Wandering About, One Day at a Time
Now that I’ve got my new Pentax Limited lens, I’ve been going around to signs and places nearby that I’ve taken shots of before, just to compare. Part of me is saying to myself, is this really going to make a difference? and the other part is saying, Well, I’m going to have fun trying. The most obvious choice for a test was Nick’s Diner in Allentown, since I’ve taken so many pictures there before. I stopped by there yesterday and snapped off a bunch with the new lens.
Yep, that’ll do.
One of the happier pieces of news I have received in the past few days is the announcement that after a time of disrepair, the sign atop Roadside America in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania has been restored. This was good news for a number of different reasons, not the least of which, because I worked on their website, I would have an official opportunity to take pictures of their sign. But while I’m at it, of course, I might as well share with all of you.
The Original Sign, although in March of this year, it looked like this…click here
And now today…
If you’ve never been to Roadside America (get ready for the plug), it is the masterwork of Laurence Gieringer, who specialized in miniatures and model railroading in the first half of the twentieth century. Essentially, it’s a gym-sized building filled with an electric train set of your dreams: trees, houses, a giant waterfall, several trains running at once and several moving parts.
It has not changed since Gieringer‘s death in 1963, so for instance, the town at the front right-hand corner has an old one-screen movie theater and an Esso station. During the presentation that happens every hour, Kate Smith signs “God Bless America,” which forty or fifty ago would be considered rather typical and quite possibly corny, but in this day and age seems strangely wonderful, nostalgic and charming.
If you’re on your way out of New York City or New Jersey going to points west along 78, this is definitely one of those places you won’t want to miss. This was my third time through and every time I see details and little things I’ve missed before.
Since I often get to hear some of the comments of the people who visit, one of the things that fascinate me is the people who went when they were kids who are now taking their children or grandchildren. Whether its spoken or not, they see the trains and the buildings and the people through different eyes now, almost fascinated with how much the world outside those four walls has changed. It’s as if their childhood, or a part of it, has been bottled up in there, still active, still in constant motion around the miles of track.
And now the plug: visit Roadside America on the internet at roadsideamericainc.com
So, to finish off the camera geekery I expressed in a previous post, I decided on the Pentax 35mm 2.8 Macro Limited. Essentially, it seemed to me to be the perfect Swiss Army knife for my kit. It just arrived today!
About a month ago, we were watching one of those house hunting shows where a couple is ducking in and out of houses, accompanied by an agent, all the while expressing opinions on this and that. The couple in this particular episode featured a woman who was deep into feng shui. Deep into feng shui. Every room was throwing off negative energy and this wasn’t right and that wasn’t right and everything is just wrong wrong wrong. This was the constant theme. It got to the point where, as often happens on these type of shows, you begin to wonder how the person’s poor spouse doesn’t hit them over the head with something heavy on a routine basis. Even the host, whose job it is to stay positive and cordial, was very obviously seconds away from some sort of conniption fit. It struck me as great irony that someone who was such a stickler for negative energy was such a free-flowing source of it.
I’m a believer in creating a positive atmosphere, which is what feng shui should be about. Our house was getting a bit cluttered and as a result, we decided to see if there were any feng shui tips we could discover on the internet. There were, of course, but it can get hairy and confusing very quickly, so we figured it was best to stick to basics.
On Saturday, I made good on a promise I made to Laura a while ago, to take her to Hot Dog Johnny’s in Buttzville, New Jersey. I went last summer when I had a bit of extra time over lunch, and it was well worth the drive. It opened up in 1944 as a little stand off US 46 with its back to the Pequest River, and it’s continued on ever since. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and the parking lot was full, and full of people with license plates of other states. Hot Dog Johnny’s is one of those rare places that people are willing to drive miles out of their way to get to. A positive atmosphere.
So what makes a positive atmosphere in this case? The food, certainly. Hot Dog Johnny’s follows that fine New Jersey tradition of dipping their hot dogs in oil and frying them up a bit. I insist Rutt’s Hut in Clifton is still the best at this method, but in the end who cares? It’s all good. As for drink, they serve two unusual offerings: Birch Beer, which you can get in a frosty mug, a drink that you forget how good it is until you taste it again; and (stay with me now) Buttermilk. Yes, that’s right. A drink so old-fashioned you can only picture old guys in shorts and black socks with garters drinking it. But let me tell you something: Laura had some and it was good. Better than Buttermilk’s reputation good.
