Publicity Signs - Lincoln IL - USA

[Adam May]

I had a visit from Joe Pelc a 91 year old sign maker here in Lincoln.

As always I was pleased to see him. Something was different this time though. He is loosing his memory and the over all spunk that he has had since I met him. Seems like he is going down hill pretty fast. It is always a shame to see the people you look up to begin that descent towards the end.

I will be making more trips over to his shop while he is still able to paint and continuing learning what he is willing to pass onto me. It is the only way to keep this craft alive.

While he was in he lent me a portfolio of his from the early 50's to mid 60's stuff he did. I scanned to whole thing and put it into a slide show for people to looks through.

Most of the images are of hand lettered, neon, and vehicle signage.

Enjoy Joe's work. I have been looking at a lot of these signs since I was a kid.

As the saing goes, "They don't make em like that anymore."

Enjoy

Portfolio (http://www.ampstudio.net/pelc/)

[paulp]

links not working for me Adam.

[Signoholic]

Adam/ to all.. bb code is disabled as I cant enforce size restrictions on the board for other users, who don’t abide to the rules of 700pixels wide x 1000. It is easier to use the photo/image- attachment tool, located under where you post/ reply, just upload from your machine, or copy & paste from photo bucket where ever into your machine & upload at 700pixels X 1000 pixels resize as required, jpeg or giff, giff sometimes better for graphical files as less bytes in size. be cool & upload "people! all other direct Links just type in how it is in your browser as below, no need for fancy prefixes on here guys.

think this is the link where Adam wanted you to go......................................... What a Blast from the Past .. I am Inspired again!

http://www.ampstudio.net/pelc/

[dave parr]

Thanks for the slide show, Adam. Lots of great photos of work from Joe's career, I can imagine the fun you have hanging out with him. It was very interesting meeting him during the Lincoln meet. I remember a few of those business. Lincoln Office has grown larger and spread throughout Central Illinois. I'll bet Joe has many, many great pointers and probably has more than just a few stories up his sleeve, too.

[Adam May]

He is definately a ball of fire to talk wiht. He kinda piddles around with stuff now. His hands shake like crazy until he picks up a quill, then becomes very steady and composed. I keep asking him about his customers and what kinda of stuff he is doing. Hios response is usually, "If you want to talk to my customers stop my the cemetary." Kinda sad, but when you have been doing it as long as he has it becomes a reality.

Joe's health is pretty good but either his mind is slipping or he just doesn't give a rats ass anymore.

If you read the side of his truck on the bowling alley neon sign it says "Sign Erection and Maintanence." I don't think we can get away that statement anymore after all these cialas and viagra commercials have flooded the market. signs of the times though.

One more note and I will stop typing.

The first slide is of a jewler's sign. I have located the original in a barn about 15 miles from my house. Trying to take owenership of it so it can be but back in place. Will let you know how it goes.

[conman]

Love to look at the old pics that was cool, thanks for putting forth the effort.