Sign Painting in Downtown Tuscaloosa
A tall tale about making some signs for Tom Beckbe in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
A while back I got a call to paint some signs for Tom. Tom Beckbe.
He’s got a couple of stores here in Alabama, one up in Mountain Brook and one down in Tuscaloosa, and from what I can gather, Tom is a man of discerning taste. That must be why he picked me to make his signs.
The stores sell hunting gear. Fine stuff if you ask me. You walk in and there are stuffed turkeys and mounted water buffalo staring you down from every angle.
The panel signs I made came out real nice, I and even got to lay a little gold leaf in Mountain Brook. Though the brick on Luraleen B. Wallace Boulevard had mortar joints deeper than a catfish hole in the a Cahaba River, but I still painted the letters cleaner than a raccoon’s lunch. That’s just how I do it.
Tom, from what I understand, is an adventurous fellow. He went out to the Sipsey Wilderness not long ago to hunt hogs with a pack of Catahoula dogs and ended up at the bottom of a muddy creek with a twisted ankle and a broken heart.
I hope he’s doing okay. I sent him a postcard a while back and haven't gotten the usual reply. The signs are still up, last I checked. Looking real good.
