Sign, sign everywhere a sign

As I said in previous post my trip up north to the springs was a fall family tradition. Well I said family and now I'm a empty nester, so as I did for the state fair I decided it would be great opportunity for a photo safari. There are some place in Ogden I always wanted to take pictures of so I decided to stop there on the way up to the springs. One of my favorite Ogden places is Historic 25th street. Ogden was quite the turn of the 20th century railroad town, and 25th street was the center of bawdy action, drinking, brothels, gambling, all very un-Utah. Things were still fairly bawdy when I moved to Ogden in '85. The old hotels were home to lonely old men, Angelos was the big biker bar, prostitutes were recognizable on the street. It's a street of character, and I always enjoyed stopping there for dinner or coffee or a beer or a trip to an antique store. Over the years the street has become more gentrified, many old buildings replaced with new, which has lessened the interesting character of the street a bit; I kind of found the mix of high class and low class interesting. I guess I like diversity, and I certainly like old historic places.

So I headed to 25th street with my camera. One thing I always wanted a picture of was the cool neon dragon sign outside the Star Noodle restaurant. Sadly I found the sign gone, but you can see some pictures here. I decided to snap shots of the other old historic signs. My disappointment over the missing Star Noodle sign made think that that I'd better go take a picture of another favorite Ogden spot; the huge big bellied Buddha that sat on top the roof of the China Nite restaurant on Washington. I ate there once, back in '85. The food was terrible, I recall egg rolls that were battered and fried and served with ketchup and yellow mustard, but I liked the my Buddha buddy. Sadly, when I went to snap the picture, I found it was also gone. You can catch a glimpse of him here. I guess things change and you can't go back. All the more reason to carry my camera and get pictures of favorite spots while I can.

So it looks like there was a time where coke, which "relieves fatigue" and beer were both the same price 5 cents!!!




I miss Buddha!

Not 25th street, but nearby, another cool Ogden sign... although I think it is a strip club.