Lost art around town

While heading out for coffee with the hubby on Monday I was transported back to when I was a child.......

We pulled the car up in front of this sign...I haven't ever noticed it before......just an old sign painted on the back of a shop exterior wall.....faded showing it's age....

   

Until my eye was draw to the corner of the sign.....the artists signature.....

 

Mr Peter Groucott.......he was a friend of my dad's....they had the same passions...restoring and riding vintage motor cycles.....he was a painter....sorry.... sign writer .

We would see him around town...toot the horn as we passed him...usually working on the latest business to open in town or re doing the art work of an old establishment.....he drove a white van.....wore white overalls covered in paint.....always up a ladder, a big man with a bald head and a mustache.

Sometimes we would tag along with dad and visit him at home.....oh the dread...dad would be there for what felt like hours talking motor cycles and rusty bits.....sometimes there was a motorcycle in the lounge room....and always a yard full of interesting bits and pieces....He was single ...never married....

He would have been an icon around our town....leaving his signature all over the walls.

I was reminded that it is something you don't see all that often anymore.....signs these days are mostly done in workrooms or by machines....well not all but there certainly isn't the iconic sign writer balancing on ladders meticulously hand painting signage.

Hmmmm...I did smile when I saw his trademark......and the little walk down memory lane I had with it.

We even have longer phone numbers these days.