Fill 'Er Up?

An old service station in Hempstead, Texas

One thing that has always held a fascination to me is service stations. My dad tells me that when I could barely talk, I could recognize and name the various brands. Over the years, the architecture of stations has evolved, including some very nice art deco style stations in the pre-World War II era. Even though the "service" is long gone from what are today self-serve pumps, the basic idea of an refueling island has remained a constant.

The photo above is a vintage service station that is situated on old US 290 in Hempstead, Texas. As new 290 (Houston's Northwest Freeway) has finally bypassed the town, it is having an impact on businesses on the old route. I don't know how long it has been since gasoline has been dispensed from here, but the pumps are long gone. It appears to be a tire business, but has no sign; and the post that once held a sign proclaiming a brand of gasoline, now holds a tall stack of old, painted tires. The ubiquitous Halsey Taylor water cooler is plugged in, but as this was taken on Sunday afternoon, it is hard to tell if there is still a business operating at this location.

Regardless of its current status, I hope this example of roadside American architecture ends up being restored rather than falling to demolition. A coat of white paint and a bit of TLC could make this a great home for some small business.

Moo!

A white Texas Longhorn wonders what is going on.

On Sunday, I took a drive from Houston, Texas to Bryan, Texas for a lunch with about 14 other family members. Along the way there, I noticed this beautiful animal standing in a pasture beside Texas Highway 6 just north of the town of Hempstead. As we had a rendezvous time with the others, I made a mental note of where he was so that I could return on the way back to Houston to get his picture.

So on the way back, I found him still grazing, and pulled over to the side of the highway. My sister got out and started calling loudly to him, "Hey! Hey bully!", so when he looked up to see what all the commotion was, I got a few pictures. Given that a longhorn steer this size could be dangerous, we didn't stray too far from the car.

One thing I noticed is that his head seems disproportionately small when compared to his massive body. Perhaps he is still young, but those are a fine set of horns on this big boy!

Atlanta Signs

What does this place sell?

Monday night I landed at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport for a series of business meetings the following day. While it was a very short and busy trip in and out of town (just over 24 hours), I am always on the lookout for interesting things. Knowing the brevity of the journey, I didn't bring my good cameras, but as always, I had my trusty Moto-Q smart phone with me, and managed to pick up a few photos with its camera.

The photo above is the storefront for a newsstand on Concourse D in Atlanta. It seems that it probably is called "News Exchange", but with the "S" being a little larger, along with undefined spacing on the sign, and it looks like it could be "New Sex Change". Not sure if I want to go in there or not! Yikes!

The next picture was taken from the middle row of seats in a minivan that our entourage had rented, so it is not as good as I would have liked, but these signs called out to my inner road geek. The font is unusual. It doesn't look like either standard Highway Gothic or Clearview. It looks like a bold and tall version of Highway Gothic, and I have to say, I found it easier to read than either of the other two normal fonts found on Big Green Signs. Very legible!


Big Green Signs on northbound stretch of duplexed I-75 & I-85 in downtown Atlanta

While not an official sign of any type, this next one made me laugh. It was posted above the urinal in the men's room at the company we were visiting. It looks like it originally admonished you to "respect your peers", but some strategically applied white-out had changed the message.


Respect your pee and it will respect you!

Finally, there was the sign I saw on a building in Buckhead that had been similarly changed. We went by too fast for me to get a photo, but you can imagine what the Buckhead sign said!