Description: Fort Lewis was a United States Army post from 1917 to 2010 located 9.1 miles south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Fort Lewis was merged with McChord Air Force Base on February 1, 2010 to form Joint Base Lewis–McChord. Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was one of the largest and most modern military reservations in the United States. Consisting of 87,000 acres of prairie land cut from the glacier-flattened Nisqually Plain, it is the premier military installation in the northwest and is the most requested duty station in the army. The design is a throwback to the many souvenir tees sold over the decades from businesses outside of the base along I-5.
Description: “If it feels good, do it!” was the moral imperative at Woodstock, but by the time Jimmy Carter came around, the nation was swept up in a counterrevolution based on “If it feels good, it must be risky and bad, immoral and dangerous to your health.” Both points have some validity, but sometimes you do just need to scratch that itch to see what happens and usually, it’s for the better.
Description: When you begrudgingly take a lunch meeting with a demon, you may as well make it somewhere with good food. That was the case in Episode season 6, episode 8 of Supernatural, ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven,’ which aired November 12, 2010. The boys met Crowley at Fat Mack’s Rib Shack in Raleigh, North Carolina to discuss a job, which was the first appearance of this fictional barbecue joint. Fat Mack’s would show up again in single episodes of both season 7 and season 8.
Description: When your family business is saving people and hunting things, you see a lot of road time and therefore, a lot of gas stations. Gas-N-Sip is a fictional gas station and convenience store (food mart & more!) with locations across the United States that the boys frequent on their road trips. The station’s first appearance was in season 7, episode 3, ‘The Girl Next Door,’ and made regular appearances in every season that followed.
Description: After graduating from college in Massachusetts, John H. Wilkins Jr. returned home to work with his father, John J. Wilkins Sr., in his wholesale coffee and grocery firm in Washington, D.C. Shortly thereafter in 1923, a fire destroyed most of the firm’s warehouses and it was at this point that John Jr. persuaded his father to terminate his grocery business and focus on making their own coffee. Wilkins Coffee was born and would soon become an institution that would dominate the greater Washington metropolitan area for decades. The company would eventually give way to national brands some time in the ’90s, and is now largely remembered for their early TV commercials featuring a puppet mascot.
Description: Are you the hot new guy in town and looking to pretend you were a firefighter in a rural town few people have ever heard of? This Medora Fire Department tee from 1974 is just the ticket! For a little color on your fictional background, Medora is a city in Billings County, North Dakota with a population of just a little over 100 people. As the only incorporated place in Billings County, it is also the county seat. Much of the surrounding area is part of either Little Missouri National Grassland or Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Description: Disque Bleu filtered cigarettes were launched by SEITA (Société d’exploitation industrielle des tabacs et des allumettes), the former French state-owned tobacco company, in 1954. The brand with the traditional winged Gallic helmet was linked to high-status and inspirational figures representing the worlds of art and the intellectual elite.
Description: When van customizing became the hot new thing, most shops focused on styling out vans with custom paint, tires, wheels, and countless appearance upgrades, but never really got into the performance side of things. Van Works Customs of Los Angeles took a slightly different approach, instead focusing on balls out powertrains that would give even the hottest muscle cars a run for their money. Big block power in an early Econoline? No problem. Supercharged 327 in a G10? Done deal. You name it and Van Works Customs could pull it off, the crazier, the better.
Description: The fictional self-serve pull a part yard from Supernatural known as Singer Auto Salvage is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is owned by Bobby Singer. Bobby has lived in the house since he was a child, so we know the yard has been around at least as long as Bobby has. The property consists of several acres covered in stacked, wrecked cars, Bobby’s house, and outbuildings, all ringed by a wooden fence and trees. The three remaining Horsemen’s Rings may be buried in the yard, and the body of his father Ed Singer, whom he killed, is buried behind the woodshed. Singer Auto Salvage makes its first appearance in season 1, episode 22, Devil’s Trap, which first aired May 4, 2006.
Description: Various versions of this lucky lady has been riding along on hot rods, jalopies, and race cars since the early days. While the earliest example we could verify was from 1947, it’s suspected that she was around even before the war. Nonetheless, she looks damn fine for her age and is the good luck charm any good hot rodder should have around, but be warned, kinda like rubbing Buddha’s belly, people will rub her 8-ball bikini covered boobs.
Description: Southern Pacific Lines was originally founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring in 1885 the Central Pacific Railroad through leasing. By 1900, the Southern Pacific system was a major railroad system incorporating many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan’s Louisiana and Texas Railroad. It extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, through most of California, including San Francisco and Sacramento. Central Pacific lines extended east across Nevada to Ogden, Utah, and reached north through Oregon to Portland.
Description: Gerring Van Conversions of Elkhart, Indiana was at the forefront of the ’70s van craze, but as vanning began to slow, they adapted by offering custom truck conversions along the lines of The Warlock and Lil’ Red Express as well. In 1977, they rebranded as Conversions by Gerring, modifying their logo to include a step side pickup.
Description: Baywatch debuted in 1989, but was cancelled after only one season, when it placed 73rd out of 103 shows in the seasonal ratings. Feeling the series still had potential, The Hoff, one of the principal actors, along with creators and executive producers, revived it for the first-run syndication market in 1991. The series went on to be hugely successful, especially internationally. The show was an action drama about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and focused on both professional and personal challenges faced by the characters, portrayed by a large rotating ensemble cast.
Description: Southern Pacific Railroad’s ‘Golden Pig Service’ was a marketing program to get shippers talking about their expanded piggyback service. In railroad terms, piggyback is when loaded trailers are placed on special freight cars for transportation by rail, typically for an extended cross county trip. The trailers are then picked up by local drivers on the other end for delivery to the shipment’s final destination.
