Neon Signs Texas Old Neon Signs. (original) (raw)

Texas Old Neon Signs

OLD NEON

by Seymour Saenz

C

heap and tawdry, neon couldn't scream any louder unless it was blinking. And when it was, it was timed to the human pulse. The unworldly colors matched the covers of science fiction books in drugstore racks or the fingernail polish of teenage girls.

The gas bubbled in juke boxes - resembling boiling anti-freeze or pink lava. It hissed over melting asphalt parking lots. The signs said

Liquor - Eat - and Bar and Grill - (but 9 times out of 10 there was no grill).

The signs that said

Hotel were more disturbing than menacing. They blinked through windows of cheap rooms in film noir, providing colored insomnia for characters haunted by the past.

Just once we'd like to see the hero (or anti-hero) ask for a room away from the sign.

Even in Hitchcock's black and white Psycho the Bates Motel had a neon sign.

While neon is currently enjoying a comeback, it's now as sterile and safe as a Disney movie. Convenience stores and gas stations with their scores of neon beer signs now resemble lighting showrooms.

John Travolta under a Lone Star Beer sign isn't quite as threatening as Robert Mitchum under Blatz neon.

Here's our collection of some faded temptations - just watch where you step if you happen to be barefoot.

� John Troesser