your option for the every man's town, and so
you know, I'm kind of the let's go to the
every man's town. I'm the one who wants to stop,
you know, and take pictures of everything in the town
that nobody is discovered and made glamour shit. Well, in
Laky there's Gypsy Sally's, which you know, is the local
(34:21):
watering hole. They do it Thursday night at steak Night
or Wednesday n I don't rememberf it's Wednesday or Thursday night,
but it's kind of the place that all the locals
go to. And I'm sure it's happened during summer too.
But that sign the first year we were there, we
were just passing through town. And actually every time we've
gone through Laky there's been something that I've been like, well,
that's interesting. That first year it was the neon sign.
(34:43):
The next year was a woman selling her husband's collection
of two hundred and twenty You heard the number, right,
two hundred and twenty Model T Fords.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
W how do you play that many? Well?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And to be honest with, where are you keeping two
hundred and twenty Model T Forwards out in the middle
of the hill country and where else there too?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And that's the thing is. I mean when we came across,
what caught our eye was two like beautiful brand new
car transporters that were like lit up, you know, like
fanciest brand new, probably even had paper plates. Were on
the side of this you know, country road. And if
you're familiar with the highways the Twisted Sisters go through
that area of Texas. If you don't know what the
(35:29):
Twisted Sisters are, they're the three most traveled highways for motorcycles,
most scenic highways for motorcycles in Texas. So we're like,
what are these transporters doing here? And then too you
look just a little bit further to the right and
behind the local auction house for livestock, they had lined
up for inspection all of you know, a portion of
(35:50):
the collection. So, of course, being who I am, being
who my family is, we are like, well, let's just
pull over and talk to these guys, which is exactly
what we did. And they were like, well, honest thing,
we've been out here for two months. I can't remember
if it was Mike them auto auction or yeah, so
he had passed. She was like, I don't know what
(36:12):
to do with these things. I'm going to sell them,
and so they had been out evaluating them. Every single
one of them had and know this, they weren't all
us vehicles. Some of them had been imported from overseas
as well, so they were models from all over the
world to round out his collection. But each one had
a little note on it by the auctioneer that had
said this one's missing this, this one's missing that, so
(36:34):
then when they would go to auction, they could speak
correctly about the condition of the vehicle. It was wild.
But back to Gypsy Sally's that first year, you know,
when I saw that sign, I was like, this sign
like literally makes me so happy. How many different angles
can I take of this sign? Can I come see
it in the pitch dark of night that you know? Two? Three?
(36:55):
Each year since then, I've photographed it multiple times, and
you know, the people at the place are just like
you know, it's just like the sign is what captures
people's attention. It causes them to come in if they
don't know what we do. They they serve amazing food.
But like I said, it's a local watering hole, so
you know, I think, you know, after hours, it's certainly
(37:15):
the one and only bar in Lakey Texas. It's open.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah, it kind of reminds me before we're going to
break like Do Boys Wyoming, they're like two or three
bars in downtown. Do Boys Do Boys is like nine
hundred people in the middle of nowhere, and well everything's
in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, Well right exactly, but
you know at one in the morning, that place is
(37:40):
hopping and people are just crossing the street and everything,
you know, going from one bar to the next. But
just like we're going from one, like they go from
one bar to the next, where we go from one
segment to the next, we're going to get because of
the time constraints. I'm here at work. I got to
start work at eight. We're just going to go straight
to the bucket list. We've talked about everything, but what
(38:00):
we've wanted to talk about, which is what this show
kind of does. It does what it wants to everything.
It has its own mind. So when we come back,
we'll get into a little more of some great places
she's been and some other places that Cindy might want
to go to take pictures of anything and everything. You're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(38:40):
Glad you're still with us. The country roads have taken
us down some interesting to interesting places. We talk about
classic cars, some cool Neon signs. In the middle of nowhere.
I hate to use that term, but you know when
the closest town next to you is like sixty miles away,
kind of like Penguins, Utah. That's the middle of nowhere.
(39:00):
I've been to Penguich. It is the middle of nowhere.
But now we're going to get into Cindy the real
text and go follow her on Instagram and we'll probably
get into other places you can find her work as well.
Probably also Randy's website or yeah, Randy's instagram fifty fifties.
I'll have a link to that as well. So I'd
like to always close my shows with where do you
(39:22):
want to go? What would be like a bucketless place
for you? We might have to split one of these
segments up ad in another commercial break because you know,
iHeart but yes we are. iHeart podcasts. So you've been
I've noticed you've been to Wisconsin, which is one of
my bucketless places. Yeah, and not just Milwaukee, I'm talking Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Ohay, just recently experienced Wisconsin, like true Wisconsin firsthand. And
you know, I have been fortunate in my professional life
to be in a traveling role for many, many years.
So I've been to a lot of places in the
US that quite honestly, I would not have picked off
(40:05):
a map, would have had no reason to go to.
