This is a minor 50s classic in a small city an hour from the nearest Interstate. The sign is nearly empty now except for faded lettering advertising a long-vanished business.

The sign originally had plastic panels backlit with fluorescent tubes. It likely included flashing bulbs in the three arrows that lit up in sequence. There may even have been some neon...all going at once, attracting customers (and bugs).

That thing at the very top appears to be rebar (steel reinforcement-bar) welded into a fanciful space-age asterisk, mimicking commercially-available "Rotospheres."