By Robert Price
You’ve probably noticed Bakersfield’s roadside “welcome” signs along Highway 99: Gray, ground-level concrete blocks with all the personality of a pair of warehouse doors.
Ah, for the days of the old “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” signs, those gargantuan sentries that stood at the north and south ends of the city for 17 years or so beginning in the late 1960s.
Playful and cartoonish, the Jurassic twins featured greeting-card poetry so simple and memorable the signs actually developed a cult following. Even for freeway travelers who never once set foot in Bakersfield, there was something comforting about their candy-store visage.
But the signs came to be regarded as truck-stop tacky, and in 1983 they came down for good. But decades later, many people still remember them fondly. And inevitably, some will ask the question: Whatever became of those signs?
The great city-sign savior himself, country musician Buck Owens, once asked that question too. He actually got an answer. Part of one, at least.
It was 1999, and Owens had just unveiled a re-creation of Bakersfield’s new/old city landmark, the blue-on-gold “Bakersfield” footbridge that once spanned Union Avenue. The new version, a near-clone, stands near the intersection of Sillect Avenue and Buck Owens Boulevard outside the singer’s Crystal Palace dinner club.
Once that project was finished, Owens had his people call Dale Mills, the retired director of the Kern County Department of Public Works, to ask about the “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” signs.
Mills was in on the conception, development and demise of those memorable signs, but he wasn’t sure what had become of them after they were uprooted and hauled away. Turns out nobody knew for certain, not even the man who’d purchased them years before.
The two “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” signs were at opposite ends of the city, one several miles south of town at Herring Road and another north of town at Snow Road. They were behemoth, identical structures — 49 feet tall and 60 feet wide, with balloonish, aspirin-shaped mini-signs for each of the four key words and a huge, rectangular marquee below that advertised local events of interest — rodeos, roller skating competitions, harvest festivals and all of the other activities that medium-sized Valley towns hosted in the late 1960s and ’70s.
Highway 99 once brought travelers right through the heart of Bakersfield, but after the new freeway was completed in 1964, highway traffic never came close enough to be tempted by the motels and restaurants along Union Avenue. A confederation of Union Avenue businesses, worried that they’d all wither away and die, decided that a matching pair of colorful signs on the freeway might entice travelers to stop and at least use our bathrooms.
In 1965, the owners of 252 business parcels along Union Avenue, between White Lane and Bernard Street, formed a service area — basically, a self-imposed assessment district, with everybody chipping in to a communal kitty.
They hired the Heath Co. of Los Angeles to design and build the first sign on the south side of the city for $27,000 — and, later, a second sign for the same price.
The steering committee kicked around several ideas. At one point the signs would say “Keep to the Right for / Bakersfield, Playground of the Valley.” Then, at some point in mid-1965, Heath’s designers came up with the idea for the “balloon” signs. But instead of “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play,” the four words would be the distinctly unpoetic “Eat, Rest, Gas, Play.”
Perhaps seeing the inevitable consequences of having a huge sign featuring “eat” and “gas” in the same message, the sign committee revised the slogan to “Eat, Rest, Swim, Play.”
Things appeared to be moving in that direction until the county’s vigilant legal staff advised the sign committee that such wording was a potential violation of laws that barred government entities from promoting private enterprise.
“Eat,” for example, could be seen as promoting Bakersfield’s restaurants, and “rest” suggested that motorists should stop at one of the city’s fine hotels.
No word on whether county counsel was also grimacing inwardly at the clunkiness of the proposed prose.
The identity of the visionary who first blurted out the words “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” is lost to history; God help us if it was an attorney. In any event, the slogan was approved and work commenced on the first of the two signs in late 1965.
That first sign, with eight-foot tall letters in the “balloons” and red, removable, 2-foot-tall letters on the marquee, was unveiled in March 1966.
At the dedication ceremony, Kern County Supervisor David Fairbairn, a member of the sign committee, claimed that Bakersfield had achieved a first:
Never before had businesses come together to voluntarily tax themselves for such a purpose — not in California and, as far as he knew, not anywhere in the country.
The second sign went up in 1968.
The signs became famous, sort of.