And I had the opportunity. Actually, my niece was getting
married to someone who is from Wisconsin and out in
the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin, and so I made
the decision to I flew in for business. I had
(40:27):
some business that I needed to attend to in Wisconsin
of all places. So I flew into Milwaukee and made
the decision to drive across the state. And for anyone
who has been to Wisconsin, they probably could guess what
I'm going to say next, But if you haven't, I
will say that, never have I ever and I'm from
Texas and I have driven all over Texas, so this,
I think this is saying something never have I ever
(40:49):
seen corn fields as beautiful as the cornfields in was
in Wisconsin in September. And you know, I learned a
thing or two about Wisconsin on that trip that that
really we're quite unexpected for me, and some of it
is just simply. You know, when you're from somewhere and
you spend most of your life somewhere, you believe the
rest of the world is either so completely different that
(41:11):
you're never going to appreciate it or like it, or
you're just going to, you know, go and judge it
and be like, yeah, but my place is still better,
you know, wherever that place is. And so the two
things I discovered in that trip, So from Wisconsin to
where my destination was, which was essentially on the opposite
side of this or excuse me, from Milwaukee to the
opposite side of the state, which is where my destination was,
(41:33):
I discovered two things. One is that Wisconsin is actually
not a state filled with small towns. It is a
state filled with communities that are centered around farming, that
have one of two places they probably go in a
given day the church or the tavern.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, the supper clubs, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
In the middle of the cornfields.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I'm talking about, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I mean, I could see the neon that night that
I drove from Milwaukee out to Lacrosse, which is where
I ended, I could see the neon from the taverns
from miles away. Because the countryside in Wisconsin is rolling,
so you know, granted most of them were beer neons,
but it's quite an interesting juxtaposition to be in the
(42:29):
middle of nowhere on a two lane surrounded by cornfields
and the only thing you see above the corn that
isn't a silo or a farmhouse is a tavern or
a church seople. That's awesome and so beautiful, so beautiful.
The second thing, Okay, go ahead, did you want to say,
We've got just like three minutes. Yeah. The second thing is,
(42:52):
without a doubt, Wisconsin is the home of beer. So
you know, it's not just a tavern, but just the
pride around the corn industry there, the farming industry, the
actual brewing industry. I mean, we have great breweries here
in Houston, Indies and so forth, but you know, really
really amazing, and I would say to anyone you should
(43:14):
go beautiful beautiful, beautiful architecture, great state pride, and gorgeous scenery.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah. So, now we got two minutes left. I hate
to rush this, it's just the nature of the beast
right now. But where's the places that you would like
to go that you haven't or maybe revisit?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Sure, Palm Springs is definitely on my list. And I've
lived in California twice, so you know why I did
not make it there, don't ask me, I don't know.
I mean it is for me the haven of all
things mid century cars, signage, architecture, like it's perfection. And
then I will always tell people I could go to
(43:52):
New Orleans one hundred times and find something new there
over and over and over again. And I'm not a
Bourbon Street goer, so it's not about Bourbon Street and
the French Quarter party. It's really about the culture and
the history.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Oh cool, and there's a lot of history there too.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Oh my gosh. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
And you know you talk about the people who go
on like the graveyard I mean the graveyard tours. Are
you know that's enough to bring a lot of people
to New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely, And you know, close to home if
you have listeners in Houston, the cemeteries in Galveston don't disappoint.
They're certainly not as age and architecturally interesting as New Orleans,
but similar in age and stories.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah, dang it, I've driven by them and they look
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
So yeah, you have to put that on your list.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, I've got to get back to Galveston. I mean,
there's some good nee on a Galveston, but now got
to go to the cemeteries. So as we wrap things up,
where can we find you? Besides Instagram? Are there other
places that we can find you?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah? So my photography work is actually on the real
text spelled the same way. So my prints are available,
they are the ones that I've chosen to take to print. Yeah,
so mostly landscape there, but that site will evolve over time. Instagram,
which you've already shared. And then yes, my car photography
does live on nifty fifties on Facebook and that's nifty
(45:19):
n I F T E E five zero e E
s and then of course the Instagram handle for nifty
fifties as well.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Cool. Well, thank you so much Cindy for joining us,
even on Christmas week. This is our nift show. Yes,
so our gift everybody else. But so as I like
to finish out every week, get out, hit the pavement,
take pictures. We don't care if we've seen it one
hundred times or one time. Take pictures of those things
that you love, where there's neon signs, classic cars or
even landscape landscape photography is great too, we don't. They're
(45:51):
parts of the country that you think would be mundane,
but you'd be surprised how much people would love just
to see it through your eyes as well. So pretty
share that with us, and until next time, happy sign
finding
Welcome everybody to another episode of International Signfinder. Sorry, it's
been a couple of weeks since I've last done a show.
It's just been a heckedic holy col December, you know,
getting into January, finishing up school, doing all that stuff
I've had to Certain things have taken more importance than others, unfortunately.
And we're back here. We got the podcast back, and
(00:36):
tonight we've got a great guest. She goes by the
real tx N if you want to the real text
in of course, if you're wondering what that was. Sometimes
I need flash cards myself to understand things. But she
has a love for vintage, not just vintage. But when
we talk about vintage cars, we're not talking about stuff
(00:56):
from the necessarily from the seventies and eighties. We're talking
a little bit further back. But she is. Any time
she finds a cool Marquee or a cool Neon signed,
she sends me a message and shares it with me.
And I love that. I appreciate that because it shows
that the community is within other vinn diagrams, if that
(01:19):
makes sense, and that we can communicate, you know, no
matter whether it's on the timeline or behind the scenes,
we still share our love and our passion for whether
it's classic cars, Neon, antiques, what have you. So we'd
like to welcome to the show tonight, Cindy, Welcome to
the podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Well, hey, Drew, thanks so much for inviting me, please
to be here and honored to be on on Christmas.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah oh yeah, yeah, so Happy Christmas, Happy Honukkah, Happy Festivus.
I'm sure we'll get to our list of grievances later on.
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Absolutely, yeah, we'll say happy holidays because there are so
many wonderful things.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Oh yeah, time of year to celebrate exactly. So once
you introduce yourself to the community, I'm sure they know you,
but it doesn't hurt. Sure if there's a new person
listening to let them know, Hey, what is Cindy all about?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, hey, absolutely Well, as I share on my Instagram page,
I am a very very proud eighth generation Texan, a
second generation Houstonian. I still live here in Houston, in
the Greater Houston area, and you know, I absolutely adore
all things vintage. I mean you kind of named it, Drew,
(02:33):
to be honest, everything from vintage Neon to historical architecture.
