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Yep, I remember those "good ole days" (Circa 50's) What I'm trying to remember the hardest, is what was so darn good about them?.....
There was no air conditioning in either the truck or the shop.
A vinyl job took twice as long as paint, cause we had to cut each letter out of Scotchcal by hand with those new fangled X-Acto knives.
A wall job meant using stages and falls or ladders and jacks, 'cause bucket trucks weren't invented. (I always wondered how they got the ominous name "falls")
All backgrounds and boards were painted with a brush. The Union would fine you if you got caught using a roller or spray gun.
Putting up a plywood billboard face meant putting in 200+ wood screws with a hand screwdriver.
A 3x30 banner was made from canvas and weighed about 75 lbs.
You were required to wear white bib overalls. (Talk about a fashion statement)
"Saving a file" was putting a tag on the pounce pattern.
My memory is fading... but I know some of your other old timers can come up with some more things we had to put up with in "The Good Ole Days".
------------------ Jerry Mathel Jerry Mathel Signs Grants Pass, Oregon signs@grantspass.com
Posts: 916 | From: Grants Pass, OR USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Jerry, as I remember, the attire was defined by the function. The card men used to wear a jacket and necktie, while the bench men wore sportshirts and the outdoor men, the wall dogs, wore the coveralls. I remember the stories about the guy that came to the shop and everyone went out back for this demonstration. It was the first time anyone got to see a roller. I also remember hearing about the first demonstrations of vinyl paint for primer. And plywood. What a new invention!. I remember lettering muslin banners, and doing smalt and gold leaf on framed oil cloth. Stirring the lead and oil. Remember those presses to squeeze out the color from the soldered cans? Remember the bumps on the bottom knuckle of the middle finger from the hours spent pressing on the pounce wheel? How 'bout when the sales folks used to come cold call and had the boxes of brushes and hand tools and leaf with them? When the word "font" was never heard of in a sign shop? Remember when we used to joke about how we'd never be replaced by automation or computers?
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
Posts: 6718 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Geez, Rick......now those ARE the good ole days...........BTW, what are you doing up so early on a SUnday???
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
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Great post...How about when all the ladders were wooden...the shop had unmistaken oder of lard oil...sign panels were 20 ga. paintloc metal "flats" or banded(with 1"x3") or band and Mould (Banded with an inset 3/4" wood moulding)...(they were so good some still hang around this town)...there were no sandblasted redwood signs...everyone knew what a "cutawl" was (and knew how to use it...The lettering bench was covered with Upsom Board so you could use "Bench Pins"...King Cole Black had to be mixed with varnish and drier to back up gold jobs...and if you were an apprentice you learned how to letter by "overlaying" paper banners after the Journeyman lettered the first one...and if a "Dynamite job" came into the shop every journeyman passed it on to you the "lucky" apprentice.
Yeah those were the good ole days alright,but only because they were "gooder" than these
------------------ Monte Jumper SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla.
[This message has been edited by Monte Jumper (edited October 01, 2000).]
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And DuPont Dulux Black was one of the finest blacks that you could use as a lettering enamel. Your quills came without handles...you used one off of an old one that was worn out.
------------------ Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA (714) 521-4810 ICQ # 330407 "SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
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Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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From the above posts, I can almost smell the sign aromas from the various shops I've worked in. But the only thing I really miss about the "good old days" is the awe-inspired passers-by as I lettered a window or boat. "How do you do that?" or "What a steady hand" they'd say. Now, they keep walking and mutter something about stick-ons. What I DON'T miss, however, is leaning over upside down to paint a 2" hailing port on the transom of a boat, bouncing around from the wake of an errant skier, trying to time your strokes between waves with a can of One-shot balanced precariously on the gunwhale. Or the always dreaded "Pool Rules" signs with multi-line 3/4" Helvetica letters- especially when they needed more than one. But the thing I miss the least is painstakingly tracing letters and artwork, then inking in all the colors with felt-tip pens for a color presentation. Invariably, the customer's first question was, "Can I see it in blue?"
