I Could Do That!

"I could do that!" were the very words spoken by me, words that marked the turning point that spun me in the direction of my long career building and installing custom works of three dimensional art. I've never had a dream to drive me to pursue any career. I never went to any school or program to learn any of what I ended up doing. My Facebook profile says that I attended the Gilbert H. Emerson School of Art from 1953 until 1987. What that means is that I either watched my dad or helped him create solutions to whatever problems arose, and invent ways to produce whatever he dreamed of creating. When we moved to Vero Beach, Florida in 1968, he carved a niche for his commercial art business in a town that repeatedly told him that they had no use for a commercial art business. He did it by taking on whatever half-baked idea anyone had, and making it happen. He was a genius at that.
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So when I graduated high school in 1971 and moved back to Maryland, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I got a job pumping gas at the Auto Service Department of the Montgomery Ward store in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Now, Aaron Montgomery Ward began his mail order business in 1872, so there were big doin's afoot. There were guys I saw installing "CENTURY II"  signs and displays throughout the store. What do you suppose I said to that? So I cozied up to them, met Fred, the Display Department manager, and put the wheels in motion for a transfer. In March of '72 I became a member of that department. Before long, there became a category called "Jim jobs," projects that required time and planning and engineering things for which the others had no patience - like things my dad and I had done for years.

In 1980, back in Vero Beach, back working with my dad in the art biz, I finally decided to get involved with the community theatre. I quickly became one of the hard core, working onstage and backstage. And with the flexibility that accompanied working for Emerson Art Service, I was afforded the opportunity to work paying gigs doing load-ins, load-outs and various jobs during performances of the various touring professional shows that came to our beautiful little gem of a theatre. So, I was unloading chunks of scenery from the truck and wrestling them into place so that the touring professional scenic carpenters could put them together by whatever fastening systems - screws, bolts, clamps, lashings, loose-pin hinges, whatever - and I said "I could do that!"

In 1988, less than a year after newlyweds Carmen and I moved to the Orlando area, I was still unsure of what path my career might take, I saw an ad for SCENIC CARPENTERS AND STAGE HANDS in the Orlando Sentinel Help Wanted ads. What do you suppose I said then? Image International was an Events company that specialized in corporate theme parties for the huge convention industry in and around Orlando, but took on pretty much whatever half-baked idea their clients and sales staff had. I quickly became a respected professional scenic carpenter.

My final example took years to come to fruition. Sometime during the late '80s or early '90s, we went to the Orlando Science Center museum. Part of it was screened off with temporary wall sections. Through a crack between sections, I could see a bunch of guys working, installing an exhibit. "Wow!," I said, "I could do that!" In 2005, I was happily working away behind a temporary wall installing exhibits in the Museum of Science in Boston, and did so regularly for four years.

I suppose, as tremors, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and factor 5 deficiency blood clots slowly eroded my effectiveness in my chosen profession, I must have seen some retired geezers and said "I could do that," because here I am.