To you said it, my number one is absolutely mid
century classic cars. And although you know I love cars
of all kinds, actually I love things with wheels, if
I'm truthful, not just cars. I photograph trains, I photograph motorcycles,
(02:54):
you name it. If it moves, it moves me. And
really I'm all for make being sure that we have
an opportunity to share out into whatever universe we circulate
in our history, our history, because so much of where
we're at today, as we all know, is a product
of where we've been. And there's been some great design
(03:14):
and historic moments and time specifically from the forties say
to the sixties, where architecture was morphing, and design was morphing,
car design was morphing, our lives were changing, so many
things were introduced during that time frame. It just really
made it such a monumental time frame in our history
(03:37):
for me to get stuck on. There's always something interesting
about it. I've just recently said to someone I can
go to a historical building and photograph, which I do
have one that I call my muse, time and time
and time again, and I will always see something different,
always see something different of value and we'll want to
capture it in that new view that I can see.
(03:57):
So that's a little bit about me, yea.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And when you talk about is that because I was
listening to How Things Work podcasts and they're talking about
goog y ar architecture in the mid centry modern and
during that timeframe of the fifties, sixties, go back to
the late forties as well, there was something called what
was it techno optimism. I think it was called.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, I believe you're right. I believe you're right. I mean,
and if you think about if you know a lot
about you know, historical architecture, you know that towards the
late eighteen hundreds, the nineteen tens and twenties was still
very opulent, So lots of handcarved wood, lots of you know,
inspiration from nature, whether that was leaves or gargoyles, or
(04:45):
things that would symbolize various blessings for a home. All
of those things were very visually apparent in that era
of architecture, both internal and external. But as you kind
of moved out of that opulent Victorian even the early
Craftsman error and get into more of the late thirties
and into the forties and fifties, there was a true
(05:09):
desire not only an industry but also in home life
to modernize, and there was a ton to use the
frame that's the word optimism, there was a ton of
optimism about creating a more modern, inconvenient world. And let's
be honest, if anyone listening has lived in a Victorian
(05:29):
Victorian home, they know that there is a lot of
upkeep that comes with living in a home with that
much woodwork and frontwork on the outside and wood sighting
and so forth. And so that kind of simplicity and
modernization was really to be done out of convenience, but
it also came from an inspiration of wanting to create
(05:51):
a simpler, cleaner space with which to live in and
work in. And Texas is actually a really great example
of a place where if you look across the you know,
hundreds of counties that we have in our state, I
think it's one hundreds, not one hundreds, probably mid one fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Two. Yeah, it's two hundred and fifty four.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Thank you. So if you look across the state, so
many of our historic courthouses that were built in the
eighteen hundreds were actually sadly demolished in the forties and
fifties and were placed with a more modern esthetic courthouse,
and so people, I know, I'm always sad when I
go to a new county for the first time and
(06:31):
visit and want to go see the courthouse and I
find a modern courthouse. I'm initially very disappointed, But then
I find myself asking myself, what is there about this
courthouse that's beautiful? And modern architecture is truly can be
very beautiful if you look for the details, and so
for me, it's really about identifying that. But yeah, I mean,
(06:53):
if we turn that to the automotive side, I mean,
I think if you are familiar with classic cars, even antiques,
you know that those business coups that were sold during
the twenties and thirties started to morph into larger cars
in the forties, and then when you got into the fifties,
it was all that's were off from a from a size,
from a chrome, from a feature perspective, you know, the
(07:17):
cars started to really take on a life of their
own lines perspective. Yeah, and so the architecture was becoming
very modern. You know, the cars themselves were also modernizing
as well. But it translated very differently and the automotive
industry than it did in architecture. You know, classic cars
from the fifties are around, they are long, they have
(07:39):
big fins and lots of chrome, and so you know,
I actually own a nineteen fifty six Laire, so I
can say firsthand, driving a car of that age and
that size is like driving a yacht. It was what
I imagine like driving a yacht on land would be like.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And also you kind of see that, you know, that
transformation from the thirties to fouries like the old Dela
Hayze and the Auburn. Yes, because you know those Dela
I want to say, the Della Hayes. It's it begins
with the d They were long, they were around. They
still had that Art deco feel to.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It, very much so, very much so.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
But you can see where everything's rounding out, and it
seems like, I guess in my mind just observing, still
learning all this stuff, they they took the roundness and
kind of I don't want to say, make a compact,
but they started flattening out the lines a little bit
to make it a little more sleek. Because you see
those beautiful lines with the bel air. You're talking about
(08:32):
the Edsel the uh Jesus, you know, we're talking. Oh man,
it's gonna it's gonna hit me because I just painted
one on one on on a painting of mine. If
the mercury thers and stuff like that, you see those
lines changing and forming and going from that, you know,
art deco, you know, opulent look to almost, for a
(08:55):
lack of a better term, the jetson space age feel well.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, you described it perfectly. So if you look at
those you know, nineteen forty nine, nineteen fifty, fifty one
and even into fifty two, a rounder backed sedan and
and or coop, you know, with loose sight or bake
light handles on the and the interior for the heater
or perhaps for the radio, or even some of the
(09:21):
other details like coat hooks, wow, materials that you would
recognize from being very popular during the thirties and forties
still being used as kind of that decor, if you will,
which was functional in those models of cars. You might
have some chrome, but it wasn't so much about the
chrome yet. It was really about what I like to
(09:42):
call the hips of the of the fenders, and you know,
really the hood being really long and large. You know,
you had this large, you know, very powerful engine at
the time, which by the way, was probably just a
V six to moving into first taking the car and
giving it a real trunk that you could identify as
(10:04):
a trunk, you know, in forty three fifty four ish era.