Travelers became accustomed to the familiar greeting, and some of them presumably stayed and even played.
But the businesses that comprised the backbone of the service area gradually closed, moved or lost interest. In January 1978, a major windstorm blew through the city and damaged the signs, destroying 45 letters.
Extensive repairs were undertaken in 1981, and it became clear that the two signs would eventually need a lot more work. By 1982, Mills said, “it got to the point where people didn’t want to pay for them anymore.”
People were also growing tired of the seemingly daily outrages perpetrate by pranksters who creatively (and not-so-creatively) rearranged the marquees’ letters to suit their own juvenile purposes.
Steve Gabbitas, one of the then-students hired to change the message on the signs’ marquees every two weeks, admitted in a 1999 interview that the thought occurred to him as well.
“We were tempted to make our own messages, too,” Gabbitas said. “After we put up the message we were supposed to put up, we were supposed to take a Polaroid to prove we’d done it right.
“We always thought we could get away with changing the message after we took the photo — ‘Hey, it wasn’t like that when we left’ — but we never did. We were high school kids. Why would you trust high school kids, anyway?”
In 1982, the county polled the owners of the 252 business parcels in the “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” assessment area about their interest in repairing and continuing to maintain the signs. Of the 112 who responded, only two owners wanted to keep (and pay for) the signs. No wonder: In the 1978-79 fiscal year, maintenance of the signs cost them each $54 a year, but by 1982-83 it was running nearly three times that amount.
The county didn’t want to pay for the signs and neither did the county Board of Trade, the Superintendent of Schools office, the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce or the city of Bakersfield. The signs were “hokey” landmarks that “paint a truckstop image” of Bakersfield, city councilman Don Ratty said at the time, and most everyone agreed with him.
Most everyone in Bakersfield, anyway. It took a Los Angeles woman to organize a statewide “Save Our Bakersfield Signs” preservation committee.
“I happen to like these signs a lot and I don’t think people in Bakersfield have really thought about this,” L.A. attorney Jerry Simmons wrote in a 1983 letter.
She praised the signs as “so colorful.”
Unswayed, the Kern County Board of Supervisors authorized a sealed-bid sale of the signs, and in March 1983 Airport Bus of Bakersfield won out over five bidding rivals, including Jim Burke of Jim Burke Ford. Ken Jones, the president of Airport Bus at the time, says he got both signs for a mere $1,500 — with the proviso that he remove them at his own expense.
Nostalgia was not the primary consideration for Jones’ purchase: Airport Bus would be using the signs to promote its service to and from Los Angeles International Airport (in ways Jones had not yet clearly identified).
Jones hired a Fresno-area crane company to remove the signs. He stored one sign in the yard of one of his businesses, Coastal Engineering, which then occupied the corner of Rosedale Highway and Mohawk Street, and the other in the yard of the Fresno crane operator. He then set himself to the task of obtaining permits to put the signs back into the ground somewhere along the freeway.
Jones was still attempting to get that authorization, he says, when “a pretty good storm” blew through Bakersfield and slammed his sign to the ground with tornado-like fury. It was a total loss: Jones’ insurance paid off and the sign was scrapped.
Meanwhile, Jones still owed money to the Fresno company that had removed the signs. He couldn’t pay and, exasperated by the whole thing, offered the sign in lieu of cash. The company accepted.
Whatever became of that sign?
Jones, interviewed in 1999, said he doesn’t know. He can’t recall the name of the company that took possession of it, and he says his records from those years are long gone.
Perhaps the remaining “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” sign was scrapped and sent to a landfill. Perhaps it was partially recycled and turned into a new billboard.
Perhaps it’s rusting, intact, in a junkyard somewhere near Firebaugh.
Nobody said much about the signs for the next two decades, at least not to Jones. In the meantime, Jones and his partners sold Airport Bus, and Coastal Engineering went out of business.
Today Jones runs Coastal Netting, which makes the huge metal poles (but not the actual netting) used for the fencing around golf driving ranges.
Jones doesn’t wax nostalgic about his “Sun, Fun, Stay, Play” signs.