------------------ Sonny Franks Atlanta
"The best things in life aren't things"
Posts: 4115 | From: Lilburn, GA USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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How bout' Tibbits & Westerfield, Kem lustral n' doing smaltz jobs once a week, cutting out clear heart redwood letters instead of foam. Speaking of ladders, how about using them big ol' heavy wood extension ladders with a block and tackle on top to haul up tiffin panels(metal 10',up to 14'x 2')on a cold day in the wind. Remember pissin' in yer paint on cold days to keep it from slidn' around (something about the acids). Last but not least... how bout when you ran out of paint work to do and going out to wash faces on porcelain signs and getting the #+%^% shocked outta ya if you got to close to them neon housing contacts. Hated that but needed the money. Yeah....them was the good ol' days. Thas'it,..........CrazyJack
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Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Yep Mark, When someone would ask how we made all those little holes in the paper, that's what we'd tell them. At least getting a sore finger from working with a pounce wheel wasn't as bad as it is now when you run over your finger with the Electro-Pounce. :0
I was lettering a truck at a dealership in a neighboring town a while back and there was a young fellow there lettering (vinylizing) another new truck. We visited a while, had a cup of coffee, and I noticed that he was really studying all the neat s**t in my kit. He seemed amazed at the chalk, stringline, charcoal, and all the little screw-top cans. He finally asked what the roll of felt I keep tucked in my kit was for, and I showed him how I used it for backing to make a pounce pattern with a wheel. I thought at first he was just surprised at how well the felt worked, and then I realized he had never seen a pounce pattern.
------------------ Jerry Mathel Jerry Mathel Signs Grants Pass, Oregon signs@grantspass.com
Posts: 916 | From: Grants Pass, OR USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Do you remember laying out showcards with vine charcoal or chalk, and when finished, cleaning off the layout lines with a turkey feather duster?? Or how about using Japan colors on muslin cloth for temporary signs. Do any of you remember the formulas to get an oval using string...or a 5-pointed star. Has anyone used mica dust in white paint to give a "frosty white" to a snow scene? Anyone remember what 28 x 44 or 22 x 28, or 11 x 14 referred to? Or hand lettering pre-screened blanks supplied by soft drink bottlers. A lot of shops also had a chamoise on hand...remember some of the uses for that article??
Thanks Jerry for a nice trip to B.C. ( before computers)
------------------ Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail kjmlhenry@home.
Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.
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Geeze Ken, not just showcards. We laid out whole walls with charcoal and chalk. How many of you remember cutting a hole in a cigar box and covering it with a piece of screen. You used it like a cheese grater to sharpen your chalk or charcoal stick, and when you got enough powder in the box, you made a pounce bag out of it. Actually the gray powder worked quite well.
------------------ Jerry Mathel Jerry Mathel Signs Grants Pass, Oregon signs@grantspass.com
Posts: 916 | From: Grants Pass, OR USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Ken used the chamoise for cleaning charcoal off the 28x44's, 22x28's and 14x22 showcards...used it on the oilcloth too! We use oilcloth more than muslin for temp signs.
An old sock was our pounce bags!
oh! Yeah! and Scothlite was not sticky...after ya cut it out, you activated the glue with solvent!
And when you got a blueprint...it was really blue!
------------------ Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA (714) 521-4810 ICQ # 330407 "SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
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Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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hey si, i still use a white "athletic sock" for a pounce bag along with a few balls of cotton or even some torn pieces of paper towel to give the bag a little mass.
somethings remain the same.
thanks jerry for reminding us of where we came from.
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By the way Jerry, theres a modest gentleman up in Eugene,(friend of Vance Gallager) who was a great tutor to myself back in my Illinois, days who could take us all back to the old days and not break a sweat. John Berg, is well known around the country and in his retirement years can still show most of us a thing or two. I believe he'd be gone to Mesa,AZ by now, he's a snow bird. but John, will spend the winter hittin'a few shops and diggin right in. I am humbled to know him. Thas'it,....................CJ
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Posts: 2914 | From: Rocklin, CA. USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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My little stories are much more recent, however you'd be shocked how far behind some establishments still are.
This was only about 9 years ago. One of the leading print places in town was on the verge of going high tech with mac computers, etc. However they were still on their old computers.
I did a one month practicum in this location when I was in college. I was shocked that the way they applied an arc to the text was to print the text straight, then hand cut little notches between the letters, then wax them down to the setup page. Oh my gosh. Hot wax. When I set up work there, I dreamed of banging the work out on my home computer.
At my other practicum location, the city's signshop used an ancient Gerber setup. I had used this system before so I knew how to teach them to set up more than one line at a time of text. Imagine. For years they cut one line of text at a time. THEN they informed me, they JUST got a monitor! They had been setting up signs for years with no monitor. Egads.
Trust me. I ran weee weee weeeeeeeee all the way home.
------------------ Graphic Impact located in BC Canada gisigns@sprint.ca
Posts: 5630 | From: Yarrow, BC Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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