The "Boss" Story

It was an ordinary day. Talking with Keith on the phone about what time I should arrive tomorrow. Wednesdays we usually have a delivery about 7:45 AM and I don't mind coming in early so I told him I would be there by 7:30 AM. Almost exactly at 7:45 AM Tony arrived. Tony drives a delivery truck for Larson Juhl Frame Company out of Philadelphia. He has been making deliveries to Grebinger Gallery and Custom Frame Shop in Neffsville, PA for as long as I can remember. Really nice guy who lives in Northeast Phila. and loves Philadelphia sports. Always fun to talk to, even if it is only five or ten minutes a week. Was telling about his wife working in a drug-infested, low-income area of Phila. She works in a place that cashes checks for people. The stories he tells you would not believe. Quick as he arrives and shares a story or two, he's out the door. Delivery gives me enough framing and mat board to work on customers jobs for a few hours. I have been working at Grebinger Gallery and Custom Frame Shop for almost 13 years now. Started right after I returned from a trip to Hawaii which I took immediately after retiring from teaching high school Graphic Arts and Photography. Back in 1979 I had a student by the name of Keith Grebinger whom I had in Photography and who took photos for me for the school yearbook. As a senior he enter the National Scholastic Art and Photography contest and won an award for a photo of a fawn. I lost track of Keith after he graduated until in the mid-90s I noticed there was a frame shop that had opened to the south of the high school which I passed on my way home from school. Keith had opened his own business. After he graduated from high school he went to work at Oscar Hirt, a company that sold photographic supplies to professionals, schools and the general public. From there he studied in Montana for a year at a Bible School. After returning to Lancaster, he went to work for Andy Kelly at the Lancaster Shopping Center selling cameras and camera equipment. In 1983 he began work at Lancaster based ICS in the Photo Art Department. In 1989Keith began traveling the United States, exhibiting and selling his images at Art and Craft shows. He worked as many as 30 shows a year, always taking new images as he traveled from state to state. Keith has captured the beauty of 42 of our 50 states, and has also visited 5 foreign countries. And then, over Thanksgiving of 1992, he opened Grebinger Gallery in The Village at Fiddler's Green Shopping Center in Neffsville. His shop was located at #17 Meadow Lane. The following year, over the Christmas Holiday, he added a Kiosk at Park City Center in Lancaster. I soon began stopping to visit and had a few pieces of my artwork framed by Keith. Then came the late 90s and my decision to retire from teaching. I had taken a college course in 1998 on stained glass, but knew this wouldn't be enough to occupy my time after retirement, so one day I stopped to see Keith and asked if he needed an extra set of hands in his Gallery. Wasn't long after I became his only employee. His business grew and he added storefront #18 and #19. Then in 2003 he met Cindy and soon after became a husband. I had the honor of taking his wedding photos that beautiful summer evening. More improvements followed in the Gallery with the addition of a workshop at unit #12 and the introduction of a computerized mat cutter. Recently, DECOR Magazine recently named Grebinger Gallery and Custom Frame Shop a winner in it’s Top 100 Art and Framing Retailers in the United States awards program! The goal of the program is to promote excellence in retailing among Frameshop and Gallery owners nationwide. It's been almost 13 years now since I started working for Keith at Grebinger Gallery, and I'm still learning from "The Boss." Stop and visit with Keith and me when you pass through Neffsville sometime. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from the top are: Tony arriving with an order from Larson Juhl, Keith "The Boss" Grebinger, row of store fronts which house Grebinger Gallery and Custom Frame Shop, Keith waiting on a customer, Keith teaching a class on digital photography, one of the frame jobs that Keith entered in a contest, one sample of the many types and styles of custom framing that we do.