“Maybe ol’ Buck can just make his own sign,” he said.
Maybe indeed. Owens, who built his own “Bakersfield” footbridge from scratch, salvaging only the 11 blue porcelain letters, has proved that you don’t need original brick and mortar to evoke memories.
Maybe they don’t make ’em like they used to, but they can sure make ’em LOOK like they used to.
This story is based on a version published on Sept. 19, 1999.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Fun with scam artists
I had fun this week with a Nigerian scam artist who had stolen the e-mail account of a local gentleman named Craig Garrett. I got the scammer to promise to do some outrageous things in exchange for a promise of money, which of course I never delivered. You can tell the guy (supposedly an American) isn't exactly up on American culture. There's additional detail at http://www.stubblebuzz.com/ and here too, but if you just want to read the entire two-day exchange, here it is. Evil Craig agreed to increasingly hilarious and bizarre requests just to keep his fish on the hook:
ME: Craig, please tell me where to send the money. I can scrape together a few hundred dollars.
NOT CRAIG : Thanks for the email and your help. I Knew i could Count on you. I will like you to send the money via Western Union Money Transfer. Please the money Should be sent in the name of the hotel management because of the loss of my passport.
Receiver Name: OLASOJI PEREZ
Address: Eko Hotel & suites, room 6, Adetokunbo Ademola Street
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zip Code: 23401
Please As soon as you send the Money i will like you to email me the Below Details as Follows...
Full Sender Name:
MTCN#:
Sender Country:
Amount Sent:
After I receive the money I will email you on the arrangements to get back home. Thanks once again and I hope to hear from you soon.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, I have to run some errands and then I can go to the bank. I only have $600 I can give right now but I will ask Tony if he can spare some also. Can you wait a few more hours. I am so sorry you are going through this. How did it happen? Were you drunk again? Is Matilda with you?
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I will be waiting to read from you with the western union information so that i can be able to get out of this mess.
ME: The Western Union on Spongebob Boulevard has been closed down for some reason but the mookie told me the one in Legoland is still open so I will go there to-night. You do not have to pay me back, because you remember I never paid you for slaughtering my cow last year. Our freezer is still very full. Thank you. Is Matilda OK? We are very worried.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank, Can you pls try and find another western union location?
ME: OK, will hurry. Dont worry. Love to Matilda.
NOT CRAIG: Ok i will be waiting for you bcos i have no access to phone right now.
ME: Craig, Uncle Fester said he can send $20 but I told him that is not enough, please try to get more. So he said he will ask Colonel Sanders to help. Harvey Hall said he has $400 but is worried about sending all the way to Nigeria. Can you send a photo of hotel manager so he does not worry about sending money? I still can not find Tony.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I dont have photo of hotel manager. After I receive the money I will email you on the arrangements to get back home. your friend, Craig .
ME: Harvey said that is OK, he will give me $400 to send to you, but you must help him build a fence when you get back to keep the neighbor’s llama from coming into his yard and eating his rutabagas. Is that OK?
NOT CRAIG: Ok , No problem, I will be waiting for the western union details.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Am still here waiting for you pls get back to me now so that i can get out of this mess.
your friend, Craig .
ME: Sorry, Craig, I have been out most of the day collecting money to send to you. You know Frank, your friend who rides that bicycle around all day and screams at children? He doesn’t have any money, but he is worried about you, so he baked two loaves of pumpkin bread and put it in the regular post to your address at the hotel in Lagos. You should get it in two weeks. Please be careful when you eat it. You know what happened the last time he baked pumpkin bread. Hopefully you will be home by then.
Uncle Fester gave me $22 but it is all in nickels. I think Western Union will accept it. He said he will only let me send it to you if you agree to let him take your photograph for his calendar. It is the Buttonwillow Alfalfa Cooperative’s 2010 calendar. He wants you only wearing underwear and suspenders. You can have your choice of April or September. Is that OK?
I have $682. If I can find Tony I am sure he will give me more, maybe $400.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, You can go ahead and send the $682 and when you see tony you send what ever tony give you, Just go ahead and send the money now bcos i have not eat anything since morning pls do not let me die here, I will be waiting for you the western union information.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, I will stop waiting for Tony. Western Union is almost closing. What about the photograph for Uncle Fester’s calendar? He is standing here now asking me. He says boxer shorts are OK.