What else makes it a positive atmosphere? One of the things that we read about feng shui was that you should “keep your mouth clean.” More or less, this means to keep your entrance uncluttered, and as you can see, the round shape of the booth and the many windows assure the lines never get too long.
Water features are a big thing with feng shui. So it doesn’t hurt to have a river flowing by the place.
And of course, my favorite, the neon signs? A fire element!
Now, of course, I’m not an expert. Heck, I don’t even pretend to have the level of understanding the annoying woman on the TV show had, but it’s fairly obvious from the beginning that there is something that draws people to this place besides the eponymous hot dogs. It’s a special place. People from all around will continue to come to this spot and feel what I did, that sense of happiness, even peace, and while I was at it, had a fine dog and a birch beer. I’ll be back.
Allow me to get technical for a moment.
It’s been an odd year for us this year. It started out with two months worth of interviews for a job that would have uprooted us to live in frozen climes, only to see it end ingloriously with a job offer that fell below the radar, followed by a trip to San Antonio, followed by taking turns with the flu. In the midst of all this, I finally decided it was high time to upgrade my lens from a kit and a few old manual primes to something better.
Mine is a Pentax K5, which has been a treat. The Pentax “limited” lens group is well recognized for its build quality and sharpness, but unfortunately, funds are just as limited and I can only afford to get one at a time. Which brings up the messy business of figuring out which lens, in fact, works best for my purposes. In that spirit, I decided to go out to some of my favorite local spots to see what focal lengths I normally use.
My first thought was that I would need something more like a portrait lens, perhaps the 70mm from Pentax, or if I felt like laying down some good money, the 77mm that everyone raves about. I came to a different conclusion on my first stop, The Movies in Hellertown. I put my 70-300 zoom on the K5 and stood across the road, knowing the results of the shots I’ve taken before. Only problem is, I couldn’t get much of anything in shot, so I went back to the kit and shot this one at a focal length of 24mm.
My 50mm prime was just as inadequate from this distance with this shot, so I pulled out my old 28mm and got this. Bear in mind I don’t have any room behind me to stand any further back, unless I wanted to be bold and walk up on someone’s front porch:
Strike one for anything above 24mm, but then again, compared to most of my sign pictures, this is an unusually large structure ( I also remind myself that Pentax makes a 21mm pancake lens, which would be ideal for this shot). A bit disappointed, I moved on to something smaller, but also one with challenges. I scooted across the border into Phillipsburg, NJ to Eddie’s Drive-In. This old ice cream stand has closed and sits in the parking lot of The Sand Bar, right near the Free Bridge across the Delaware. I put the kit lens on to start, and this time, I used a focal length of 31mm:
Exactly what I wanted, and as it happens, the jewel in Pentax’s crown as far as lenses is concerned, is their 31mm lens. However, if you take a gander at the price tag for this jewel, you’ll understand that this causes another dilemma. I went back to the car and put the 75-300 back on. Not enough room for me to get this even from the porch of The Sand Bar at 75, so I stood at an angle and got this shot:
Decent, but not exactly what I was looking for (but, by the way, Laura liked this shot better that the other). Strike two, as far as I was concerned. Anything above 40mm would not be able to get the straight-on shot I was looking for. But again, this sign is a tough one, and you really need to get the full building in shot to get the best out of it.
Then I went to Shankweiler’s Drive-In in Orefield, PA. This is a smaller sign, free-standing, and has a lot of room to stand back. In this case, the 75mm worked very well:
But which ones of these was the rarity? The large object with very little room to stand back, or the smaller neon sign with lots of room for me to roam? I kind of knew the answer to this, but when I went back home, I figured I’d go back and look at all the shots I’d already taken, and see what focal lengths I use the most often.
What I found was that I very infrequently shoot at the wide end of my capabilities, which is 18mm. This shot from Olga’s last fall was one of few that I shot at that range.
