R - T - I - N - U - D ? I'm not great at Scrabble but even so, I'm not coming up with much. NUDIRT? TURD IN?
Here's my small assortment:
312fattire (resized).jpg
LIT (resized).jpg
Please note the Fat Tire has nice round wheels, so it's an original US-made production. All the Chinese knock-offs have distorted, ovoid wheels. 312 was Goose Island's flagship beer well before AB bought them out. I first saw that sign when I made the pilgrimage to get blitzed at a hometown sportsbar during Game 1 of the '05 Word Series... and had to have one. My brother almost conned that same one to go home with us but, it was a wild night ha ha... so I had to find one elsewhere.
The small round one in the middle is not a pure commercial neon, but the first "neon sign" I ever owned, and one I made myself. I kitbashed a repro art-deco console wall clock with a neon ring that came from a different novelty clock, but happened to fit nicely in the art deco ring frame, with just enough power to make that whole frame glow softly. I then reproduced the face of a rare 1955 bubble advertising clock (which was much larger and lit by two 60W bulbs) to fit my frankenstein:
TTGHO (resized).jpg
It's obviously overpowered by the commercial signs but sometimes I don't want those on anyway, in which case the blue ring is just bright enough.
I also have an old vacuformed sign that might still be my favorite, and is the first one that greets gameroom guests:
OldStyle (resized).jpg
I grew up in southwest Chicago, where Old Style tavern marquees were more common than all the Baptist Church Signboards where I live now. It's a comforting reminder of home (perhaps even moreso than the 312 Sears Tower