But then when you started to hit fifty five to
your point, that trunk started to elongate, and the details
of the bake light and the loose sight and so
forth on the interior became chrome, and it really became
more about the bigger the better, and cars started to
be advertised as family vehicles. You can cross the country,
(10:28):
you know, in your you know, see the USA, Yeah, exactly,
but that's exactly what they began to market tours, and
so the car designs themselves became very elongated, and the
advertisements would always show a family placing their luggage into
the large, generously sized trunk and the children piling into
(10:51):
the box seat. And it really just as as that
decade prolonged, the cars got longer.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, so that's a perfect place to to stop in
this segment. And also you could say, you know, with
a longer trunk, you can hid more bodies in there right.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Oh wait, that's a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Well, when we come back, we're to continue our conversation
with Cindy the Real Text and go follow her on
Instagram and we'll get into other places. You could probably
find her on the internet as well. You're listening to
International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad
(11:38):
you're still with us. I'm your host, Drew Abernathy. I
don't say that very often because it's not about me.
It's about the people I interview. And tonight we have
a great, great interview with Cindy the Real Textan. She's
joining me here on Christmas. This is a Christmas tree
for all of us. Go and find her on Instagram
the Real Textan. We've been talking about the evolution of
(11:58):
the car. She is a She is a gearhead. Go
and look on her Instagram account. Like my wife because
of my schedule, I have the audist schedule, like on
the weekends or workover nights, so my wife will fix
the car. Sometimes it's probably that the same type of gearhead.
But you know, she fixed my brakes because I avoided
(12:19):
an accident on East tex Freeway that killed my breaks.
But we're talking about the cars, and now you are
the official photographers at right of the nifty fifties like
Car Club.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I am, yeah, so I joined nifty to Fifties. It's
a team of individuals who are committed to the preservation
of the mid century modern classic cars. What does that mean, Well,
Randy Shannon is actually the founder of the group twenty
two years ago. Randy, Well, first and foremost, you need
(12:53):
to know that Randy grew up during the golden age
of the fifties and sixties. Oh cool, and so naturally
he has a deeply seated passion and great memories of
that time frame. And so, you know, twenty two years ago,
as he was reaching retirement age, he you know, really
was looking for a way to you know, gather his
like minded friends who all owned and were maintaining meticulously
(13:16):
restored mid century classic cars, and said, you know, we're
gonna We're going to start, you know, gathering some friends
together on Saturday nights. And that was twenty two years ago,
you know, and he went from I think first meet.
If you were to interview interview him, he would tell
you had ten people there. Fast forward, over the years,
as you know, words spread and as you know, more
(13:38):
individuals started to purchase, you know, pick up these old
classics as they were either going to make their way
permanently into someone's garage or sadly into a junk yard.
He reached a pinnacle of where he had at any
given Saturday night in the in the peak of the spring,
you know, lovely weather in Houston, so that's really the
only time that's palataole before you get to summertime, he
(14:01):
would have anywhere from twenty five hundred to three thousand
cars cycle through on a Saturday night, and on Halloween's
you know, he would host trunk retreats before that was
really a thing, and he'd have seven thousand cars parked.
It's amazing with kids experiencing those cars, and so a few.
You know, I've been taking out our fifty six to
(14:24):
his meets for over fifteen years, so I Randy and
I have cross paths many many times over the years.
But a handful of years ago, right as he was
resuming meeting up after the pandemic had kind of lightened
up in our area. You know, he ran into me
one Saturday night. It had rained heavily and he had
a really low turnout. I think that night he probably
(14:45):
had fifteen cars, not a lot sitting in a parking lot,
and I was out there taking pictures and he approached
me and he was like, you know, I've seen you
out here, and I feel like I know you, but
I can't quite place where. And we got into a
conversation and he was like, would you be to come
out and take a few pictures, And so I started
going out every Saturday night. I've got over ten thousand
(15:05):
photographs that have been taken at nifty fifties Saturday night
cruisers over the last few years. You know, of sometimes
honestly drew the same car every single weekend. I treat
cars the same way I treat historical buildings. I can
look at a car ten times and see something different,
and so, you know, and then thousands of others that
(15:26):
may be visited once or twice over the season. And
it's it's been such an enriching experience because while, yeah,
as I've shared, I absolutely love cars, there's nothing quite
like the community of classic car owners. You know, each
of them are experts in their own make and model,
(15:46):
and you know, during the fifties and sixties there were
so many different makes and models of cars. That don't
exist today, Packered ed Sel, which I think you mentioned
at one point in our conversation too. You know your
every day the Hudson, oh my god, the Hudson Hornets,
and of course all the other ones we know, the oldmobiles,
the Buicks, the Chevyes, the Pontiacs, you know, certainly, but
(16:10):
that classic car community and their knowledge and expertise, and
quite honestly, kind of to reference what you said about
your wife helping out with the car, the know how
of being able to work on those cars, that age
of car is so simplistic to work on. It's not
what you experienced, the modern car. And they they just
want to see those cars continue to drive down the
(16:32):
road and say they would do anything to help each
other out. And I think that's such a beautiful thing.
It's a it's a sense of community, it's friendship, it's camaraderie,
and it's a joint commitment to make sure that those
classic cars that could end up in the junkyard actually
end up back out on the road, hopefully with a
new steward who's going to help that car continue to
(16:55):
be a rolling piece of our history.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's hands on expertise because you know, some people will
study and things like that, but when you when you
restore a car. I'm just going through h Randy is
his name is.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Randy, right, Randy Shannon, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I'm going through his man. I sometimes I forget names.
