Diving Girl Sign

Saturday, August 8, 2009, 1:57pm

I, accompanied by my friend Elizabeth (who was visiting the great state of Arizona for the first time), drive west on Main Street in Mesa, Arizona, from Greenfield towards the Pizza Mart, just west of Stapley Drive. Somewhere between point A and point B, we drive past the Starlite Motel. I point out its distinctive neon sign of a diving girl to Elizabeth, identifying it as something that I consider to be a defining element of what Mesa is to me.

Saturday, August 8, 2009, 4:00-ish pm

Elizabeth, Rachel and I again head west on Main Street, this time with our destination being any of the many thrift stores located thereon (one of which supplied me with the game Girl Talk, later to be played atop the chicken coop), after having hit up a metal craft outdoor market to take a picture of Elizabeth with a giant metal giraffe. As we drive past the Starlite Motel again, Elizabeth attempts taking a picture of it. Curious behavior, I think to myself.

Tuesday, August 11, 10:32pm

I realize that I had a missed call and phone message from Elizabeth. The message prompts me to anticipate “funny, coolish news” which she promises will be “rad”, and thus invites me to get my “hopes way up”. I call. Upon my returning her call, I learn the following regarding the neon diving girl sign of the Starlite Motel in Mesa, Arizona:

Elizabeth’s grandfather designed it. Jigga-what?! It turns when I first pointed out the sign, she thought it appeared somewhat familiar, but was unsure enough about it to make mention of her wonderings. However, during a visit to her grandmother’s, she inquired regarding her suspicions and found then to be correct. She had seen pictures of this very sign from her grandparents. And at that visit she was able to see newspaper clippings and her of how he designed and even painted a little bit of that awesome sign which is now such a classic piece of Mesa’s Main Street. Tender.