NOT CRAIG: Yes Boxer shorts is ok but let me get home first and will talk about it, Pls am not happy here just try and help me out so that i can get out of this mess. I will be waiting for the western union info.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Pls get back to me am still waiting for the information , Pls do not let me die here pls.
ME: Last night we drove all the way to Legoland to the Western Union and it was just not closed, it was out of business. We called your cousin, Joe Biden, to ask if there is a Western Union in Buttonwillow and he said there was so we will go there today. Tony came home and said he could send $200 but he said it is weird, he just saw you at Der Weinerschnitzel three days ago eating a corndog with Rush Limbaugh. Was that you? We didn’t even know you cared that much about HIV/AIDS but we think it is a very good thing.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I will be waiting for the western union information , Pls i need to get out of this mess pls.
ME: Still trying to get up to $1050, almost have enough. I have decided to sell my Ford Pinto to get the rest of the money. Thurston Howell says he will give me $600 for it, but I have to agree to date his cousin Lois. I don’t want to date Lois. Lois looks like Danny DeVito. If I sell my Pinto to Thurston, will you take Lois off my hands. Just take her to the movies one time. I don’t think you would have to kiss her or anything. Also, can I borrow your car. OK?
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, One of my friend send me $1000 today so i want you to go ahead and send the $1050 now to complete the money, Pls do that now before western union close here in nigeria so that the manager can be able to pick it up today so by tomorrow i will be prepare to get back home.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, taking the car to Thurston. Will you take Lois to the movies.
NOT CRAIG: Pls get this money send out now am not happy here pls.
ME: You won’t have to kiss her
NOT CRAIG: Dont worry about her, Just send the money and let me get out of this mess and when i come back i will make sure i make her happy
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Did you got my last email, Pls write me back so that i can know what is going on pls am not happy here . your friend, Craig .
ME: Who is this? The real Craig Garrett just showed up . he had been visiting his mother in pixley and boy is he mad. Frank wants his pumpkin bread back, send it right now. You would have liked Lois too, shes not that bad
ME: Frank says keep the bread he just wants his pan back
ME: Lois would still like to meet you
ME: Craig, please tell me where to send the money. I can scrape together a few hundred dollars.
NOT CRAIG : Thanks for the email and your help. I Knew i could Count on you. I will like you to send the money via Western Union Money Transfer. Please the money Should be sent in the name of the hotel management because of the loss of my passport.
Receiver Name: OLASOJI PEREZ
Address: Eko Hotel & suites, room 6, Adetokunbo Ademola Street
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zip Code: 23401
Please As soon as you send the Money i will like you to email me the Below Details as Follows...
Full Sender Name:
MTCN#:
Sender Country:
Amount Sent:
After I receive the money I will email you on the arrangements to get back home. Thanks once again and I hope to hear from you soon.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, I have to run some errands and then I can go to the bank. I only have $600 I can give right now but I will ask Tony if he can spare some also. Can you wait a few more hours. I am so sorry you are going through this. How did it happen? Were you drunk again? Is Matilda with you?
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I will be waiting to read from you with the western union information so that i can be able to get out of this mess.
ME: The Western Union on Spongebob Boulevard has been closed down for some reason but the mookie told me the one in Legoland is still open so I will go there to-night. You do not have to pay me back, because you remember I never paid you for slaughtering my cow last year. Our freezer is still very full. Thank you. Is Matilda OK? We are very worried.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank, Can you pls try and find another western union location?
ME: OK, will hurry. Dont worry. Love to Matilda.
NOT CRAIG: Ok i will be waiting for you bcos i have no access to phone right now.
ME: Craig, Uncle Fester said he can send $20 but I told him that is not enough, please try to get more. So he said he will ask Colonel Sanders to help. Harvey Hall said he has $400 but is worried about sending all the way to Nigeria. Can you send a photo of hotel manager so he does not worry about sending money? I still can not find Tony.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I dont have photo of hotel manager. After I receive the money I will email you on the arrangements to get back home. your friend, Craig .