Description: This one is another mysterious design with little to no background other than FZ wearing one in the studio in 1969 which makes it cool on its own. The source material was so trashed, that identifying the graphic was impossible, so it could be a picture of the camp, a worm coming out of an apple, or a frog jumping out of a pond? WTF knows!? Whatever the case, you’ll be a walking Rorschach Test in this extra thrashed design, wonky lettering and all.
Description: The Omibot 5402 was an ’80s toy robot that could be programmed to follow commands. It was released in 1984 as the flagship robot from a series of robots that would be released. Advertising made Omnibot seem like it possessed artificial intelligence and could be your new best friend or personal assistant, but the truth of the matter is that this little guy was a long ways off from that. All told, he was a remote control robot that offered some limited programming to complete tasks, the best of which was probably going room to room and waking people up with an alarm. At $250 in 1984 dollars (closer to $600 today), these things were not cheap, so most 80s kids never got one, but usually knew *someone* who did.
Description: If you found yourself in Shreveport, Louisiana in the ’70s and ’80s and were looking for traditional tattoo work, locals would have probably directed you to Snake & Dagger. Founded in 1976, this small shop specialized in traditional American style tattooing and had little interest in doing anything else during their 20 or so years in business, and that’s how they liked it.
Description: The Super S, also known as the Cool S, Universal S, Pointy S, Middle School S, Graffiti S, and by many other names, is a graffiti sign in popular culture that is typically doodled on teen’s notebooks or graffitied on walls. The exact origin of the Cool S is unknown, but it may have originated from the 1890 book, Mechanical Graphics, by professor Frederick Newton Willson. The symbol began appearing in greater numbers and frequency around the early 1970s as a part of graffiti culture, though it can be found much earlier in works like Hans Holbein’s large double-portrait, known as The Ambassadors from 1533.
Description: If you want to get a lot of places in Alaska, you need to charter a plane as access by road can either be too treacherous or simply nonexistent, by sea just too time-consuming or not an option further inland. Whether it’s a civilized weekend in Sitka, dropping in on the small town of Golovin, or landing on McKinley Glacier, an experienced bush pilot is an excellent choice to get you to where you are wanting to go… and back again. Founded in 1968, Whitebear Air Charters spent decades transporting people and goods throughout the massive state of Alaska, and their experienced pilots were at the ready, airport or not. From landing at sea or on glacial snowpack, to the raw bush country landscape, Whitebear did it all.
Description: Blue Goose Records was an American independent record label launched in 1970 by American audio engineer, Nick Perls, that was dedicated to new recordings of blues and roots artists. Perls recorded not only rediscovered black blues artists like Sam Chatmon, Son House, Yank Rachell, Shirley Griffith and Thomas Shaw, but also younger blues and jazz performers, including Larry Johnson, Jo Ann Kelly, Woody Mann, John Lewis, Roy Book Binder, Rory Block, Roger Hubbard and Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts’ member Graham Hine.
Description: New England Digital Corporation was founded in Norwich, Vermont in 1976, later relocating to White River Junction, Vermont. It was best known for its signature product, the Synclavier Synthesizer System, a wildly expensive vintage digital sampling synthesizer reserved for the most successful musicians, commercial studios, and sound designers. Despite their age, they can still be found and are prized by sound designers, composers, and musicians alike. Although there have been three models, they are most often referred to as just a Synclavier, irrespective of the model.
Description: Not a lot of background on this thrift store find, but we *think* Camp Chippewa was a summer camp located near the Hickory Creek Wilderness in the Allegheny National Forest of Pennsylvania. Again, not totally sure, but the little info we could find points in that direction. Whatever the case, this design comes from a time when kids could wear a coonskin cap, Native American leathers, and run around with a rifle, and that alone makes it pretty damn cool in our book.
Description: Like many early drag strips, Deer Park began life as an airfield and as post-war America went crazy for drag racing, runways previously used by the military during the war effort were the perfect place to scratch that itch. After opening in 1953, it wasn’t very long before Deer Park Drag Strip was the straight line scene’s place to be in the Spokane, Washington area. The track’s history was interesting and varied, and like all drag strips, there were plenty of great and not-so-great things about the place over the years. As drivers started pushing the limits of the speeds the track could safely support, construction began on a more modern track facility, Spokane Raceway Park, ending the nearly 20-year run of Deer Park Drag Strip.
Description: We’re first introduced to Tall Oaks Band Camp in 1999’s American Pie when, well, you know, “this one time at band camp…” But it’s not until American Pie 2 that we actually get to experience band camp, when Jim sneaks in to visit Michelle and ask for her help in getting some sexual experience ahead of reconnecting with Nadia. It’s at this point that things go sideways and Jim is mistaken for a mentally challenged trombone prodigy and ends up having to perform for the assembled concert audience.
Description: If you’ve ever wondered about the Ranger Danger shirt Randal Graves was wearing in Clerks II, it is apparently one of Kevin Smith’s many unrealized projects. Kevin once described it as “my stab at a comic-book/sci-fi movie. It’s in the vein of Flash Gordon, something I’ve noodled with a couple of years. Now I feel we are mature enough filmmakers to tackle it.” Whether it ever becomes a thing or not is yet to be seen as it’s been several years since he’s mentioned it, but it sounds like it would be a cool one to see come together!
Description: Helmet laws are one of those things that sparks heated debate among mixed company and regardless of one’s stance on wearing one, I think we can all agree that we need less laws and not more. If you’re no fan of the skid lid and like the feel of the wind in your hair, then this legalize freedom design is right up your alley.
