JACK STARR CUT RATE LIQUORS

As I drove up and down East Belknap one morning looking for cool photos with my buddy, Motel Todd, I stopped at Jack Starr Liquors in order to capture this georgeous neon sign.

It just don't get no better than this, pardner.

This IS art, period.

Hell, yeah.

THE SMOKE PIT

Before there was a Hooters there was The Smoke Pit with it's bikini-topped waitresses taking your orders as you sitting there not being able to help but eye their lovely features --- bulging cleavage and tight behinds --- as you ask for a chopped bbq sandwich and an ice cold beer.

And because the bar-be-que was as good as the waitresses looked you fully enjoyed your meal at this famous Fort Worth landmark, which has been in the same location since 1953.

At lunch time you see so many pickups in the parking lot and along the streets around The Smoke Pit you'd think it was a car lot too.

Inside it's like being at home, everyone's friendly, everyone's talking. A long bar runs along the place's east side so you can come in and drink beer if that's all you intend on doing. This fantastic, beat up old joint is simply a great place to have some good redneck food and look at beautiful women work their butts off.

So, please, go to The Smoke Pit and pass on the blah, blah, blah mainstream corporate franchise nonsense known as Hooters.

(Please click on the photo so you can see all the writing on the front of the building.)

PAPPAS BURGER: Hickory Cheddar Bacon Burger

Thinking Pappas Burger might not be all that great ---- it's got the usual "flare" and wall decorations you see @ TGIF and Bennigans, etc., --- I was extremely surprised at how comfy and cool a joint this actually is. Sure, it's got what the other corporate dine-in places have --- "fun" food and a happening atmosphere --- but I sensed something different about this place the moment I walked into it. I was there only because my dad called me up and asked me if I wanted him to pick me up from work and go eat lunch @ Pappas Burger.

I immediately sensed this place was different and, to my surprise, it was.

First off, the food is top notch. Sure the prices are top notch too, the price of the burger I ate was $9.95, but it's worth. And you do get free refills on your drinks, soft drinks, I mean. I know that's a LOT of dough for a burger and fries but I'm telling you this burger was extremely delicious, tasty (the bacon was crisp and it had my taste buds all in a flux) and filling. So I can't bemoan the price at all --- but my dad did pay. It was a full meal (and I'm 227 lbs) and the hickory-smoked cheddar bacon cheese burger meat was juicy, tender and flat out top notch beef. The fries were well-seasoned and tasted fresh. I didn't even bother throwing Ketchup on them so as not to mask their genuine flavor.

Pappas Burger's advertising folks says this about their home away from home joint, "A one-of-a-kind burger haven serving Texas-size burgers with fresh and flavorful toppings. Watch the game on Pappas Burger’s big screen televisions or just enjoy our fun and laid back atmosphere."

I couldn't agree more. And there's no doubt about it: I'll be going again, whether I pay or not.

PAPPAS BURGER

I ate at Pappas Burger (located in Fort Worth at Interstate 30 and Forest Park Boulevard) with my youngest nephew and my dad and step-mother, and, before going inside and enjoying a tasty Hickory Cheddar Bacon Burger, I stood in the parking lot and took this shot of the place's old school neon sign.

Whoever designed it --- look close, it's a hamburger --- did a fantastic job.

It's rare that a new restaurant/business spends the money to have a nice neon sign designed and made instead of settling for a cheap p.o.s. manufactured sign that doesn't stand out amongst all the other 21st century cookie-cutter business signs.

Heck, I wouldn't call'em signs. I'd call'em eye pollution.

Plus, less neon signs means less neons signs to take pictures of!

LONG LIVE NEON!

SMOKEY BEAR

As a co-worker was taking me on a tour of the Greenwood area west of Weatherford, Texas, we passed the Greenwood Rural Volunteer Fire Department and just past it was this Smokey Bear sign. I asked her to pull over so I could take a photo of it.

When I was a kid in the '60s and early '70s the three networks back then, CBS, NBC and ABC, always had public service commercials that featured Smokey telling you how to prevent fires. But, nowadays, he's completely disappeared off the radar screen in Americans' consciousnesses.

