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» The Letterville BullBoard » Letterhead/Pinstriper Talk » You know you've been at this a while...

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Author Topic: You know you've been at this a while...
Ray Rheaume
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Member # 3794

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I think I've begun to notice the warning signs that I've been doing sign work for longer than I thought. Things like...

Seeing a truck go by that I lettered and thinking back on that time as the "good old days".

Seeing a truck go by that looks like crap, then remembering I did it back when I first started.

Old race car customers call to have me letter a car they just built...for their grandson.

A repeat customer that I did a sign for when Reagan was still in office calls.

When I dropped a brush, I used to say whoops and pick it up. These days, I drop the brush and grunt AS I pick it up.

[Wink]
Rapid

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Ray Rheaume
Rapidfire Design
543 Brushwood Road
North Haverhill, NH 03774
rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com
603-787-6803

I like my paint shaken, not stirred.

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John Lennig
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When I am in different parts of the city/region, and recall where all the old Signshops used to be,and the ones I "tried out for" back then! [I Don t Know]

John

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John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts
5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada
bigtopya@hotmail.com
604.451.0006

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jack wills
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I'm so friggin' old...the dirt where I had been
don't remember anymore than I do.

Jack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
1465 E.Hidalgo Circle
Nye Beach / Newport, OR

Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Joey Madden
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I fergot was I was gonna say

Oh yeah, I remember now.

When I think of the ol'days I think of how fortunate I was to be able to make things last without worrying, the paint was great, the brushes were great and the customers were always friendly. I was fortunate to work continuously in any enviroment hot or cold with not a care in the world, knowing that everything will work out just perfect. I was fortunate enough to go anywhere in this country and do what I do best.

Not like today where the same companies live on reputation rather than quality and when you call them, they ask you for the batch number and on the other end haven't a clue to what its all about.

I was fortunate [Smile]

[ July 03, 2007, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: Joey Madden ]

--------------------
HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952
'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'




http://members.tripod.com/Inflite
http://www.pinheadlounge.com/hotlinesjoeymadden

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Donald Thompson
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Had a customer drop by yesterday with a sign I did 9 1/2 yrs ago for me to change the phone number. He still had the original receipt with him. I made a copy of it just for old times sake.
The sad part is that I would have charged him the same today as I did back then for the same sign. I must have overcharged him back then.
The sign was still in great shape though.

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Donald Thompson
#1 Sign Designs
580 Templeton Rd.
Laurens,SC 29360
864-682-7810
1signdesigns@backroads.net
www.1signdesigns.com

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Donna in BC
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You know you've done this for a long time when a customer approaches you with some work done for them long ago and you think, "That's nice! Who originally did that?" When in fact it was me. LOL

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Donna Williams
Funky Junk Interiors
Yarrow, BC Canada
donna@funkyjunkinteriors.net

~ Check out the newest junk at ~ http://funkyjunkinteriors.net/

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George Perkins
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We recently rode through a town I lived in when I first started in the business. We came up on a business that I painted my first sign for money for back in 1972. IT WAS STILL UP!!!!!!!!!!!! Faded somewhat, but still quite legible. Of course the camera was at home [Frown]


Joey, I hear ya about companies living on reputation, all the while killing ours. And what's with the batch number crap? I've never gotten so much as an "I'm sorry" out of them, let alone another can of paint, or perish the though, compensation for the labor involved in re-doing the job.
On the bright side, I undrstand Dupont, a company that has always put out a good product, is coming out with a line of striping urethane.

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George Perkins
Millington,TN.
goatwell@bigriver.net

"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"

www.perkinsartworks.com

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Raymond Chapman
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A few years ago Jeanne and I were in Abilene and went by a popular barbeque place that had been a favorite hang-out while we were in college. The orginal owner's son now was managing the business and he had a small glassed case with "artifacts" from the old days.

Right there in the center was a small menu that I had hand lettered in 1964. It brought back memories of me complaining to Toby (the owner) that sandwiches were going up to fifty cents.

You know that you've been in the business a long time when your work becomes an exhibit in a museum.

[ July 03, 2007, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]

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Chapman Sign Studio
Temple, Texas
chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net

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Dawud Shaheed
Visitor
Member # 5719

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you topped em, Ray.

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Dawud Shaheed
Sign Scientist
Durham (triangle area) N.C
919 685 7641
signscientist@aol.com
www.signscientist.com

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Donald Thompson
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I have to agree Dawud.
That is incredible Mr. Ray.

