A Star Is Reborn

I've had two people point this out to me (Thanks!), so there must be some interest out there. I showed you this cool rotating star sign many months ago, but not long after I shared the picture, it disappeared. Turns out it was being refurbished at a sign shop in Lakeland. And they recently put the star back on it's pedestal at the Lincoln-Mercury dealer in downtown Lakeland. It turned out to be such a big deal that the local paper did a big story on it, and even posted some video of the sign doing it's thing at night. I made a detour by it yesterday to make sure I got a new picture to share with you. Now I just need to make it up there at night.

Scary Stuff

I found this sliver of a picture of myself last night from Christmas of 1990. As you can see, I was in the holiday spirit, wearing my then-favorite T-shirt featuring an atomic explosion behind a woody. Not very Christmassy, is it? Nice scruffy beard, tinted glasses, I was the height of cool. Leave your love letters in the comments, ladies.

August Rolls On

We go from a fancy fountain last week to formal fungi this week. These mushrooms were sprouting from the end of a cut log in a valley in Ohio. I always love to get down on my hands and knees and try to shoot the little things. They're harder to spot, but I think they're worth it.

Where Shopping Is A Pleasure

While driving through Orlando on Saturday, I happened to stumble across this Publix in an area known as College Park. When I was little, I remember that this is what Publix grocery stores looked like, with the giant chevron or whatever you call it over top of the entrance. I hadn't seen one like this for years, I assumed they had all been modernized years ago, but I was wrong. It took a while, but I finally found a manager in the store who knew at least a few of the details about this store. Seems it was originally built back in the forties, with a similar look to what you see here. However, it was razed in the late 90's but rebuilt with much of the same designs in place. So what you see isn't technically old, it's just retro.


The store I remember when I was little, located at the old Searstown on Memorial Blvd. in Lakeland, Florida, had a very similar marquee to this one, only it was larger and much higher in the air. I also think it had neon on the two wings, not just the central column. I don't think it had those two green squares on the wings, either. I don't remember a rotating sign near the road like the one below, but I think it's a nice addition. If you go looking, this store is on Edgewater, a mile or so off of Colonial Drive, aka SR 50.

Oh, this store was missing one thing that old Publix's seem to share. At the back of the store, over the meat department, there was a giant alphabetical guide to what food was on what aisle. You could see it from almost anywhere in the store, and it would help you go immediately to the aisle that had what you where looking for. I guess that convenience gave way to advertising space.