Occasionally, the best shot I took was from 75mm with my long zoom lens, but almost always I used anything higher than that to shoot details of the sign. This was one of the few I took at above 75, from Harrington Music in Cortland, NY this past spring. This one was a rarity because I rarely get a clear shot from that distance:
Overall, I shot mostly in the 28mm-40mm range, and fortunately, there are many good choices in the Pentax limited line that fit the bill. Of course, if anyone has a spare 77mm 1.8 on their hands they can let me borrow, I certainly won’t turn it down. Wish me luck!
As you might imagine, I have a pretty sizable love for old stuff, so on occasion I’ve been known to stop by an antique mall or two. A couple weeks ago, I went with a purpose: my nephews were having a costume birthday party and I was going to go as a spy. So naturally I needed a spy camera, because that’s how this spy rolls.
I ended up in the Black Rose in Allentown because I was pretty sure I could find a cheap, old, plastic number that would fit the bill, and sure enough I did. It was an Ansco (made proudly in Binghamton, NY, as was I), and it even had a case to go with it. But in the meantime, as I wandered from booth to booth in this massive space, I came across a booth with three photographs, all black and white, all mounted on foam-core. The first, which caught my eye, was of a piano player, resting on top of the piano, lazily pressing his fingers to the keys. The second was of four women in identical white dresses, arranged in a semi-circle, and who should be in the middle of that semi-circle but Mr. Ray Charles himself.
And then a third, which seemed to have very little to do with the others. But that was the one I bought.
File under: must have
I didn’t know anything about it, where it came from, where it was taken, if it still existed, but I knew I had to have it, so I swiped it up and took it home. Immediately, I popped open the laptop to try and get some information on it. A few minutes work and it was fairly obvious that the B&M no longer existed; there is a B&M in Cleveland, but none at a “1617” street address. I delved into that possibility for a while, but it seemed unlikely. Then I noticed the flyers in the window, and in tiny letters just above the circus poster, I got my answer:
Forbes Field is the former home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, so sure enough, when I looked up B&M Pittsburgh, the light went on.
The B&M was featured in a small section of John Brewer’s book “African Americans in Pittsburgh,” and even carried with it a picture of the opposite side of the sign, taken around the same time period. In it, Brewer says this:
Famous Pittsburgh-born playwright August Wilson loved the B&M Restaurant in the Hill. All of the meals were home cooked. August loved the fluffy biscuits, grits, eggs, and sometimes hotcakes to energize his thoughts. The B&M rested in the lower Center Avenue part of Pittsburgh. The owner invested in a bright shiny marble facade which caught the eye, and set the B&M at the top of the food establishments in the Hill.
And the picture on the story stated that the picture was taken from the estate of Charles “Teenie” Harris. So back to Google I went, and I got even more excited. Charles “Teenie” Harris was a magnificent photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the leading African-American newspapers in the country. He specialized in pictures of everyday life, but he had more than a few of baseball players and other assorted celebrities. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the exact photograph that I have, but it would seem to be Mr. Harris’s work. Even more exciting, Teenie Harris has been honored by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh with a marvelous online archive. Go here and you won’t regret it.
Obviously I love the sign, which is why I bought it, but I’ve got to admit, this guy is my favorite part of the picture. He’s just too cool. He strikes me as one of those kind of guys that just smiles and says Hi to everyone who walks past. It may be my imagination, too, but at this moment it appears that behind his glasses he’s spotted the photographer, be he Teenie Harris or not. A brief, very human moment in time, captured forever.
As for the restaurant itself, I found out that the B&M was owned and operated by a woman named Bessie Mae Rawls, who opened it up in 1949 with the help of her son and daughter. Located at 1617 Centre Avenue, the B&M was a popular place up the late 60’s, but it eventually closed in 1973. Bessie Mae lived to be 102 years old and passed away in 2007. Her obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is here.
All the better that this photograph exists. I wonder how long that picture had been sitting in the Black Rose. I honestly wonder how it got there, but I suppose in the end, it doesn’t really matter. I feel richer for learning more about Teenie Harris, even if he didn’t take this picture, and for hearing about the hospitality of Mrs. Rawls. I never met either of them, but I’ll be warmed by their memories every time I look at this photograph.
