February 22, 2009. Chevy Chase, Md. The Town of Everett.

You just never know what will cross your path. I walked into the framers on Saturday morning to discover two men leaning over a small but lovely painting. Rodney, sitting behind the counter was the talented young man who with his wife, owns the ‘Barber Framing Company’. His day job is to sand blast words and pictures on marble, where he works four days a week for nine hours a day, making it into a full time job. The rest of the time he does the framing, while Karen , his wife, runs the Company. They have been doing this for ten years. As a child, Rodney drew all the time, and he painted with water color, but no one paid attention to what he drew, except him. He also carved birds from chunks of wood. As life goes on, with marriage and children taking the bulk of his time along with work, his painting took a back seat. We met them about eight years ago. In the store could be seen pieces Rodney had drawn. Wonderful drawings of ducks and wrens. I admired them and asked about other work. He showed me several carvings of birds, which are also lovely. I don’t like little bird carvings so I asked about another piece on the wall, which it turned out was his but not signed, and which he would not sell. It was the first watercolor he had painted as an adult, so he was loath to part with it. But I bought two or three of his pencil drawings, and more importantly, I asked him to paint the old farm house for us. Now he was fearful as I wanted it done in oil and to be a good sized piece. This is what he did.

A friend from school who also drew as a kid has kept in touch with them, so Rodney suggested that they begin to paint together every week, and critique each others work. Bill Decke was the other young man on Saturday. He had just brought a new piece for Rodney and Karen to frame for a friend. They are both so excited about their painting. Bill works in Hagerstown full time and lives in Waynsborough, Pa. but they still get together to paint about once a month. Both men are determined to keep painting until they find out how good they are. Rodney completed our painting of the farm house and now hangs on my hall in the apartment. Rodney sells originals and prints of his work in their shop and has submitted his work to several shows. Bill has three of his pieces for sale in the shop, but he said that he mostly gives his stuff away. Now Rodney is beginning to paint other parts of our farm, perhaps the barn or the Hill House. I am excited for him, as he gets better all the time.

From there I went to a gift store just across the street. Now I tell you. This is as good a gift store as you could ever want to see. How on earth can they stay in business in this very small town? The older couple retired there and enjoy the town and the people and they do well enough to stay alive and paying the bills. The place has so many beautiful objects, collected from all around the world. It is a treasure. You just never know what you will stumble upon an a Saturday in Everett, Pa.