The Story Behind the Photograph - Sign Painter

Things ain't what they used to be. (In fact, they never was.) The Profile (more than you really wanted to know) is here.

It was a long time ago. I was about 25. In my way, still a teen. I carried my Pony 135 loaded with tri-x pan film wherever I went. I stopped to chat with this gentleman while he painted a banner sign on the side of a delivery truck. He was a customer of the paint store where I worked. And a friend. Looking back now, I realize I learned two things from him. He was an artist, a cartoonist and made a living as a sign painter. He had the undeniable penchant for seeing humor in everything. It wasn’t he didn’t take things seriously, he did. But the events around him always reminded him of an old joke or a cartoon or some material for a new joke or a cartoon. There was no sadness anywhere around him. His cataracts were taking his sight. I learned two important lessons from this man. And I don’t remember his name.

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