--------------------
Donald Thompson
#1 Sign Designs
580 Templeton Rd.
Laurens,SC 29360
864-682-7810
1signdesigns@backroads.net
www.1signdesigns.com

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ScooterX
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I remember the first time I used a typesetting machine - it had no screen. You just typed in stuff and hoped you didn't make a mistake.

A few years later the Macintosh came out, and I got to code stuff in Postscript. (yes, hand-coded)

I got to be a beta-tester for a new computer program called Photoshop. Now I don't even know 10 percent of whatt Photoshop can do.

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:: Scooter Marriner ::
:: Coyote Signs ::
:: Oakland, CA ::
:: still a beginner ::
::

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Dale Flewelling
Visitor
Member # 2577

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Also Ray, when an old customer you used to hand letter for doesn't want vinyl and still likes the hand look, and you get excited to fling the brush again, then your fingers ache for the rest of the day from the pounce wheel.Back a year or so I can remember makin' patterns all day and no problems.

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Dale Flewelling
Art Attack Signs & Design
Newport, NH

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jack wills
Resident


Member # 521

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When it comes right down to it.....
If you have never been called a commercial man,
you aint been around that long.
What's a commercial man?

This person in a sign shop had many levels of
expert qualifications beyond the sign painter
title.
He or She could,
Go out to many spots and clean and polish
porcleian faces and sometimes deal with a few
amps of electricity when getting too close to
the neon contacts.
Be on the end of a 75 ft skyhook installing
letters using hammerdrills in granite walls
Doing wall jobs (not for fun but to make your
weeks pay) and when you got through with the
wall job, go do a gold leaf window.
Lettering (with paint) tractor trailers
(coregated) in winter.
Spending days trying to dig holes in the frozen
tundra.
When was the last time you put mitten letters
on glass?
Working in the sheet metal area building channel
letters when things got slow.
Installing tiffen panels (20 ft in legth) in
the wind.
A smaltz job was just ordinary work without
fanfare.
Coating out (plywood and sanding it smooth) for
lettering.
Making patterns for billboards until you puke.
Cleaning and re-coating beat up boards almost
forever.
Doing nothing but digging holes until your hands
were bleeding for days and spending your
nights trying to heal them up.
Driving forever to do a job and then your old
truck breaks down and your profit goes up in
smoke.
This is just a few little picadillo's.

BTW how many of you have rode up and down in a
dumbwaiter?
Who in this crowd remembers getting your chunk
of ice from the iceman who was delivering ice
for the "Icebox".
Do you remember "Coal Shoots" ?
Shoveling coal into the furnace or putting a
block of ice in front of a fan in summer?

Hollyhocks anyone?

Why did I do this?

Jack

--------------------
Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
1465 E.Hidalgo Circle
Nye Beach / Newport, OR

Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Anne McDonald
Visitor
Member # 6842

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Meeting up with all the young chaps I worked with in my first sign shop who now own shops of their own!!

--------------------
Anne McDonald
17 Karnak Crescent
Russley
Christchurch 8042
New Zealand

"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure"

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Len Mort
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Great Jack, You have seceded in reminding me how old I really am!

Hammer drills (star drills) I remember so well.

Neon contacts, Never will forget the first jolt from a neon transformer.

Corrugated trailers, hated them any time of the year.

Mitten letters, where great!

Loved building channel letters out of galvanile and solder, loved the smell of hot muriatic acid in the morning.

Dumb waiters, used them and knew a few.

I do remember the ice man and cleaning the ice box. Do you remember the song the ice man by Dick Curless?

Coal shoots, Oh yea, as a kid I remember when they came to fill the coal bin with the scissor lift dump truck, canvas coal bags and carried on their backs every ton of coal to the shute into the coal bin, remember shoveling coal into the furnace and stoking the fire several times a day.

Remember the kerosene fired hot water heater copper tank that if you did not keep an eye on could over heat and take off like a Titan missal.

Oleo margarine, with the yellow dot, that needed to be kneaded.

Worked in many shops, freelance, have done it all!

Fond memories, as Bob Hope always said. Thanks for the memories.

--------------------
Len Mort
Signmaker1.com
11 Juniper Drive
Millbury, MA
508-865-2382
"A Good Business Sign, is A Sign of Good Business"(1957)

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Si Allen
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Member # 420

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Yup, yup, and yup! All the above!

Forget Bob Hope...rather say thanks for the mammeries!


