Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "Memories That Will Last A Lifetime" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just finished matting and framing the fifth jersey for the same customer at Grebinger Gallery in Neffsville, Pennsylvania. I have worked part-time at the gallery since I retired from teaching in 1999. The owner of the gallery, Keith, was a student of mine when I taught photography and graphic arts at Manheim Township High School. Wasn't sure how it would work out when I first began working there, but it's been over 20 years now and I'm still there. Over that time I have matted and framed many jerseys, but never more than 2 for any one customer. The five jerseys I just framed were not only fun to do, but were jerseys from some of the best athletes in the world. All the jerseys were autographed with additional information added by a few of the athletes. I did jerseys for Brian Dawkins of the Philadelphia Eagles, "JuJu" Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. of the Los Angles Lakers and Barry Sanders of the Detroit Lions. All were stars, or are now present stars, in their respective sports. I could cover a few inches of space if I would attempt to tell the history of each athlete. A few have already made their sport's Hall of Fame. Brian Dawkins was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2018 and Barry Sanders was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame in 2004. Earvin "Magic" Johnson was a three time National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player. Each jersey was a bit different to work on with the basketball jersey the easiest one to do since there were no sleeves to sew in place. The Smith-Schuster jersey was the toughest to do since the sleeves were hard to attach since the yellow band around them created a few problems. Each jersey was placed in the same size frame, but the colored bottom piece of mat board and the double-top mats were different on each, since we attempted to use the teams colors the best we could. All shirts had a piece of black 1/4" foam board between the front and back of the jersey. I had to shape each depending on the shape of the shirt. I used heavy thread of different colors to sew the shirts in place with a needle, but one was sewn with clear fishing line, since we didn't have the color of one of the shirts. Time needed to do each job: about three hours, since I had to cut the framing material and glue each frame together, one at a time, since we have only one set of framer's vises. It would take the glue about two hours to dry and then I would take it apart for the next frame. After coming out of the vise I would drive metal wedges in the corners for more support. Next, I would cut Museum level glass to fit and then cut the double mat for each job. The mat was placed in the frame first and spacers lined the sides so I could get the depth needed to allow the shirt to be place in the frame. Once in place, I drove framing wedges in place to hold the shirt in place. A dust cover was added and then "Wall Buddies" were placed in the top two corners. These are used, rather than wire, to hold the job on a wall. They can support more weight and are safer to hold the large job on the wall. Price of each job: Priceless to the customer! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. Check out the results: