I’ve always loved neon signs. As a kid in Christchurch, I was transfixed by the massive wall of neon cascading up and down the Savoy Cinema in the Square. I had friends who owned an apartment in a nearby building. When the Savoy’s neon lights came on of an evening, my friends would flick off their own lights, open the curtains and watch a free show of reflected lights dancing across their walls.
Later in Wellington, my favourite sign was the five-metre-high neon cowboy with twirling lasso and glowing cigarette that hung around Keans Jeans in the central city. A similar hombre was also spotted in Auckland and Dunedin.
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