Little bit of this and that...

Well, it was a beautiful day here in South Texas and after spending the last few days under the weather with a stomach virus I decided to head out with my camera. I wanted to post some pictures of the Texas landscape around here for those of you who are not familiar with it. These pictures are right around the area where I live, but this is what you'll see for many, many, many miles from here as well.

Remember these old satellite dishes?? I'd never seen one this shape before. How aesthetically pleasing to the eye! Ha! Thank God they got smaller! Of course, someday I'm sure we'll be laughing at the ones we all have on our roofs now.

There is no shortage of these around here.

Alrightey-then! Had enough of Texas scenery? Yeah...me, too. I was going to do a whole post on that, but that would have put everyone to sleep.

So as I was turning around to go back, I saw this little diner/store that's across from the huge outlet mall on I-35. I've always wanted to go in, so I took the opportunity today since my Texas scenery subject was quickly going down the blog drain. I'm glad I did, because it was a little walk down sign memory lane.

Remember these? Obviously, they didn't work because now we have the yellow flashing lights with the neighborhood cop sitting on a side street just waiting for the poor fool who's going two miles an hour over the posted 15 MPH school zone speed limit.

Being a St. Louis girl, I had to post this one. "Makes good food taste better." It's a good thing Budweiser has improved a tad on their advertising techniques through the years.

Another one from St. Louis, although I have never heard of Advance Mfg. Co. Just what the heck is "Hot French-Fried Popcorn??" Is that just another name they called popcorn back then? I get this image of them taking popped popcorn and frying it in a deep fryer...which doesn't especially sound very appealing.

I always liked the Pegasus at the Mobile stations...but I think I'll pass up the $4,995 price tag on this little piece of memorabilia. (By the way, prices on all these signs ranged from about $300 to $5,000.)

Not a very pleasant one.

A small steak with a Coke...80 cents. Now you can't even get the Coke for 80 cents.

This little number was $995...but I guess it dates back from 1936. Looks like it was used for target practice at some point.

Remember the Dr. Pepper slogan of drinking it at 10, 2 and 4? I had totally forgotten about that. "Drink a bite to eat." That doesn't even make any sense. Advertising had a bit to be desired back then. More on that later.


"Amos 'n' Andy." OMG, I haven't thought of that in years!! (Or maybe I blocked it out of my memory.) My dad used to love that show! (Which I'm totally ashamed to admit these days.) It's hard now to believe those days even existed...and now we have a black president. Thank the Lord times have changed. It's really hard to believe that was only about 45 years ago.

Kind of a strange Grape-Nuts ad.

Now here's advertising genius. Here's what the copy says on the ad:

"Why come back from lunch feeling drowsy? Choose a refreshing lunch, and be yourself. Bounce back to normal with an ice-cold Coca-Cola, the natural partner of so many good things to eat. An Ice-cold Coca-Cola is more than just a drink. It’s a very particular kind of drink—combining those pleasant, wholesome substances which foremost scientists say do most in restoring you to your normal self. Really delicious, it invites a pause, a pause that will refresh you."

I like the "wholesome substances which foremost scientists say do most in restoring you to your normal self"...that's a good one! You'd think everyone was a walking zombie after lunch unless you've had a Coke!

They had a little diner with the place which I should have tried, but feeling so much better after my stomach disorder, I had a craving for something across the street. I'm normally not a fast-food person and the only thing I ever get at McDonald's is their sugar-free vanilla iced coffee which is only $2.37 compared to Starbuck's $4-something. They are great. But I do love these...

McRibs...which only come out certain times of the year. I didn't eat the fries, though...too much after the stomach thing. I didn't make that mess with all the rib sauce...that's just how it looked when I opened the wrapper, I swear.

So now on to Gruene. We're doing a Secret Santa thing in the office, and Gruene is always a great place for gift-buying, so I thought I check it out...especially since I was feeling so much better and it was such a beautiful day.

Now you have to admit, this is cute. An Airstream bird feeder. You don't see those everyday.

These are also unusual. But it would have been kind of difficult to giftwrap and sneak into the office, so I passed on this one.

I didn't get anything while I was there but it was a great day to be out. Temps were in the 80's and the bikers were taking advantage of the weather.

Having spent most of my life in midwestern to northern states, I'm still not used to warm weather during the holidays. I wore flip-flops today have all my windows open tonight. At any rate, I guess I have to be thankful for not having a heating bill.

Happy holidays!