Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

The Pretenders Come Alive

My earliest memory of riding in a car was the Goodyear sign with a blue background and the gold "GOOD and YEAR" sandwiching a foot with a wing on it. At night, however, it was a blaze of lights, swirling and whirling around, flashing on and off ... at times the flashing "GOODYEAR" would flash a golden "GO," then go dark, then flash a golden "GO," go dark, then a golden flashing "GOODYEAR."

For decades, the blue and gold sign illuminated the valley at night, also flashing the time and temperature. Then, because of one of the energy crises or another, the sign was changed ... the lumens were reduced and the flashing stopped ... a more subdued sign for the economic times.

Then, as Toyo and Bridgestone invaded the U.S., cutting into the Goodyear business, and the price of electricity increased, and the main road south out of the city where the sign could be seen by scores of thousands of motorists a day was by-passed by the interstate highway heading into the south suburbs, Goodyear took down the diamond-shaped illuminated sign and replaced it with a rectangular, unilluminated, billboard-like sign with only the time and temperature flashing below.

Well, I drove down the road the other day ... and I was stunned and amazed/ My childhood memories slowly swirled past/ Like the wind through the trees ... the Goodyear sign was gone.

Posted by Bill at June 16, 2006 06:51 PM