BARNEY WEST in DISTRESS! or How to bring an old salt back to life! - Collecting Tiki

RC Ragbag Comics Member The shores of Lake Michigan Joined: Feb 24, 2009 Posts: 212	RC Ragbag Comics Posted posted on Fri, Sep 28, 2012 6:55 PM SO GLAD this guy ended up in the hands of someone with the ability and wherewithal to restore him to his former glory! When I moved to Chicago 13 years ago at the tender age of 18, he was the beacon that called me in to see what "Trader Vic's" was all about. Up to that point about my only exposure to tiki was from Scooby Doo and Deadbolt & Bomboras albums. I was working at a record store around the corner from the Palmer House my first year in college, wandered in on a sleepy weekday, asked what was popular and had my first Mai Tai (they were pretty lax about carding at lunch time, but considering I was the only non-businessman at the bar, I guess it's surprising I was served.) The atmosphere in there blew my mind. The rest is history and was all downhill from there. Had he not been perched out front that day, I might have never taken that first sip, and there would be far less elaborately sculptured drinking vessels in my house today. I had a picture of him from around that time in front of the Palmer house (I believe it was around Christmas time..there was snow) but I'll be damned if I could find it now. In terms of context, I do have this picture from him at his post inside the relocated TV's off Rush St (when he wasn't freezing his coconuts off outside...) Seeing the sad shape he was in at the auction was heartbreaking. While I surely wish I'd had the dough to walk away with SOMETHING, the cluster of us there that day really, truly hoped somebody with the appropriate means would buy this important figurehead (literally) of Chicago history and restore him. Every one of the thousands and thousands of people who passed through the Loop for 60+ years walked by him and knew exactly what he represented (those who didn't, like me, stepped inside and were forever changed.) He was a comforting beacon of a simpler time and an ambassador from a period in Chicago history that has sadly been mostly stripped from our fair city. With no intent to derail this informative thread (can't wait to see Palmer lookin' like his old self!) here's another little hint of the poly-pop glory that once existed in Chicago's Loop; this ghost sign was right around the corner from where Palmer used to stand at the Palmer House: Good luck! --Pete

SO GLAD this guy ended up in the hands of someone with the ability and wherewithal to restore him to
his former glory!

When I moved to Chicago 13 years ago at the tender age of 18, he was the beacon that called me
in to see what "Trader Vic's" was all about. Up to that point about my only exposure to tiki was from Scooby Doo and Deadbolt & Bomboras albums.

I was working at a record store around the corner from the Palmer House my first year in college, wandered in on a sleepy weekday, asked what was popular and had my first Mai Tai (they were pretty lax about carding at lunch time, but considering I was the only non-businessman at the bar, I guess it's surprising I was served.) The atmosphere in there blew my mind.

The rest is history and was all downhill from there.

Had he not been perched out front that day, I might have never taken that first sip,
and there would be far less elaborately sculptured drinking vessels in my house today.

I had a picture of him from around that time in front of the Palmer house (I believe it was around Christmas time..there was snow) but I'll be damned if I could find it now.

In terms of context, I do have this picture from him at his post inside the relocated TV's off Rush St
(when he wasn't freezing his coconuts off outside...)

Seeing the sad shape he was in at the auction was heartbreaking. While I surely wish I'd had the dough to walk away with SOMETHING, the cluster of us there that day really, truly hoped somebody with the appropriate means would buy this important figurehead (literally) of Chicago history and restore him.

Every one of the thousands and thousands of people who passed through the Loop for 60+ years walked by him and knew exactly what he represented (those who didn't, like me, stepped inside and were forever changed.) He was a comforting beacon of a simpler time and an ambassador from a period in Chicago history that has sadly been mostly stripped from our fair city.

With no intent to derail this informative thread (can't wait to see Palmer lookin' like his old self!)
here's another little hint of the poly-pop glory that once existed in Chicago's Loop; this ghost sign was
right around the corner from where Palmer used to stand at the Palmer House:

Good luck!

--Pete

Post #653743 by Ragbag Comics on Fri, Sep 28, 2012 6:55 PM