ME: Harvey said that is OK, he will give me $400 to send to you, but you must help him build a fence when you get back to keep the neighbor’s llama from coming into his yard and eating his rutabagas. Is that OK?
NOT CRAIG: Ok , No problem, I will be waiting for the western union details.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Am still here waiting for you pls get back to me now so that i can get out of this mess.
your friend, Craig .
ME: Sorry, Craig, I have been out most of the day collecting money to send to you. You know Frank, your friend who rides that bicycle around all day and screams at children? He doesn’t have any money, but he is worried about you, so he baked two loaves of pumpkin bread and put it in the regular post to your address at the hotel in Lagos. You should get it in two weeks. Please be careful when you eat it. You know what happened the last time he baked pumpkin bread. Hopefully you will be home by then.
Uncle Fester gave me $22 but it is all in nickels. I think Western Union will accept it. He said he will only let me send it to you if you agree to let him take your photograph for his calendar. It is the Buttonwillow Alfalfa Cooperative’s 2010 calendar. He wants you only wearing underwear and suspenders. You can have your choice of April or September. Is that OK?
I have $682. If I can find Tony I am sure he will give me more, maybe $400.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, You can go ahead and send the $682 and when you see tony you send what ever tony give you, Just go ahead and send the money now bcos i have not eat anything since morning pls do not let me die here, I will be waiting for you the western union information.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, I will stop waiting for Tony. Western Union is almost closing. What about the photograph for Uncle Fester’s calendar? He is standing here now asking me. He says boxer shorts are OK.
NOT CRAIG: Yes Boxer shorts is ok but let me get home first and will talk about it, Pls am not happy here just try and help me out so that i can get out of this mess. I will be waiting for the western union info.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Pls get back to me am still waiting for the information , Pls do not let me die here pls.
ME: Last night we drove all the way to Legoland to the Western Union and it was just not closed, it was out of business. We called your cousin, Joe Biden, to ask if there is a Western Union in Buttonwillow and he said there was so we will go there today. Tony came home and said he could send $200 but he said it is weird, he just saw you at Der Weinerschnitzel three days ago eating a corndog with Rush Limbaugh. Was that you? We didn’t even know you cared that much about HIV/AIDS but we think it is a very good thing.
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, I will be waiting for the western union information , Pls i need to get out of this mess pls.
ME: Still trying to get up to $1050, almost have enough. I have decided to sell my Ford Pinto to get the rest of the money. Thurston Howell says he will give me $600 for it, but I have to agree to date his cousin Lois. I don’t want to date Lois. Lois looks like Danny DeVito. If I sell my Pinto to Thurston, will you take Lois off my hands. Just take her to the movies one time. I don’t think you would have to kiss her or anything. Also, can I borrow your car. OK?
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Thank you for the mail, One of my friend send me $1000 today so i want you to go ahead and send the $1050 now to complete the money, Pls do that now before western union close here in nigeria so that the manager can be able to pick it up today so by tomorrow i will be prepare to get back home.
your friend, Craig .
ME: OK, taking the car to Thurston. Will you take Lois to the movies.
NOT CRAIG: Pls get this money send out now am not happy here pls.
ME: You won’t have to kiss her
NOT CRAIG: Dont worry about her, Just send the money and let me get out of this mess and when i come back i will make sure i make her happy
NOT CRAIG: Hello,
Did you got my last email, Pls write me back so that i can know what is going on pls am not happy here . your friend, Craig .
ME: Who is this? The real Craig Garrett just showed up . he had been visiting his mother in pixley and boy is he mad. Frank wants his pumpkin bread back, send it right now. You would have liked Lois too, shes not that bad
ME: Frank says keep the bread he just wants his pan back
ME: Lois would still like to meet you
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Welcome to my archive
This is a companion blog to my main blog, stubblebuzz.com
I will periodically posts things that just seem too long for stubblebuzz, including previously published columns and articles that aren't available elsewhere.
I will periodically posts things that just seem too long for stubblebuzz, including previously published columns and articles that aren't available elsewhere.
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