Hand lettered sign, Helmrich’s Seafood, Williamsport, PA
One of the coolest things to happen to me in a while happened to me last week: it seems that the type designer Tobias Frere-Jones was writing an article for his blog on the subject of regional type. The main body of the article is a list he composed with others of photostreams, blogs, personal sites and such, showing off “type in the wild” in a variety of countries. As it so happens, Jean-Francois Porchez, the French type designer, is a follower of mine on Instagram (which is impossibly cool all in itself), and he suggested my feed to Tobias Frere-Jones. The article is here.
These shots, showing off some of the best hand-lettering I’ve seen, are the decorations on the side of Helmrich’s Seafood in Williamsport, PA. I took these in May of 2012 and they remain some of my favorites.
Following Frere-Jones’ lead, it occurred to me that I have a lot of people I’d like to acknowledge. Whereas I am a great believer in happenstance, I have discovered that this crazy thing I do is so much easier when I get some inspiration. Here are a few sites and streams that I always go back to when the well runs dry:
Retro Roadmap: Another impossibly cool thing that as happened since I started this site up a year ago…Beth Lennon (Mod Betty, to us mere mortals) of Retro Roadmap was one of my early supporters and shared an article or two on her Facebook page. Even before I started sharing all this stuff in this form, I was reading her blog and visiting some of the places she had visited. Thanks, Mod Betty, for always inspiring me.
AgilityNut/Roadside Architecture: Debra Jane Seltzer’s site has always been a magnificent source on a variety of cool subjects. Signs, roadside architecture in general, movie theaters…you name it, she’s taken a picture of it. She’s also a dog lover, so she gets my vote right away.
Seth Gaines’ Flickr Stream: It helps to know someone local. Although I’ve never met Seth, it seems our paths cross all the time. I’m not exactly sure where he lives, but I’m amazed at the alarming frequency of pictures we have of the same stuff.
Marc Shur: LA art director and sign enthusiast who has created more sign shots that I wish I had taken than anybody else I know.
Sunsetmeridian on Instagram: Also mentioned in Tobias Frere-Jones article, Sunset and I share an affinity for Old Florida. A terrific follow on Instagram.
Iveseenthesigns on Instagram: A fellow Pennsylvania sign geek, our paths cross all the time on the internet if not in real life.
Dewey Thomas: Awesome, awesome photographer who occasionally takes pictures of signs that seem to be meant specifically to inspire me.
Cinema Treasures: THE source of information on movie theaters, living or dead.
Let’s back up a bit. A few months ago, I put out a post called “Tales of Philly Sales,” about a dear departed department store in the city of Binghamton. The response on that particular post has been tremendous, which led me to think about writing a sequel to it, sharing some of the memories that had been shared with me. I decided to use a trip to Binghamton as an opportunity to get a few more sign shots to back up the story.
A few things got in the way. First, our trip to San Antonio yielded much more than I imagined, and so for a months I posted little else. Second, the flu hit us, and I wasn’t upright long enough to sit in front of a computer to type it out. And then, all of a sudden, I knew why it was taking me so long to get this story together.
Early March: The first night I was in town I got in a bit early. Don’t ask me why–maybe I was bored and needed something to do–but I decided to go by Ellis Brothers and take a shot of the sign. I had gotten shots of this sign before. Twice before, in fact, but something compelled me to go by. I snapped off a few, kind of half-wondering what I was going to do with these shots. It was kind of a dull evening, and cold, and the first grouping of shots I got four years ago were vibrant and fantastic.
So I got creative:
I slipped in underneath the sign and used my long zoom lens to get this perspective, and as soon as I previewed it I knew this was the reason I was there. And then again, maybe it wasn’t…
Last week, Ellis Brothers Furniture, one of the oldest businesses in Binghamton, went through a terrible fire. It’s expected that the building will have to come down.
Do I have to mention the Little Voice? Listen to that Little Guy in your head, the one who tells you to do things that no one would care one way or the other whether you shrug them off or not. Ten times out of ten when the Little Guy says to take a picture and I do, I don’t regret it. Chances are, this was a last opportunity to get a shot of this fantastic old sign. I’ll try to keep you updated on this one.