I've actually forgotten my people that I'm interviewing names before,
which sucks. But just going through the his Instagram feed
if you want to follow him, it's n I F
T E E five zero E E s, nifty fifties
and just some of the cars that come through there.
(17:34):
And it's not just American muscle. You've got like, uh,
I don't there's like a nineteen twenties like racers had upfront.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It's had Morris Minors come through it.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
Oh yeah, Morris Minor. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah. I mean I tell people, if you want to see,
if you want to see cars you have never seen,
don't let the name whole you. You could come out
there and I bet that racer that you're seeing is
actually one. It's the one that's got a number, a
race number on the side, and that's burgundy colored, hand built.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Oh right, this is a different one.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
From another racer. I mean, it's just amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, this is a different one. It's a white one. Yes, Yeah,
it's like a touring car slash racer, which is Oh,
those those things fascinate me. This is one of those
things where I wish I knew more about cars because
I'm looking at is like pretty you know, yeah, I'm
at that level of expertise. But just seeing all the
(18:38):
classic lines going from the forties and fifties to the
sixties and seventies, like the Torino's and the Challengers and
the the road Runners all through there, and also like
the old v W vans and the the old pickup
flatbed pickup v W van, which yes, I collect, I
(19:00):
have tons of hot wheels. My wife wishes I didn't,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
With you, I know that addiction.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Yeah. And one of my favorite, uh uh what is
it car cars I've gotten is the v W flatban.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh. You don't see those very often, do I mean?
If you're like me, I double take, I'm like what
is that?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
So, and there's actually a Dodge version of a v
very similar. Yeah, similar era, similar design, but distinctively Dodge.
That's something for you to look out for.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, And that's one thing about Houston. I've noticed is
going down, like Northside Village, near Side, Northside, the Heights.
I don't know about river Oaks, but like even Acres
homes and and all the little super neighborhoods. You're going
to find a classic car eventually. It's not a matter
of if it's going to be win and I try
(19:56):
to take a picture of them. One of my favorite
classic cars that I found in here Houston was uh,
it was at a dealership south side of Houston. I
just can't can't remember the place at. But you know,
like when Henry Ford said, what color you know his
car should be in? You know there's always black, you know,
or absolutely or darker black type of thing, So black
(20:20):
or blacker, that's right. And so somebody took a model
T and painted it poisoned green. I have it displayed
and I thought that was so cool when I found it.
But that'll bring us to the end of our second segment.
When we come back, we're going to get into some
of Cindy's travels because she doesn't just stick around like Texas.
(20:42):
She goes all over Texas, don't get me wrong. And
when she talks about those classic courthouses, if you want
a place to go for some amazing classic courthouses. Uh,
that that's a tongue twister. Go up the two eighty
seven corridor between Dallas and Amarillo and and you'll see
some amazing old courthouses from the late eighteen hundreds right
(21:05):
up there. So when we come back, we're getting to
some of her travels. We'll talk about this on International
sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders. Glad you're
(21:28):
still with us. We're in segment three. I'm actually keeping
track this time of our conversation with the real Texan,
the t h E R e A L t X,
and the real Texan Cindy. She is the official photographer
for nififty fifties. The car club here in the Houston area.
I think they're out of Spring right now.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, it's Houston right here in Houston.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, Spring Spring maybe a different town, but it's it's
part of It's like Humble, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But will tell them that in Houston. I tell people
all the time. I'm like, you know, the reality is is,
whether we like it or not, the way Houston's grown
is ear regardless of what your community name is, You're
still Houston.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
That's right. I'm in a task Asita and uh, you know,
two and a half miles one way is a Houston
city limit and then another five miles another way is
Lake Houston city limits.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, I know that, and I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Surprised there's certain parts of that have a Houston zip
code aren't officially Houston yet if they make sense.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It is interesting. I live in Cyphair and my zip
code and address are cy Fhair. And by the way,
sy Fhair was never an incorporated community, so it's not
like we don't have the infrastructure that some of the
other communities in quote unquote Houston have. My father is
directly across a major thoroughfare right here, has a Houston
address with a Houston zip code, but is not inside
(22:58):
the city limits. So Houston so therefore cannot vote on
anything that relates to Houston public policy.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Or those extra taxable areas or like ex t or
some weird.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Like they're called exts, which are or correct, exactly correct,
their extra taxable areas. So essentially they were areas that
were annexed for taxation purposes, but the city limits were
not actually extended to include them. It's a really you
know it's a uniquely Houston thing. And you know, I
always tell people that move from other places to Houston.
(23:32):
I was like, you are unlikely to find other cities
that have grown the way that Houston does. And Houston's actually,
you know, I mean, Houston considers itself to be the
modern city. I mean, this is definitely a city where
so much of our growth was the product of modernization.
And so you know, we praise modernization, but sometimes it
creates these really weird spaces that are unincorporated. But also Houston.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, and also part of that modernization was Lady Bird
Johnson killing all the billboards with the beautification and also
talking to do you know the al Cop? I do not,
Uh Robert, I think Robert Anderson. I think that's his name, Altcop.
If you if, I'm as if I didn't get your
(24:20):
real name, I'm so sorry. I got to have him
on He's he tells me some of the ins and
outs of you know, like because Houston used to be
a hotbed of neon. I have a video I found
videos on of on YouTube, like nineteen sixties Houston nightlife,
the like the Tiki Room and the downtown was just
(24:41):
covered a neon and apparently in the seventies a councilwoman
came along as like, if you don't you know, as
soon as they come out of disrepair, you got to
take it down and change it.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's the thing. I mean, that's that whole modernization piece.
