September 30, 2006

Jefferson, Texas, y'all

Jefferson, named for Thomas Jefferson when it was founded in the early 1840s.


This is obviously not an original sign, because everybody knows there is no period abbreviating the "doctor" in Dr Pepper. Or, based on this Snopes page, it could just be a fresh coat of paint was applied to a pre-1950s ad:

Here's another oddball Pepper fact: The period after the "Dr" went missing in 1950 when the company changed the font used to write the name. When presented in this new style, the lower case "r" consisted of a small slanted line with a dot at its upper right. Well and good, but when a period was trailed after that new-fangled "r", the period and the r's dot seemed to form a colon and alter the "r" into an "i". With the period there, "Dr. Pepper" looked like "Di: Pepper". The solution was to drop the period.



I'd never seen one of these. This "traffic stop" was located right before the crosswalk at a stop sign. The date reveals it's from 1926. I guess it might have been effective with the motor vehicles of that era. "Cretney Traffic Guide Co, Madison, WIS" was the apparent manufacturer.





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love these photos! I grew up in a small town in New Jersey, and although I would never move back I have a 'thing' for small towns.

Chris said...

Thanks, rhea! I have a thing for old neon signs, and I imagine there's alot of that in small, New Jersey towns. I like The Boomer Chronicles!

Judy Scott Thompson said...

Jefferson is my home town and these photos are phenomenal. I am looking for more pictures of the old Jefferson Wholesale Grocery company owned by T.J. Taylor. If you can guide me to any photos of the 1950s and early 60s when I was growing up there, that would be great!