My grandfather came from Iowa farming stock, but a congenital heart problem prevented his pursuit of the farming life. The bad ticker eventually took him away from us at the young age of 52 back in 1958. Being an artistic young man, he took to the road and made a living for a while as a sign painter, first in Jackson, Mississippi, and then in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
One of the gigs often available for sign painters in that day was the painting of showroom windows for automobile dealerships, and my grandfather came to regularly decorate the windows of a Chevrolet dealership in Big BR with slogans, announcements of sales, and the like. The dealer liked him and told him he thought he could make more money selling cars for him than painting his windows. Dee-Daddy, which is what I called my grandfather, took him up on the offer, found the dealer was right, and ultimately started his own Chevy dealership a few years later.
One of the first jobs Dee-Daddy did as a sign painter in Red Stick (English for Baton Rouge) was to paint a sign for a local retail outlet called Hebert Store. Being from Iowa, he thought Hebert was pronounced Hee-Bert. Through his involvement in the creation of the Hebert Store signage, he learned that it was actually pronounced A-Bear. That’s how the store’s original sign came to include a picture of a big A with a bear leaning against it.
I now live in a Kansas suburb just across the state line from Kansas City, Missouri. My drive home from work each day has in recent months started stirring nostalgic thoughts of my grandfather and my old hometown. The St. Agnes School has adorned its front lawn with a large plaster cast of its mascot. As you can see he is a handsome bear wearing a jersey bearing (get it) a big A for Agnes.
The fiction writer in me likes to think this is manifest evidence of the creativity of Louisianans as they make their way through a tough economy. You’ve got to give credit to that Hebert fellow for poking around and finding a school mascot job all the way up here in the Midwest. Of course, he might not be so happy with the position when he finds out how hard it is to get crawfish here.
One of the gigs often available for sign painters in that day was the painting of showroom windows for automobile dealerships, and my grandfather came to regularly decorate the windows of a Chevrolet dealership in Big BR with slogans, announcements of sales, and the like. The dealer liked him and told him he thought he could make more money selling cars for him than painting his windows. Dee-Daddy, which is what I called my grandfather, took him up on the offer, found the dealer was right, and ultimately started his own Chevy dealership a few years later.
One of the first jobs Dee-Daddy did as a sign painter in Red Stick (English for Baton Rouge) was to paint a sign for a local retail outlet called Hebert Store. Being from Iowa, he thought Hebert was pronounced Hee-Bert. Through his involvement in the creation of the Hebert Store signage, he learned that it was actually pronounced A-Bear. That’s how the store’s original sign came to include a picture of a big A with a bear leaning against it.
I now live in a Kansas suburb just across the state line from Kansas City, Missouri. My drive home from work each day has in recent months started stirring nostalgic thoughts of my grandfather and my old hometown. The St. Agnes School has adorned its front lawn with a large plaster cast of its mascot. As you can see he is a handsome bear wearing a jersey bearing (get it) a big A for Agnes.
The fiction writer in me likes to think this is manifest evidence of the creativity of Louisianans as they make their way through a tough economy. You’ve got to give credit to that Hebert fellow for poking around and finding a school mascot job all the way up here in the Midwest. Of course, he might not be so happy with the position when he finds out how hard it is to get crawfish here.
