A couple of weeks ago I rode over to Uptown to check out the First Friday art show/block party. It was crowded and fun. I look forward to the next First Friday celebration I’ll be able to attend in August. (On the first friday of July I’ll be in Los Angeles for my Teach For America training institute.)
On Saturday morning after that First Friday I drove back down to the block where there seemed to be the most activity on the previous evening because I wanted to grab a picture of a sign that captured my imagination. This sign is for a business that no longer exists in the neighborhood: New Ricky’s. (There is a Ricky’s Sports Bar down near the Coliseum, but I couldn’t find any connection to an Uptown Oakland location in the era from which this sign seems to hail.) I’m guessing this might have been hung in the 1950s. The grand-daddy curator of interesting Oakland signs, Gene at Our Oakland, didn’t have a photo of this one posted on his blog, but I hope this catches his interest, and that he might help dig up the story.
UPDATE: Gene at Our Oakland did the research to figure out what this sign really says.