A Visit To The 76 Ball Graveyeard
Intrepid 76 Ball Fan J. Eric Freedner has made a startling discovery near Fresno, CA, a discovery that bodes well for those of us who believe ConocoPhillips needs to REPLACE the 76 Balls that they’ve taken down from their poles. He reports:
Well, I had a feeling I would find the "missing" 76 balls and… here they are!
A whole bunch of orange balls is now in the yard of Nelson Sign Service on Golden State Highway (Old Route 99) in Fresno, California.
These weren’t here a few months ago! What do they plan to do with them? Spheres take up a whole lot more space than flat signs so I have a feeling Mr. Nelson won’t keep them around forever…
There are also some flat 76 signs such as this old Fast Break one. I’m not sure if the "Fast Break" chain is still in business. Haven’t seen any with the new red 76 logos, anyway.
Lots more "petro-jumble" at Nelson’s but this sums it up as far as the Balls are concerned. I would think a similar yard exists for the Los Angeles area, at least for those balls the sign people don’t clumsily drop to the ground!
April 14, 2006 @ 2:45 am
they are an american icon; bigger than barbra bush’s ass replacing them is a blow below the belt to society and the way things were ment to be GO UNION 76 BALLS!
May 14, 2006 @ 2:57 pm
There’s a FastBreak with the new red branding in Ventura at the corner of Victoria Ave. and Telephone Rd.
May 14, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
I just read the article on LATimes.com and then found my way here. As a displaced Angeleno just getting ready to move back to SoCal after many years, I’m terribly disappointed to find that an icon, the 76 ball, is disappearing from the landscape. They’re part of my childhood…my memories of ‘home’… I remember how we used to be so happy [as kids] to pull into a 76 station and come away with one of their little styrofoam mini-balls to put on the car antenna. Ah, the good old days…
May 14, 2006 @ 10:16 pm
They take my balls every time i fill up!—> o or at least one.
May 15, 2006 @ 9:14 pm
There more important things to worry about then missing goofy orange balls. How about complaining to Conoco about their gas price gouging instead or do Californians love being ripped off at the gas pump?
May 18, 2006 @ 4:50 pm
Why do people keep getting on here to post “who cares”? If you don’t care, why the hell are you here? They’re a design icon, that’s why we care. Now go back to your RC and Moon-Pies.
May 18, 2006 @ 10:56 pm
As a native californian I take offense that yet another american icon
is being erased from the landscape. Doesn’t ConocoPhillips realize that it’s
costing them money to remove and replace the signs? Why don’t they just lower the price of their gas, wouldn’t that make for happy customers? Not to mention switching people over from the other oil companies.
E.A. Rodriguez/since 1950