This saddens me. But I know that this sign that once beckoned families from all over the Capital District for clam frys and fish frys and hamburgers and milkshakes… the sign is falling into disrepair.
I noticed this a week ago when I photographed it with my wonky Svema film with my bulletproof Kowa Super 66 medium format camera. All shots in this blog were taken with Svema GOST 32 film with an expiration date of approximately 1994.
First off… a shot facing up Central Avenue, toward Schenectady.
You can still see the Carrow realty company advertising sign. Also, I’m wondering how tall those weeds are going to grow before they dwarf the sign. Good thing nobody planted any kudzu here.
Okay, let’s see what the other side of the sign looks like.
Oh, that’s not good. At first, I thought that I had accidentally scanned a curly hair into the picture. Nope – it’s the old neon “S” part of the sign.
Here’s another shot.
And while I was puttering around from one side of the sign to the other, I took three shots at various exposures – then, after the film was scanned, I combined the pictures in an HDR film capture.
There’s got to be some way to take a picture of this sign, having the camera bring the sign back to its original luster. Now, I could get some neon tubes and start wiring up the sign myself… of course, that would not only involve some sort of neon sign construction, but also some way to get ELECTRICITY to the sign…
Maybe someday I’ll figure out a special way to photograph this iconic sign.
I just have to think fast.
Before someone knocks the sign down, or it falls down out of slow decay.
Chuck The Writer 
The Bob and Ron’s sign has seen better days as well.
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Yeah, there’s a few Central Avenue signs that could use some serious TLC. The car wash sign near Bob & Ron’s, and the Westgate sign, just for starters.
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The sign(s) should have been removed when the business closed and the owner is responsible for maintaining the property. If – and it is a big “if” – the owner does not comply then local government can do the work and slap a lien on the property to recover costs.
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The decline/demise of L-Ken’s IS sad. It was as good as Jumpin Jack’s in Scotia or the one in Wynatskill. I ate there as a kid and always loved to stop there & get lunch or dinner. I understand the quality of tis food declined before it finally “died.” It was at one time, as much a rite of passage for young people of Colonie as Jumpin Jacks is for young people of Scotia/Glenville–if you didn’t work there a sibling or good friend did. Thank heaven Jumpin Jacks is going strong, making a wonderful rebound from the hurricane, as is Ted’s Fish Fry.
This has nothing to do w/your photography. I never got more sophisticated in photography than Kodak Instamatics and my slides of various vacations , mercifully, were log discarded. But your posting brought back memories!
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Just my opinion, but I would expect the cost of the “TLC” that would be required to bring these signs back to their original condition would be prohibitive.
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When it was still open, I got talkin’ to a long-haired guy outside L-Ken’s one night when our family was there for dinner. He drove an old Cadillac, cream-colored, from the 70s or 80s, either a Coupe deVille or a Sedan deVille with a vanity plate that read something like “Leadsled”.
Anyway, the hotdog on top of the sign hadn’t spun around in years but now it was spinning. Somehow, our conversation noted the spinning hotdog and he said he had been working on the sign for a week or so, performing various fixes, including getting the hotdog to rotate!
This was probably in the early 2000s – I think Ken’s daughter was running the place. When she was no longer present, that’s when the food went downhill – the ‘tude of the dude running the joint was not good…
For the life of me, I do not know why Ken’s daughter doesn’t accept a reasonable offer – hopefully from someone looking to continue L-Kens’ grand and glorious tradition – bring it back to life!
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