How It All Began

How what all began? Advertising. For me. As a career. And a craft.

My summer job during my college years was building and installing signs for business. Like the one you see above. It was a blue collar job, hard work, occasionally hazardous.

I learned a lot during my labors, about construction, electricity, and profuse sweating. (Not to mention profuse swearing, which was the specialty of one of my bosses, Mike).

From Joey, my other boss, I also learned this work was called “commercial advertising.” Though I’d seen signs at businesses my whole life, I’d never really thought about their purpose, other than to identify the location by name.  Their main purpose is advertising.

The Fireplace sign advertises their location as a Restaurant. That won’t make you hungry, but it may appeal to you if you are hungry, so you can give it a try.  Est 1956 communicates the restaurant has been there for decades. That won’t make you hungry, but it implies a lot of folks must like it, because it’s remained in business so long.

And yes, if you’d expect flame-broiled burgers there, you’d be exactly right. Great ones!

That’s how my advertising career began when I was 18. It continued for five decades. The connections between businesses and people via communication never ceased to engage me, with curiosity, with creativity, and with an endless appetite to build a bond.