And people, you know, people will talk about Houston and
lacking and historical buildings and so forth, and that, I mean,
the drive behind that was the consistent modern movement in
Houston eradicated a lot of historical buildings because they weren't
up kept. So during the same time that those neon
(25:14):
signs were being removed, the historical buildings were being torn
down because they'd either fallen into disrepair or they were
going to be replaced by a much more modern building.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah. And and you see remnants of the old every
so often. It's kind of like that electrical power station.
Like you're going out it's either Polk Street or the
next street over, there's an old arc deco building that's
a power station building. As you're going out to warts
Highland Dairy. I could see where it's at because I
(25:47):
travel it all the time. I used to travel that
way all the time at night looking for signs and
you'll see those really cool old school like arc deco,
you know, kind of like the penguin arms, the penguin arms.
Over on Revere Street, it's the only Google apartment building
in Houston, and it is the quirkiest looking building. But
(26:11):
it looks like somebody said, it looks like a Batman
villain layer. I love it well, and.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I love the ones that have survived, right the one
somehow like the modernization skipped that block.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, that is the best way to put it, because
it's so quirky. You'll see all those you know, you know,
the gentrified homes come in, come in, come in, theyt saying,
you know, you've got old fifties sixties apartment buildings. Then
unfortunately they've taken down the old cool script. The script
(26:47):
that's on the side of the building now is just
like you no ten to fifty Constitutional Way or whatever
it is, Commonwealth. But you know, they still try to
keep a little bit of the old there with a
modern twist. Know over in the Heights and Montrose they
do that with a few of those, but there's still
that they can't escape at one hundred percent in Houston.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well they can't. And I think you know there there
definitely is, you know, an undercurrent of desire to protect
what remains right, and I'm so grateful for that. I
think that, you know, one of the beautiful, beautiful things
about the melting pot that is Houston is that as
people move in and move out, there's always this new
(27:31):
renewed interest in the history of the city that kind
of keeps that undercurrent moving because without that, I do
think that some of those buildings that were quote unquote missed,
you know, would eventually find their way to a demolition
ball or to such an overhaul that the historical detail
(27:51):
would be lost in the mix. So you mentioned how
you drive around looking for vintage shines. I think you
know my one of my I call it probably vintage
Neon sign eleanor is the Spex liquor sign that has
the bunny rabbit foot to one of that well, you know,
so I love that you asked that question. Yeah, so
(28:15):
if you find it, I will I'll pay you a
finder's fee. Growing up, we always rode trips to Dallas,
which is where my cousins lived. And as a little kid,
like I don't remember a lot as most of us don't.
But the one thing I always remembered, and it was
the sign to me that we were back in Houston.
Was there was a spec Spex on the North Freeway,
(28:36):
so forty five north of downtown, right around where Gallery
Furniture is located today, that had a giant Neon sign.
You know the Specs. We all know the Spex bunny,
but it's foot tapped and I just as a child,
I found that sign so mesmerizing. I just, you know,
I don't know if it was the ah, the feeling
(28:57):
of we're almost home, because that was one of the
few things I would know as a child riding in
the backseat, or if it was just the sheer fact
that in my mind it was animated right that bunny
was alive. It's tappened its foot like it's impatient. I
have heard rumor there's still one somewhere in Houston by
yet to find it. So that is my eleanor if
there's my reference to to gone in sixty seconds, you know,
(29:21):
mainly because to your point, like most of the neon
signs that still exist in Houston are not terribly well kept,
and the ones that are functional don't have that animated
motion that is so distinctly you know sixties. I mean
it was definitely sixties.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I wonder if Jimmy Hideout has it, you know, I write.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It out there. I'm gonna go there just to see
if they've got that sign.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Because that's the first person that came to mind. I
don't know who runs it, but you know, whoever runs
Hemmy hide Out, he's got all. He's got all the
Neon almost well.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And part of me has always thought, well, surely Specs Downtown,
if that sign really existed, would be the one place
it would still be alive and lit. But no, so
you know, I'm in shame on them. I love Specs.
I'll take that back, not shame on them.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
I love them, shame on them, I'll say it, shame
on you tell us where it's it. But it's kind
of like when you're going talking about the animated Neon.
There's money, money money there on Shepherd. The animation's kind
of gone away, but the shoes still look cool. But
the only other one I can think of right off
the top of my head, and I know that I'm
missing something in Houston. I got to go through my pictures. Oh,
(30:38):
the Deans downtown that's technically animated.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Oh it is. Yeah, And you know what, I absolutely
adore Deans and have for years and years and years
back to before Dean's you know what, anybody had rediscovered Deans. Yeah,
it's just one of those, you know, storefronts that really
sticks out in your mind, at least in Houston, because
there are so few that have the original storefront detail
(31:03):
and the neon and talked. You know, you'll find a
storefront now, I think where they've taken a lot of
the cladding off, or they've removed the detail, kept the
sign or vice versa. But to have them both in
one spot is really amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
And just around the corner is the Majestic. I don't
think they call them as the Majestic Metros in Dallas
the Metro Theater, do they call them Majestic Metro?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I think they do still call the Majestic Metro if
I'm not mistaken what I am? Yeah, and I do.
I have a recent shot of it, but it was
really dark that night. I was kind of disappointed, you know.
