Signs Of Old Friends

About a week ago the filing deadline for the city election had passed with nobody filing to run against my friend Scott Galvin for his council seat. Since I have a pick-up truck I offered to help with taking down some of his signs all over town. Claudia called me on my cell and needed me to transport something too big to fit in her SUV so I drove to her place, and we had to take out a couple of the large Galvin signs that I'd already "rescued" to save for the victory party.

Claudia mentioned that she still had a few John Patteson signs from his campaign sixteen years ago, and did I want them? I decided that first I'd get a picture with the two signs, for no particulary good reason. It was very windy and she had to help me hold them down. John won't be re-using them because six or seven years ago he moved up near West Palm Beach and sold his house here. The old fashioned looking lettering on his signs fits in with his gunslinger image. When I first met him he was working at John Ek's gun and custom knife shop. That was followed by a few years of owning his own gun shop, during which time he got all the needed state and federal licenses to do "special effects" for the motion picture and TV industry.

When they started filming Miami Vice here in Miami he was the armorer, the guy who is in control of all the guns and ammunition, as well as the guy who makes things go BOOM !!!!, like when a car blows up in the middle of the street. John decides how much explosive is needed, how and where to place it, and then he "pushes the button" at the right time. He was back in town a year or so ago when they filmed a Miami Vice movie.

John only had to run in District 2, not city wide, because after Scott and I both lost the previous election, which was city wide, we successfuly got a charter amendment passed to divide the city into four districts. Unfortunately that not only made the campaign easier for John, but it also made it easier for the guy who beat him.