We truly do have so much to be thankful for. Here’s hoping that your day is filled with all the canned cranberry sauce you can eat!
Peeps… A Question?
You know Peeps. The marshmallow candy that you can’t miss at Easter time. First, there were the baby chicks
Then, came Peeps for Christmas.
There are even Peeps for Halloween (which makes total sense)
I’ve even seen Peeps for Valentine’s Day. So…. My question. Why don’t we have Peeps for Thanksgiving?! Turkey Peeps anyone?
The BIG Neon Cowboy Hat
I’ve always had a soft spot for Arby’s. My mother worked at an Arby’s in Norfolk, VA from 1978-1983. Give me a regular roast beef sandwich (or perhaps a beef ‘n cheddar) an order of potato cakes and a jamocha shake, and I’m good to go! But in all honesty,what I really have a soft spot for, is the old Arby’s neon cowboy hat sign.
On Friday night, my wife and I were on the road from Tennessee to Ohio and we decided to stop at an Arby’s in Cincinnati for a quick bite. Since we needed to make a pit stop, we decided to eat inside. And as I ate my roast beef sandwich I thought about my mother’s old store on Virginia Beach Blvd (near both the Military Circle Mall and Janaf Shopping Center) and that big neon cowboy hat.
Sure, I still eat at Arby’s every now and then, but something is missing. You can still get their famous roast beef sandwiches, beef ‘n cheddar sandwiches, potato cakes and jamocha shakes, but at most stores that big ole ugly (to some) sign is long gone. Today it’s been updated to a more modern version of the famed Arby’s cowboy hat.
In today’s retail world big gawdy neon signs are rarely permitted. In fact, due to sign ordinances in most communities, classic signs like the Arby’s neon cowboy hat would never be allowed. They are truly a relic of the past. To many they’re an eyesore, but to me they’ve always been a work of art.
When I got home, I did some quick research about Arby’s and found out that they got their start back in 1964 in of all places, Youngstown, OH (or technically in Boardman, a Youngstown suburb). For years, my wife and I have had this theory about Northeast Ohio being the center of the universe, and this just goes further to fuel that theory.
The founders of Arby’s originally wanted to call their restaurant Big Tex, but unfortunately that name was being used by a business in nearby Akron. I wouldn’t be surprised if the big neon hat sign was originally designed with Big Tex name in mind rather than the Arby’s.
While many of those big bright neon signs are long gone, you can still actually find quite a few in use today as a beacon for delicious fast food roast beef. Oh, and while tracking down information on the history of that Arby’s neon cowboy hat, I learned something else. My mom’s Arby’s is sadly long gone having been replaced by an auto loans store…. that still uses the shell of that old neon cowboy hat.
I don’t know about you, but somehow it’s not quite the same!
This Is Cruel
For the last couple of years, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has been serving ice cream (or Kool Kreme as they call it) along with their heavenly doughnuts.
Nashville has been one of the test markets. Now I love doughnuts and I love ice cream, but this is just cruel. I think I gained 5 pounds just looking at the picture of a Krispy Kreme Kool Kreme Sundae
Shuttered Stores
For some reason, I’ve always been fascinated with dead and dying shopping mall and retail outlets. Having worked in retail when I was in my teens might play into it, but I’m not sure.
When I have free time, I can get lost for hours online looking at sites like Dead Malls and the Sick Malls Blog.
It always surprises me when a major retailer shuts down one of their locations. Most, if not ALL of them do research on locations to make sure that there will be enough traffic to justify building there.
Lately, because of the economy I’ve seen a lot more locations shutting down and boarding up. Sometimes it’s due to a company going bankrupt (like The Cooker) but a lot of times it’s just the thinning of the herd. Here’s a few pics of some former restaurant/retail locations:
 Waffle House |
 Krispy Kreme |
 The Cooker |
 Jack In The Box |
Remember Beetleboards?
My first car was a 1970 Volkswagen Beetle. As far as first cars go, it was a pretty good one. This morning, I was looking back through some old pictures, and it got me thinking back to that old car of mine. And that reminded me of something that I wanted to do with that old bug, but never got the chance. I wanted to turn it into a Beetleboard.
If you were around in the 70’s and 80’s you might remember them. Companies would pay Volkswagen drivers to paint their cars with advertising logos. I’m told that they were most popular in California, but by the late 70’s there were a few around my home in Virginia Breach, VA.
In the summer of 1979 right before I headed out to college (I believe that was the year) I actually attended a meeting to see about turning my VW into a Beetleboard. Sadly, the only opportunities that they had at the time was to advertise Kool cigarettes, and since I was a minor and didn’t smoke cigarettes, that wasn’t an option.
Today, seeing vehicles covered with advertising isn’t much of an oddity. Thanks to technology and the advent of vehicle wrapping you can see mobile billboard in nearly every city.
I did a quick Google search to see if I could find anything about the old Beetleboards, and sadly there wasn’t much info about them anywhere on the web. I did see a couple of forum posts mentioning a company called Beetleboards of America that painted VW’s back in the 70’s and even found a couple of foreign blogs that focused on Volkswagen’s. Both of the foreign blogs had an old print ad for Ultra Brite toothpaste that was promoting a VW giveaway. The featured Beetle was painted up in Beetleboard style.
The only other Beetleboard image I could find on the net, looked to be taken from some 1970’s magazine. And from looking at the picture, it was probably came from a story talking about the guy (below) who invented Beetleboards. That’s just my guess, but any info that you might come up with would be appreciated.
No matter what, the old black an white picture of the Levi’s For The Feet and Kool Cigarettes Beetleboards are pretty cool! The Kool Beetleboard might even be what my old VW would have looked like if I had been interested in promoting cigarettes. Make sure to click on all of the pictures to see the full size images.
Ah, the good old days!