It's photography is one of those things where it's either spot.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
On or not. Yeah, and I'm both. I will. The
only way I could get a picture of it is
if I'm driving, because they don't have it on late
at night. They only have on during business hours, so
I'll kind of have to slow down and stop and track,
take a picture and go, and I'm happy with whatever
I get. But the other animated sign that comes to
(31:58):
my mind is up in Conro. It's the Cavenders up there, Yes, and.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
That's probably a pretty I would think that signs probably
pretty long on the tooth too, because Cavenders has been
around a long time. You know, probably not in the
locations in today, but you know, there was a Cavenders
and a Schepler's in Austin at a mall location that
is no longer there. It was called Highland Mall. It's
been leveled, so anyone listening that's from Austin will know
(32:27):
where I'm talking about. And hopefully I'm not miss speaking.
I'm not an Austin expert, but both of those stores
had amazing Neon signs, and that Schepfler's held out until
Schepler's closed business. Those are probably also very desirable signs.
Who knows where those are at these days? But yeah,
I mean, westernware stores have so many options in Neon
if they could do.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
It right, oh gosh, you're not kidding. And in Oklahoma
City kind of has that feel to it. You'll find
some old Western stores still with their neon. And I
was just scrolling through your feed and I get this
to this in the next segment. I kind of like
sometimes the dirt roads we go down in the podcast. Uh,
you never know, we might talk about cryptids. Is you know,
(33:11):
going through down light in Leaky Texas the Gypsy Sally's.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
So that sign you know I am. I am a
habitual or habitual vacation traveler, meaning I like to go
back to the same places. I'm kind of let's do
the traditional, like every summer we go somewhere, So this
is the every summer trip we take, and we we
go to Garner State Park like thousands of other Texans do.
(33:39):
We are the crazy ones who go in the heat
of August right as right as the majority of the
state is going back to school. Our district gives us
some extra time, so we kind of take that sweet
spot where everything is still open. Lakey, Texas, if you're
not going into CONCN, which you know is the kind
(34:00):
of what I like to call the resort town, Lakey
is your option for the every man's town, and so
you know, I'm kind of the let's go to the
every man's town. I'm the one who wants to stop,
you know, and take pictures of everything in the town
that nobody is discovered and made glamour shit. Well, in
Laky there's Gypsy Sally's, which you know, is the local
(34:21):
watering hole. They do it Thursday night at steak Night
or Wednesday n I don't rememberf it's Wednesday or Thursday night,
but it's kind of the place that all the locals
go to. And I'm sure it's happened during summer too.
But that sign the first year we were there, we
were just passing through town. And actually every time we've
gone through Laky there's been something that I've been like, well,
that's interesting. That first year it was the neon sign.
(34:43):
The next year was a woman selling her husband's collection
of two hundred and twenty You heard the number, right,
two hundred and twenty Model T Fords.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
W how do you play that many? Well?
Speaker 2 (34:58):
And to be honest with, where are you keeping two
hundred and twenty Model T Forwards out in the middle
of the hill country and where else there too?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (35:07):
And that's the thing is. I mean when we came across,
what caught our eye was two like beautiful brand new
car transporters that were like lit up, you know, like
fanciest brand new, probably even had paper plates. Were on
the side of this you know, country road. And if
you're familiar with the highways the Twisted Sisters go through
that area of Texas. If you don't know what the
(35:29):
Twisted Sisters are, they're the three most traveled highways for motorcycles,
most scenic highways for motorcycles in Texas. So we're like,
what are these transporters doing here? And then too you
look just a little bit further to the right and
behind the local auction house for livestock, they had lined
up for inspection all of you know, a portion of
(35:50):
the collection. So, of course, being who I am, being
who my family is, we are like, well, let's just
pull over and talk to these guys, which is exactly
what we did. And they were like, well, honest thing,
we've been out here for two months. I can't remember
if it was Mike them auto auction or yeah, so
he had passed. She was like, I don't know what
(36:12):
to do with these things. I'm going to sell them,
and so they had been out evaluating them. Every single
one of them had and know this, they weren't all
us vehicles. Some of them had been imported from overseas
as well, so they were models from all over the
world to round out his collection. But each one had
a little note on it by the auctioneer that had
said this one's missing this, this one's missing that, so
(36:34):
then when they would go to auction, they could speak
correctly about the condition of the vehicle. It was wild.
But back to Gypsy Sally's that first year, you know,
when I saw that sign, I was like, this sign
like literally makes me so happy. How many different angles
can I take of this sign? Can I come see
it in the pitch dark of night that you know? Two? Three?
(36:55):
Each year since then, I've photographed it multiple times, and
you know, the people at the place are just like
you know, it's just like the sign is what captures
people's attention. It causes them to come in if they
don't know what we do. They they serve amazing food.
But like I said, it's a local watering hole, so
you know, I think, you know, after hours, it's certainly
(37:15):
the one and only bar in Lakey Texas. It's open.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah, it kind of reminds me before we're going to
break like Do Boys Wyoming, they're like two or three
bars in downtown. Do Boys Do Boys is like nine
hundred people in the middle of nowhere, and well everything's
in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming, Well right exactly, but
you know at one in the morning, that place is
(37:40):
hopping and people are just crossing the street and everything,
you know, going from one bar to the next. But
just like we're going from one, like they go from
one bar to the next, where we go from one
segment to the next, we're going to get because of
the time constraints. I'm here at work. I got to
start work at eight. We're just going to go straight
to the bucket list. We've talked about everything, but what
(38:00):
we've wanted to talk about, which is what this show
kind of does. It does what it wants to everything.
It has its own mind. So when we come back,
we'll get into a little more of some great places
she's been and some other places that Cindy might want
to go to take pictures of anything and everything. You're
listening to International sign Finders. Welcome back to International sign Finders.
(38:40):
Glad you're still with us. The country roads have taken
us down some interesting to interesting places. We talk about
classic cars, some cool Neon signs. In the middle of nowhere.
I hate to use that term, but you know when
the closest town next to you is like sixty miles away,
kind of like Penguins, Utah. That's the middle of nowhere.
