Every neon sign left on the Esplanade, ranked
Fourteen signs still glow after dark. We walked the boardwalk at one in the morning to rank them, gently.
In 1980 the Esplanade had ninety-one neon signs. Today it has fourteen that still light up, and two that light up on some nights, depending, as one owner put it, on the weather and the sign's mood.
We walked the boardwalk from the pier to the Coast Guard station at one in the morning and ranked every one. The ranking is final. Complaints to Priya.
The bottom half
Fourteenth is the amusement arcade, whose sign says AMUSEMEN, and has since 2009. Thirteenth is the seafood shack whose neon fish flickers. Twelfth to eighth are a run of hotel signs that are bright, pink and identical, and we could not honestly tell apart.
The top seven
Seventh, the bingo hall, for the size of it. Sixth, the ice-cream kiosk, for the cone that drips in three stages. Fifth, the pier ballroom, which has not held a dance since 1996 and still says DANCING TONIGHT.
Fourth and third are the two halves of the old cinema, which split into a gym and a church and kept a word each.
Second is the barber's pole on Seaview Parade, the only moving sign left.
Number one
First, by a long way, is the word OPEN in the window of the all-night laundromat. It is small and blue and slightly crooked. It has been on, the owner says, every night since 1983, including the night of the storm, when it was the only light on the whole boardwalk.