In fact, when I was 7 or 8, I found a box of matches. So I snuck behind a Dumpster in the Section 8 apartments, the James Avenue Apartments off of Crowley Road but are now called something different, me and my sister and mom lived in at the time, and started firing up each match and watched it burn and smelled the smoke and then tossed them behind me into a tall field of grass during the middle of a Texas summer. Once I was done with the matches I went back to our apartment from which you could see the Dumpster and the field. Soon enough I heard sirens. LOTS OF SIRENS. I looked out the window, and to my shock, that field was ablaze, bright yellow flames flying high, and there were six or seven big fire trucks lined up, probably thinking the apartments were on fire and not just that field of grass. Fortunately, the firefighters, true heroes, put the fire out and no one was hurt and nothing was damaged.

I kept my mouth shut about it. Told no one I'd been behind there doing what I'd done. I kept that secret with me into my 30s. I think the first person I admitted it to was my first ex-wife and, later on, I told both my sister and mom and they were like, "Oh, wow, YOU did that!?!"

So, kids, take Smokey the Bear seriously when he says not to play with matches ("Smokey N' Da Boyz" animated music video). He ain't lying.

UPDATE: The co-worker informs me, "Remember that Smokey Bear that was outside of the volunteer fire department? Well, during the 2008 Christmas holidays someone first vandalized him and knocked him down and then someone stole him. There is a $1000 reward for information on the whereabouts/return of Smokey Bear."

RED HOT & BLUE: Guitar Pickin' Porkers

Went to lunch at Red Hot & Blue --- Texas, a BBQ joint that got its start in Memphis, Tennessee, with two ladies from work and painted on the dining room brick wall was the restaurant's icon, two pink piggies jamming with guitars.

As usual, I had my Nikon D50 with me and took it out of the bag I carry it in and took this shot.

Loved the neon strings for the guitars. The place also had real guitars and posters of blues rockers, including Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and well-known black blues artists that made the atmosphere excellent.

The food was very good too. I had the pulled pork bar-be-que sandwich. And classic blues songs were played over the sound system to boot.

RIN TIN TINS

I was in the back seat of a car being driven by a co-worker while we went to lunch and at a stoplight we rolled up to a huge dual cab pickup truck that had two gorgeous German Shepards looking out a rolled down window. Since my work buddy's back window electric control didn't work I told her to roll it down from her end and as soon as she did I immediately stuck my camera out the window --- I always have a Nikon digital SLR at the ready during our lunchtime excursions --- and had enough time before the light turned green to get off two shots, with this one being a keeper.

And, fortunately, they weren't looking at me, I think that would have ruined the shot, but at some people getting gas at a gas station located on the other side of our car.

I noticed the added reflection of the sky on the truck as I reviewed the pic on the Nikon D50's LCD screen, which made the shot even cooler. I couldn't wait to get home to open it up in Capture NX 2 and do my editing work for it.

I printed it out and put it up on my cubicle wall at work (it's own my personal gallery) and people who looked at the pic all mentioned the sky's reflection.

It's always cool to be at the right place at the right time to get a photograph like this one. It's why I love photography, that spur of the moment shot starring at you and you at the ready to punch the shutter button.

JOE DAICHES CREDIT JEWELERS

As long as I've been alive (since 1960) Joe Daiches Credit Jewelers has had a storefront in downtown Fort Worth, one block north of the Tarrant County Courthouse.

Also, for about the same amount of years the sons of the owner, Alvin and Larry, made these god-awful, clumsy 30-second commercials on local t.v. that were hilarious because they tried to be funny but the fun part of the spots were them, they're stiffness, comfortableness, etc. They were a couple of dorks who meant well but should've hired one of those loud car salesmen instead. At the 1:36 mark of this video you can watch one of their commercials. It's from the '70s.

Now, there's no telling how old its neon sign is but I found on a genealogy site the man who owned the company who produced it. You can see at the very bottom of the sign (click on the sign to see the full version of it) the words "Melton Neon." Well, from that genealogy site this is what it says about Mr. Melton, "Julian Chappell Melton was born on 6 Sep 1898 in Lima, Beaverhead Co., Montana. He died on 31 Aug 1984 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery. Lived 86 years. Julian had golden hair and bright blue eyes and was very handsome. He was an fighter pilot ace in the first World War. After a plane crash he went to the hospital at Berrings Field, Texas. He recovered completely. He owned the Melton Neon Sign Company on East Lancaster in Fort Worth, Texas. He was also an artist."

Of course, the man's company no longer exists but, obviously, his firm did good work.