“If my name is on it, it’s gonna look good!”

—Perhaps 15-18 years ago, a few years after my stroke, which was in late ’93....
Probably after I began at the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, first as an unpaid intern, but later hired....
I got on the board of a nearby town park, mainly just to see if I could do it (stroke survivor).
That park, Boughton Park (“BOW-tin,” as in “wow”), was called “the elitist country-club” at the Messenger. It wouldn’t allow other than town residents to use the park — since they paid for it through taxes. (Three towns: Victor, East Bloomfield, and West Bloomfield. The park is in East Bloomfield.)
It’s the old Fairport water-supply. Two ravines were dammed in the ‘20s to collect Fairport’s water. The dams are earthen, but have concrete sluiceways.
There also was once a pump-house. That water-supply was at a higher elevation than Fairport, and perhaps 20 miles south. Fairport is an eastern suburb of Rochester. Fairport is on the Erie Canal.
That pump-house is gone, although I imagine the pipeline is still there. About all one can do in Boughton Park is walk your dog, or cross-country ski. Although there are picnic-tables, and people fish the ponds.
All the Board does is administer the park. The Board is volunteer.
I never did much; just attended the monthly board meetings. Others did most of what was needed — mainly arrange maintenance.
Then those others decided the park needed a brochure. Since I was Messenger I was “volunteered.”
“It’ll be easy Bob. We’ll supply you a Xerox map.”
“Oh no ya don’t,” I said. “If my name is on it, we ain’t usin’ no cheesy Xerox Map!”
I managed to enlist a graphic-designer at the Mighty Mezz. He was very familiar with “Freehand,” a computer-app. He could freehand a computer-file of the map I needed.
It would look professional; a Xerox map wouldn’t. (“We ain’t printin’ no Xerox!”)
I guess “Freehand” still exists, but if so I no longer hear of it.
The artist in me took over.
My graphic-artist friend would do what I couldn’t do: computer-draw a map.
Design of the brochure would be me. I already had in mind what I wanted: trifold with logo, rules, and history outside, then map inside.
I would use the infamous Boughton Park hamburger sign as logo. No idea who designed it, but it’s extraordinary.
My brochure would be one-color, black on ivory card-stock.
Four-color printing (color) cost a fortune. What mattered was content, although appearance had to be okay to me.
Rules and history involved font choice.
Another Messenger graphic-artist weighed in.
“Why did you pick that font? It looks awful.”
“Because I liked it.”
“You are one pathetic loser.”
My bus-driver jones kicked in. “If you don’t like it, you can do the brochure.”
In bus-driver lingo that’s “Siddown and shaddup! As long as I’m drivin’ the bus, I’m captain of the ship!”
Too much experience parrying whacko bus-passengers.
The brochure was rolling along. The park’s parking-permit was the hamburger sign, so I got one and scanned it.
For the park rules I was just creating a document, which I did in Quark-4.1. —Quark may no longer exist.
I pretty much knew the history, so I wrote that myself. Font choice again: “Nope! Looks wussy.” Try another. “There it is!”
A fellow board-member gave me a photo of her husband canoeing a park pond. I scanned that to black-and-white, put it in an oval, then onto the logo page.
My brochure was a smashing success. Hundreds were printed and given out. They got much more than expected, and it cost little. One-color printing is cheap.
They since did another, but it’s four-color. That’s megabucks!
And it lacks the hamburger sign. Another artist carved a chair memorializing a deceased park-board president. It’s based on the hamburger sign.
I guess it takes an artist to know that hamburger sign is extraordinary.

• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired 14 years ago. BEST job I ever had. I was employed there almost 10 years — over 11 if you count my time as a post-stroke unpaid intern.
• I had a stroke October 26th, 1993 from an undiagnosed heart-defect since repaired. I pretty much recovered. Just tiny detriments; I can pass for never having had a stroke.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My stroke ended that. I retired on medical-disability, and that defect was repaired. I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that 14 years ago.
• Boughton Park has two large retention ponds. Swimming and power-boats are not permitted.
• Fairport had to give up its water-supply — not enough water. They went to Monroe County Water Authority, and sold their water-supply to the three towns.