[Smile] [Smile] [Smile] [Smile] [Smile] [Smile]

--------------------
Si Allen #562
La Mirada, CA. USA

(714) 521-4810

si.allen on Skype

siallen@dslextreme.com

"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"

Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!

Brushasaurus on Chat

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Sheila Ferrell
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Member # 3741

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Oops . . . must'a been breathin' fumes too long . . .

[ July 05, 2007, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]

--------------------
Signs
Sweet Home Alabama


oneshot on chat


"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog"

Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Sheila Ferrell
Resident


Member # 3741

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Priceless Mr.Raymond!!

YKYBATAW . . . when people ask you how long you've been at it and you tell them how many years and they give some frame of reference like;

"Well I know you been doin' this a long time 'cause I remember I was in high school when you did my dad's sign and now MY son is in high school . . ."

I don't know whether to react like this: [Eek!]
or like this: [Cool]

lol

--------------------
Signs
Sweet Home Alabama


oneshot on chat


"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog"

Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Donald Miner
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Well Jack and Len, you have hit the nail on the head. BTDT myself as the saying goes. I looked at my lettering kit that I bought back in '65 the other day and I realized it probably is worth more as an antique than I paid for it. I do know for a fact that it now costs about 9 times as much to buy one like it, if you could find one that is. As my grand-dad used to say, Time marches on. Have a great life. Don

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Donald Miner
ABCO Wholesale Neon
1168 Red Hill Creek
Dobson, NC

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Donna in BC
Resident


Member # 130

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LOL Scooter, when I did a month practicum way back for the city's sign shop, they had a gerber with no screen for cutting vinyl. When I came on board, I showed them how to layer lines of lettering with x and y entries, no screen still, but at least it wasn't one line at a time. THAT was a huge step up for them. [Smile]

--------------------
Donna Williams
Funky Junk Interiors
Yarrow, BC Canada
donna@funkyjunkinteriors.net

~ Check out the newest junk at ~ http://funkyjunkinteriors.net/

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Roy Frisby
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Member # 736

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"Who in this crowd remembers getting your chunk
of ice from the iceman who was delivering ice
for the "Icebox"." I was an iceman!
Ever notice that smell that's there in a real sign shop when you open the door in the morning. Boy, talk about something evoking memories.
I can remember agonizing whether to buy a 6' stepladder or a $7.50 level and not being able to afford both at the same time. Times have changed for the better, even if we don't sometimes realize it.
Your haven't lived until you've laid a billboard pattern in the wind. Have a nice life.

--------------------
Frisby Signs, Inc.
El Dorado, Arkansas

Posts: 902 | From: El Dorado, Arkansas, USA | Registered: Apr 1999  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Raymond Chapman
Resident


Member # 361

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Roy...good to hear from another iceman. My dad managed the ice house in our town and we lived on the same property. I would make the morning ice run with my brother before school and then again in the afternoon. We delivered to both individual homes and the restaurants - blocks to the houses and crushed ice to the restaurants.

My dad had polio as a child and only had use of one arm, but could lift a 300 pound block of ice with that one arm, and he wasn't much bigger than me.

Sorry...this isn't about signs but it does bring back a flood of memories.

--------------------
Chapman Sign Studio
Temple, Texas
chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net

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Ian Stewart-Koster
Resident


Member # 3500

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YKYBATAW...when the quickie window splash you did just before Christmas back in 1988 for a local butcher for $40, is still up and being used in 2007, even though the shop has been repainted twice and changed hands twice, and every other window redone, but your old splash seems to just stay there!

--------------------
"Stewey" on chat

"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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Si Allen
Resident


Member # 420

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Jeese! Stewie....you have those customers too?

[Bash] [Bash] [Bash] [Bash]

--------------------
Si Allen #562
La Mirada, CA. USA

(714) 521-4810

si.allen on Skype

siallen@dslextreme.com

"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"

Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!

Brushasaurus on Chat

Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
David Harding
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Member # 108

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Si, Stewie's is on a window, yours is protected by the National Park Service at Mesa Verde.

--------------------
David Harding
A Sign of Excellence
Carrollton, TX

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Deri Russell
Resident


Member # 119

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Ray I think I'd be really proud to have done something that long ago that was worth putting in a museum! Just think how many years of awesome work you have out there. That's great.

--------------------
Deri Russell
Wildwood Signs
Hanover, Ontario

You're just jealous 'cause the little voices only talk to me.

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