Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Needle in a haystack 42in Red Crown Sign Iola

I just got done reading a story on here about a gentleman pursuing a gas pump that was his grandfathers and how he was able to reunite with it through the Oldgas community and it gave me an idea. When I was 13 or 14 i found a 42 or a 48 inch red crown sign in the original ring out behind my family's old barn. The sign was in pretty decent shape and I was super excited to have found it because I was going to go to the Iola car show and set up a booth with my dad for the first time. Being young and dumb I decided that I would take the sign with me and try to sell it to raise money to purchase a Playstation because at that time I thought it would be the coolest thing ever, oh was I ever wrong. I had a gentleman stop in my booth and haggled me down from $300 or $350 down to $255.00 (the number has stuck in my head ever since). At the time I thought I had made a sound business decision as that sale left me only 45 dollars short of my target of $300 for the purchase of a new playstation system. The man said he was from Indiana (foggy memory but I believe that is where he said he was from) and was going to hang it on or in his barn (details are a bit blurry as this was almost 19 years ago now). So I figured what the heck, its worth a shot as the community is pretty tight and someone always knows someone else and may be able to help a guy out in tracking it down. I have no picture of it as this was pre cellphone cameras and digital cameras but I thought maybe that gentleman ( if he is still alive) or someone from Indiana who may know a guy who happened to buy a pretty darn nice red crown sign a couple decades back from a chubby young blonde boy at The Iola car show could maybe drop me a line and try to track this down. This is a story I tell to everyone that ever asks me about my collection as it still haunts me today. This sign was the sign that really got me off and running in the petroliana hobby and is one I would dearly love to have back. Definitely a long shot but heck you never know.

Good luck Aaron, hope someday you get that call.

Aaron,

My name is Lynn and I live in Indiana. I bought a 42 inch double sided red crown sign with a ring at Iola about the time frame you're talking about. The ring had the two eyelets that are used to hang the sign ground off. Does that sound familiar? I still have the ring and the sign is in a privet collection in California. I can get you pictures of both if you think this was your sign. I don't remember dealing with a young boy, it was a middle aged adult that I dealt with. Maybe your Dad.

Lynn S.

Very possible. It sounds about how I remember it, there were no brackets on the ring, just the eyelets as you mentioned. My dad was there with me so it is very possible that it could be him you remember. Does the $255 sound about right?

I was thinking the price was $250 and the ring doesn't have brackets or eyelets. Someone had ground them off. If I had a map of the Iola swap meet I could show you approximately where I remember buying the sign. I will try to find a map of Iola and give you an idea of the area I'm thinking about.

Lynn

If I remember correctly it seems like it would have been east of the tower before you go over the hill. I can't be sure, that was along time ago. If you give me your E-Mail address I can get you pictures of the ring and the sign if you want them.

Lynn

I believe that yea I was in row AK some where in the middle. I have now moved up to row AI. The toy barn was right down the hill from from me.

Hambeano2001@yahoo.com and yes I would be to the east of the tower.

wow small world

Amen to that!