While I was at it that same night, I got this shot of a marvelous set of ghost signs that I had been meaning to get for a while. As you can see, it was still basically winter…
As I said before, the weather turned nasty the last few days we were in San Antonio, so there wasn’t a whole lot of photography going on, but there were plenty of pictures I left out of my posts from the first three days just simply because I didn’t have enough room!
This ghost sign was across the street from the Alamo. I still can’t really make out what it was, but the shapes and hints of colors make me believe it must have been quite grand in its day. This was actually the first shot I took that week.
Art Corner, Universal City, TX
We spotted this one on our way through back streets to get the picture of the Randolph Cleaners on Day 2. It was difficult to tell if this place was still open. I love the shape of this sign, and it’s a rare sight to see one of these corrugated signs still standing.
I’m always fascinated by signs that were repurposed, and then the repurposing has, in fact, decayed more than the original. A certain justice that the sign above, around the corner from The Pig Stand in San Antonio, has shed its slapped-on skin in favor of its original metal. We passed by this on Day One, and I got this single shot from a moving car.
Threadgill’s, Austin, TX
Threadgill’s is actually from 1981, but the signs look considerably older. It’s one of many legendary Austin music locations. We came upon it during our long trek through the Austin streets on Day 3.
Miller Blueprint Co, Austin, TX
This was actually the first shot I took on Day 3, not far from where we parked. When I saw this sign, I knew it was going to be a good day. Pity we didn’t get a chance to see it lit up.
Soho Lounge, Austin, TX
This would be how you repurpose a sign. My guess is, they took the existing sign and made it their own, but who knows? It preserves the past and makes it something new, and you’ve got to admire that.
Another dessert from La Condesa in Austin. Day 3.
And some more food. On our fourth day we went up to the town of Gruene, which is known for its long-standing dance hall. Before that, however, Hannah made us this French toast casserole with bacon that was nothing short of perfection.
The Gruene Dance Hall was every bit of what I expected and more, from the creaky wood floor to the pot-bellied stoves warming the patrons chilled by the (gasp!) 60 degree temperatures that day.
Our genial hosts…
…and us… Somebody must have said something funny…
More from our weekend in Texas:
The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day One
The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day Two
The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day Three
Here’s what’s great about my sister-in-law Hannah: on the day that we had planned to make the drive up to Austin, she couldn’t sleep. So, instead of doing as the rest of us would do and lay around in bed waiting for something drowsy to happen, she got up and started surfing around the internet for places to eat in Austin. What she discovered was La Condesa, a Modern Mexican place nominated by the James Beard Foundation for Best New Restaurant. As we struggle down to breakfast she tells us this, describes the menu, and suddenly I’m counting the hours until lunch.
But first, Austin itself.
Let me say this: I don’t like the heat. I grew up in a city that gets 80-plus inches of snow a year. I lived in Chattanooga and that was too hot for me. We met several people in Chattanooga who moved from Texas to escape the heat. I HATE heat. So bear this in mind when I say this: Austin is totally worth the heat.
Obligatory Looking-Up-at-the-Top-of-the-Dome Shot
Now, of course, Austin has so many signs worth photographing that I couldn’t count them all. In fact, I had to give some a pass just because there just wasn’t time. The other unfortunate thing about this particular trip was the fact that it was pretty overcast much of the day. We walked the streets and I wandered off to gather all the best signs in.
Two jewelers sit across from each other on Congress Avenue, Kruger’s (above) and Joe Koen & Son (below) and both have been around forever, Kruger’s since 1906 and Koen, as you can see, since 1884. Kruger’s has obviously kept their signs up better, but they’re both marvelous in their own right. And I love a sign that has a working clock in it. Now that I look at it, it took me about 15 minutes to walk from one to the other. (We stopped at the Starbuck’s)
State Theater, Austin, TX
The Proverbial Taco Truck that I Didn’t Fall Off of (Moving Car Shot)
And, of course, the infamous Austin Motel shot. I think they have a good sense of humor about the shape of their sign. I would think you would have to.
Far Out.
