Published: August 29, 2007 05:45 pm      

Bluefield’s new clock spurs memories of region’s long-ago landmarks

Last week I was told that a new clock was going up at the intersection of Federal and Bland streets in downtown Bluefield, so naturally I was asked to go out and do the story. Going to the scene is usually the best thing to do; you find the people you need to talk to and avoid playing phone tag all day.

The clock looks interesting. In fact, it reminds me of those clocks you see in 1930s movies, and fits in with the downtown buildings. I gathered comments, did the story and thought that was the end of it for now.

Then on Sunday I received an e-mail form Haugesund, Norway, of all places. A native of Bluefield, Dan Eaton, was working there on a project when he read the story on the Bluefield Daily Telegraph’s web site.

Reading the clock story had caused him to remember another clock that was a landmark in Bluefield when he was a boy growing up on Rogers Street across from Grace Methodist Church.

This clock was on the Cole’s Sunbeam Bread sign on Stoney Ridge across from downtown. Eaton could see that sign and the old Appalachian Power Company signs from his bedroom window at night.

“The clock sign was originally wooden and had a neon light pendulum that swung back and forth at night,” he wrote.

“The clock was visible from almost anywhere in town. I nagged my father to take me on a hike up Stoney Ridge to see the clock up close when I was about 6. He finally gave in and we hiked up Mercer Street and over to the clock sign. It was quite a thrill to see it up close. It seem gigantic to me at the time. The Appalachian sign had incandescent lights and was supposed to represent a water wheel turning a generator or something like that.”

I think we all remember certain signs or gimmicks that fascinated us when we were kids. Thinking back, I can remember some mechanical animals that were in a grocery store in Charleston when I was 5 or 6 years old.

Mom took my sister Karen and I to see them more than once. Deer, cows, and other mechanical critters mooed, moved their mouths and wagged their tales. I can still remember one of the managers sticking his finger into a robot cow’s mouth to prove it wasn’t real.

And after I read Eaton’s message, I remembered the old B & B Burger signs in Charleston. Those looked like 1960s style satellites with red, yellow and blue neon trim. Naturally, those were amazing to a boy fascinated by rockets.

Managing Editor Samantha Perry remembered the old Bluefield Drive-In sign with its bicycle-riding rooster. Apparently its neon flashed to make it look as if the rooster was pedaling.

And then I remembered that New Graham Pharmacy sign in Bluefield, Va.

I noticed that sign soon after I started working for the Telegraph. It showed a pharmacist pouring the contents of one test tube into another. I privately dubbed it the Mad Scientist Sign because he was wearing a lab coat that reminded me of 1930s horror movies.

His expression struck me as a bit diabolical, too; of course, I was always driving by, so I didn’t have an opportunity to study his expression that much.

If I remember correctly, that sign was stolen for the metal. Eaton said his beloved Sunbeam Bread sign burned down during the 1960s. Later a JFG Coffee sign replaced it. He said that he always “viewed the JFG sign as a Johnny-come-lately intruder.”

It’s easy to see his point. Somehow those beloved things from our youth always have a neat factor that modern signs just can’t replace. I’d love to see another B & B Burger sign all lit up in neon glow.

Maybe someday a person who’s now a little boy or girl will remember seeing that new clock in downtown Bluefield and thinking how cool it looked, especially at night with its lighted dials.

When you’re a little kid, big clocks and big signs with colored lights and neat moving neon stick in your mind. They’re always big, neat toys you wish that you could keep forever.

Greg Jordan is a reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Contact him at gjordan@bdtonline.com