County Mayor Steve Clark At The North Dade YMCA

Networking, it's called. You meet one person, through them you meet others, one thing leads to another. I was already doing some photography for the City of North Miami, and their public relations lady had met me because I covered city events for The North Dade Journal. One day I was at as council meeting and met Doug Dennison, the director of the North Dade YMCA.

He asked me to do some photography for the Y and told me that he wasn't asking for any free photography. After a bit of discussion we compromised. I'd charge them for expenses. I was looking at it as a way to meet potential clients. Their board of directors was made up of people in local political circles and local business people. Many of them bought prints of themselves shaking hands with various other political types. Also there were lots of dinners and luncheons that I got to attend for free and could bring my wife along also, not really such a bad deal considering that Mia, my wife at the time, was a bit of a social climber.

I have no recollection now of what this event was, but Steve Clark, the county mayor, was speaking. I took a bunch of pictures of various people shaking his hand and he suggested that I should get a photo with him also. I handed the camera off to somebody, we shook hands, and I had another picture for my wall.

After awhile it ended up in a carton with a mess of other framed photographs, the roof in that room developed a leak, everything got wet, and the print got these white spots all over. I decided to just scan and post it as is.

I ran into Doug a couple months back, the first time in decades. His hair is all white now. We exchanged a few pleasantries. I'll probably never see him again. The North Dade YMCA no longer exists either, a victim of demographic changes in the area.