Finally the hour came to be at La Condesa, and it did not disappoint in the least. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. I had the Cubanita, which looks promising, but let me tell you, it tastes even better than it looks.
We felt the need for dessert afterward, and that was a good decision. This is the Boca Negra, a flourless chocolate cake with ancho, chile de arbol and carmelized bananas. I am becoming a fan of chocolate and chili together:
One of my goals in coming to Austin was to go to Roadhouse Relics, and unfortunately there were two things wrong. First, the proprietor, Todd Sanders (no relation) was in New York that weekend. Second, there was a wedding about to shoot pictures in their back yard. It was time to get creative. I stuck my K-5 in Live View, held it up as high as I could get it, and took a few shots over the fence.
How many cool things do you count?
While I was at it, I went across the street, where a few more neon signs hung out. This Googie bit of fun for Freddie’s Place is still active:
Whereas Jovita’s, right next door, was out of commission. I recently found out that in 2012 the owner and several people were arrested for heroin trafficking among other charges. The location remains unoccupied.
This, however, remains open, and is the center of all things I love.
We headed back to San Antonio. The sign portion of the Food and Sign Festival effectively ended due to poor weather the next few days, but the food continued to be good and plentiful. We don’t know if we’ll manage to get back before Dan is stationed somewhere else, but we were so thankful for the experience. Travel is so good for the soul in so many ways, and helps us appreciate not only the places we visit, but the places where we live.
More from San Antonio:
We woke up on our second day in San Antonio to homemade granola and Cafe de Olla. This was going to be a day of homemade food, and when you consider our hostess’ prowess in the kitchen, restaurants could stand to take a break for a day. Hannah works at Central Market in San Antonio, so we’d be going there for some lunch and to gather in the ingredients needed for dinner. Along the way, to placate my sign addiction, we’d hit a few high spots.
Before that, though, Hannah took us over to Randolph, where Dan is technically stationed while he is doing his residency. On the way over, I spotted something poking out of the buildings across the street from the base, and after we had taken a drive through the facility, I saw that I had not misjudged what I had seen at a distance. It was the sign for Randolph Laundry & Cleaners, a neon sign on top of the building.
Happy circumstance: no one had any idea it was there. If you’ll notice, I got photobombed by a bird up at the top near the “R”. It was an angry bird.
Very angry bird…
So rather than face the wrath of this bird, we decided to go toward Central Market. Along the way, though, Hannah had a sign location in mind for me:
Bun-N-Barrel has been around since 1950, and it’s definitely a testament to the kind of roadside architecture we’ve come to know and love from that era. I indulge myself for a few minutes, even sneaking out to the median of Austin Highway to get the following shot:
And then, the Coca-Cola sign along the side. I really didn’t expect to see palm trees in San Antonio, but they really add to this shot:
We pressed on and stopped at Central Market for supplies. For those of you Yankees like me who have never been to a Central Market, it’s as if Trader Joe’s and Wegmans had a baby. Chances are, if it’s not there, you probably didn’t need it. I munched on a wild mushroom and goat cheese quesadilla for lunch as we went through aisle after aisle of marvelous food that we consider stuffing into our carry-ons. We settle on the Juan Diaz Cafe de Olla we had at breakfast. No regrets. I may order some online.
Across the street is the remains of the Broadway Theater. The Broadway opened in 1939 and was converted into a bank, then into apartments. Happily, the vertical sign has remained in terrific shape:
In the meantime, my research had led me to the Ranch Motel, which was further up Broadway. Fortunately, Hannah wanted to go by the Half Price Books that is just up the street, so it looked like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone:
Killer arrow!
And then on to the food portion of the program. Hannah decided on a Spanish theme for the evening, so she made a Spanish tortilla and a concoction with garbanzos and chorizo, two of my favorite ingredients:
You know it’s getting serious when the blow torch comes out… Chef Hannah prepares fideua.
And for dessert: fig and goat cheese ice cream. Yes, you heard right. I could eat a gallon of this right now.
Hannah’s friend Emily came over for the feast. She’s from Chattanooga and we lived in Chattanooga for ten years so we had a great talk over great food.
More from San Antonio:
