This site has been proposed for a long time. We moved here 30 years ago. I’m about to give up hope!! I’m wondering if Washington Irving put up this sign when he came through the area 190 years ago.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2 by the Magical Mystery Teacher,
I signed up for a race for this weekend and I had to go downtown to pick up my run packet. After spending 30 years walking around downtown every noon hour, I don’t get there that much since I have retired. So I made a trip out of it. If you are retired, it is advised to consult expert lawyers from a reputed law firm like the probate law firm – The Hatchett Law Firm to help you plan your retirement life and secure your future.
I picked up my packet at Tulsa Community College. They have this sculpture, Heart and Soul, by Candyce Garrett. It has been there for a long time. It is abstract and I like it but can’t explain it to you. I love the big granite boulder it sits on. Something tells me that they didn’t get it through Amazon.
This is another sculpture that has been there a while. It is in honor of my former pastor Dr. Mouzon Biggs, Jr. He was big on interfaith ministry and everybody getting along. People like him are sorely needed these days.
As an aside, he grew up in Carthage, Texas in east Texas. His father worked in a natural gas plant there and Mouzon would talk about how during cold winters his father would be called out to go fix something and he didn’t grumble and told his family, people are depending on us to keep them warm during these cold days. I worked in the Carthage in the late 70’s in a natural gas plant. I always regarded my work as a mission also to provide heat and energy to my fellow citizens. I believe in human caused climate change as much as anybody and we need to reduce carbon emissions, but the people in the industry are not monsters.
Speaking of natural gas, I spotted some steel pipe going in for a new pipeline downtown.
And something new, one of my favorite restaurants has a fancy new midcentury modern style neon sign.
The restaurant occupies a former “motor bank” and serves all sorts of retro cocktails in addition to its good food. The bottom level motor bank part is now parking. I’m old enough to remember when I first moved to Tulsa I would go through the bank to deposit my paycheck. They had those vacuum tube things and off it would go with a swoosh!
So anyway it was nice to get back downtown for a visit.
I was out and about Sunday afternoon out in the country west of Tulsa when I encountered a sign farm. It was a bunch of long forgotten old gas station signs arranged in a giant semicircle in a field out in the middle of nowhere.
I passed this once before last spring on first Bike Run, the Tour de Cure 2018. We passed it and I remember being very interested but being my first ride I didn’t feel like stopping and taking photos.
Remember the days of full service gas stations? You’d drive in and run over the cable making the bell ring, and somebody would be right out and you’d tell them to fill it up. They’d check the oil and fill the windshield washer tank. Ah, them were the days.
Somebody has spent a bunch of money not just collecting the signs but restoring them to mint condition and then installing them. To whoever you are, I salute you!!
Saturday I was doing my favorite activity, hanging with my wife Heather. We were running errands having to do with Mother’s Day. One place we went @Home. A giant box store crammed full of stuff including a bunch of signs for the home. I loved the one above. I got and we will be taking to the condo we are renting on the Gulf Coast later this summer.
Hmmm, do mermaids read what you write in the sand? That’s an intriguing idea. What about sirens, do they read also, or do they just sit on the rocks singing songs luring sailors to their doom? Do you know the difference between a mermaid and a siren? Well, if you are really interested in the subject read this post of mine from almost ten years ago that explains it, and ties in Esther (you know from the Bible), and loops around Starbucks as well.
I love this sign also. I remember when I had hair.
Yep, I like this one as well.
Or rather, “Her Roost, Her Rules!” Doubt me?
Here is another sign, at a local brewery. After years of being a beer desert, Oklahoma is coming into the 20th century with more modernized liquor laws. Next step is the 21st century.
Here is a whole bunch of signs. I am a “Sign Abatement Volunteer” with the City of Tulsa. Me and about 61 other folks have been trained on what signs are legal, which or not, and the value of using good judgement, discretion, and restraint despite what the law says. So I have been gathering up signs all over south Tulsa. They are mainly for sketchy crap businesses that don’t have a physical address. So, I am doing by bit for cleaning up the city. So far I have found around 70 or so. I guess I could start a referral business for the likes of Heavenly Hands Magic Massages, Loans for Businesses, Instant Weight Loss, and guys that will buy any house.
How about you? Have you found any good signs lately?
Last week I took my bicycle up north of Tulsa to the “Osage Prairie Trail” a rails to trail project that starts in north Tulsa and goes to Skiatook, way out in the country. I started in Sperry and went about five miles north to Sperry. The trail is deluxe, asphalt paved and well maintained.
I got some geocaching in on the way. How do you like my stylish outfit? I found that garish yellow top at Walmart for about seven bucks. Don’t feel bad if you don’t like it cuz I like it just great! Along with my mismatched socks. Where’s the law that says your socks have to match? There isn’t one, I already checked!
I love this bridge across Bird Creek.
I got to Skiatook and everybody in town was taking an exercise class. I felt like jumping in myself but they were just finishing up. I love community stuff like that. Except community sounds like communism. We don’t like communism here in Oklahoma, so I am glad I didn’t join this communistic exercise program. People need to be in there own homes watching Fox News and checking you know who’s twitter feed. Not out in the sun getting skin cancer and getting to know your possibly leftist, immigrant, non gun owning neighbors.
Enough about politcs. How about some cows? These are my wife’s cousin’s herd out in western Oklahoma. I love the calves especially. I always name one of them “Little Brisket.”
I went riding along the Arkansas River after work earlier this week during a pretty day. I am loving riding my bike this Spring!!
And it is Azalea season here in Tulsa. Here is a house in midtown that I just love. Look at the blooms, and the windows.
And I have a volunteer gig with the city of Tulsa picking up “litter on a stick” signs. I’ve picked up 17 so far. Within days of getting trained, me and my fellow 61 volunteers picked up over 500 trash signs off city rights of way. I’m all official now. I have a city ID Badge with my photo on it and some “cop gloves” to help protect from sabotaged signs. (Not yet in Tulsa but apparently in other cities the people who have put out litter on a stick signs have superglued razor blades to the wire frames.” The gloves will come in handy for geocaching also. On my bike ride on the Osage Prairie Trail I went looking for a cache called something like “In the hole” and I found the hole in the tree and as I went to inspect it, a snake slithered out! So as we say in the energy biz, I plugged and abandoned that cache, figuratively. I am just glad that I didn’t stick my hand in there, even though the slithery critter did not appear to be poisonous.
I got up early Saturday morning and attended volunteer training put on the by City of Tulsa for those citizens who want to help the city control temporary signs on city streets. Tulsa has regulations for such signs and they are wanting help for the one city employee who does that. That guy was the one doing the training and he was very engaging during his two hour talk.
They don’t really want volunteers pulling signs such as these. They may or may not be legal as it is possible that they could have a permit plus there is a due process where business owners can appeal. They want us volunteers solving problems not creating them. So if we have questions we are to take a photo of the sign and send it to the city employee and he will deal with it. We are not engage business owners or individuals, leave that up to city employees.
They also do not want us messing with signs inside neighborhoods. The main emphasis is going to be the “litter on a stick” signs on main thoroughfares not associated with nearby businesses. You have seen those signs advertising lawn mowing, leaf raking, and such. He talked about signs posted near schools advertising “Now hiring students” with no business name or description just a phone number. He said sometimes those are entries into human trafficking for witless teenagers.
He also emphasized discretion, so please don’t pull signs posted by people who have lost pets and other such things. “If in doubt, leave it out” is to be our motto. And he talked about political signs. Close to election time lots of candidates will be putting their little crap signs out on the rights of way and medians. He said we can pull those but we can’t just pull them for candidates we don’t like, we have to pull everybody’s signs.
So anyway the next step is that we pass the background check and get issued city ID’s, reflective vests, gloves, and then we get to start. So I am king of looking forward to helping clean up our city of “litter on sticks.” In the meantime I am driving Heather crazy as we drive the city streets. I am saying that’s legal, legal, not legal, etc
I don’t know about you but the debate gave me a headache. The Dallas Cowboys won Sunday night though. I’m glad I didn’t join any of the drinking games associated with the debate. I feel that I wasted my time watching it.
Sorry, I’ve already posted this pic on Instagram and Facebook.
The women (and the occasional guy) of the local Lululemon clothing store really go all out on race days and cheer people on during the local runs and we runners love them. I even love the two people updating their facebook status. Or maybe snapchat, like “This really old, fat, ugly thinks he’s a runner dude come by, it would be funny if he weren’t so gross.”
Here they are during a cold Route 66 Marathon a couple years ago.
And the token Lululemon guy.
And the Lululemon kids
And this is the first time I saw them, at the 2012 Route 66 Half marathon. I didn’t know who they were back then but I loved the signs. This is the only pic that I have ever had go halfway viral. I posted it on the race facebook site and it was seen by thousands of people. My favorite signs were “You’re the Sh*t” and “Go Random Stranger Go!!!” I’m sure that they got discussed. You know the old corporate “Do you really think that that is the image we should be sending out there about what we are about.” You fellow corporate drones will surely recognize that. I kind of hope that the the Local Lululemon Ladies (and guy) pull them out of the closet for the next race. But if they don’t, that is okay.
I can’t afford their clothes but I love their signs.
Monday, after work I took Logan to his voice lessons. The studio is in an old strip shopping center and I like to walk around rather than sit in the waiting space. Last week I featured a recently abandoned Shell Station at the center. Well guess what, there is another abandoned Gas Station a couple hundred yards south of the Shell Station. I think it has been boarded up ten years or so. I forget what chain had the site.
They left their old sign up and I always get a chuckle out of it.
Since the station went out of business the prices listed have sometimes seemed like a huge bargain or a big ripoff. Right now they are just a moderately good deal.
Linking with Signs, Signs