(39:00):
I've been to Penguich. It is the middle of nowhere.
But now we're going to get into Cindy the real
text and go follow her on Instagram and we'll probably
get into other places you can find her work as well.
Probably also Randy's website or yeah, Randy's instagram fifty fifties.
I'll have a link to that as well. So I'd
like to always close my shows with where do you
(39:22):
want to go? What would be like a bucketless place
for you? We might have to split one of these
segments up ad in another commercial break because you know,
iHeart but yes we are. iHeart podcasts. So you've been
I've noticed you've been to Wisconsin, which is one of
my bucketless places. Yeah, and not just Milwaukee, I'm talking Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Ohay, just recently experienced Wisconsin, like true Wisconsin firsthand. And
you know, I have been fortunate in my professional life
to be in a traveling role for many, many years.
So I've been to a lot of places in the
US that quite honestly, I would not have picked off
(40:05):
a map, would have had no reason to go to.
And I had the opportunity. Actually, my niece was getting
married to someone who is from Wisconsin and out in
the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin, and so I made
the decision to I flew in for business. I had
(40:27):
some business that I needed to attend to in Wisconsin
of all places. So I flew into Milwaukee and made
the decision to drive across the state. And for anyone
who has been to Wisconsin, they probably could guess what
I'm going to say next, But if you haven't, I
will say that, never have I ever and I'm from
Texas and I have driven all over Texas, so this,
I think this is saying something never have I ever
(40:49):
seen corn fields as beautiful as the cornfields in was
in Wisconsin in September. And you know, I learned a
thing or two about Wisconsin on that trip that that
really we're quite unexpected for me, and some of it
is just simply. You know, when you're from somewhere and
you spend most of your life somewhere, you believe the
rest of the world is either so completely different that
(41:11):
you're never going to appreciate it or like it, or
you're just going to, you know, go and judge it
and be like, yeah, but my place is still better,
you know, wherever that place is. And so the two
things I discovered in that trip, So from Wisconsin to
where my destination was, which was essentially on the opposite
side of this or excuse me, from Milwaukee to the
opposite side of the state, which is where my destination was,
(41:33):
I discovered two things. One is that Wisconsin is actually
not a state filled with small towns. It is a
state filled with communities that are centered around farming, that
have one of two places they probably go in a
given day the church or the tavern.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, the supper clubs, yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
In the middle of the cornfields.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
I'm talking about, That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
I mean, I could see the neon that night that
I drove from Milwaukee out to Lacrosse, which is where
I ended, I could see the neon from the taverns
from miles away. Because the countryside in Wisconsin is rolling,
so you know, granted most of them were beer neons,
but it's quite an interesting juxtaposition to be in the
(42:29):
middle of nowhere on a two lane surrounded by cornfields
and the only thing you see above the corn that
isn't a silo or a farmhouse is a tavern or
a church seople. That's awesome and so beautiful, so beautiful.
The second thing, Okay, go ahead, did you want to say,
We've got just like three minutes. Yeah. The second thing is,
(42:52):
without a doubt, Wisconsin is the home of beer. So
you know, it's not just a tavern, but just the
pride around the corn industry there, the farming industry, the
actual brewing industry. I mean, we have great breweries here
in Houston, Indies and so forth, but you know, really
really amazing, and I would say to anyone you should
(43:14):
go beautiful beautiful, beautiful architecture, great state pride, and gorgeous scenery.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah. So, now we got two minutes left. I hate
to rush this, it's just the nature of the beast
right now. But where's the places that you would like
to go that you haven't or maybe revisit?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Sure, Palm Springs is definitely on my list. And I've
lived in California twice, so you know why I did
not make it there, don't ask me, I don't know.
I mean it is for me the haven of all
things mid century cars, signage, architecture, like it's perfection. And
then I will always tell people I could go to
(43:52):
New Orleans one hundred times and find something new there
over and over and over again. And I'm not a
Bourbon Street goer, so it's not about Bourbon Street and
the French Quarter party. It's really about the culture and
the history.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Oh cool, and there's a lot of history there too.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Oh my gosh. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
And you know you talk about the people who go
on like the graveyard I mean the graveyard tours. Are
you know that's enough to bring a lot of people
to New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Oh? Absolutely absolutely, And you know, close to home if
you have listeners in Houston, the cemeteries in Galveston don't disappoint.
They're certainly not as age and architecturally interesting as New Orleans,
but similar in age and stories.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah, dang it, I've driven by them and they look
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
So yeah, you have to put that on your list.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, I've got to get back to Galveston. I mean,
there's some good nee on a Galveston, but now got
to go to the cemeteries. So as we wrap things up,
where can we find you? Besides Instagram? Are there other
places that we can find you?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah? So my photography work is actually on the real
text spelled the same way. So my prints are available,
they are the ones that I've chosen to take to print. Yeah,
so mostly landscape there, but that site will evolve over time. Instagram,
which you've already shared. And then yes, my car photography
does live on nifty fifties on Facebook and that's nifty
(45:19):
n I F T E E five zero e E
s and then of course the Instagram handle for nifty
fifties as well.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Cool. Well, thank you so much Cindy for joining us,
even on Christmas week. This is our nift show. Yes,
so our gift everybody else. But so as I like
to finish out every week, get out, hit the pavement,
take pictures. We don't care if we've seen it one
hundred times or one time. Take pictures of those things
that you love, where there's neon signs, classic cars or
even landscape landscape photography is great too, we don't. They're
(45:51):
parts of the country that you think would be mundane,
but you'd be surprised how much people would love just
to see it through your eyes as well. So pretty
share that with us, and until next time, happy sign
finding
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