Former long-time Prince George Citizen employee George Lesniewicz, now happily retired, likes to explore antique stores around the province.
He's always searching for original frames for his own art work, that includes oil paintings.
He was in Revelstoke when he went on one of his missions for frames and walked into an antique store.
"I was snoopin' around and they had their schlocky paintings and pictures and posters and I see one sitting on the floor - it wasn't even hung up anywhere," said Lesniewicz. "Someone had just dismissed it as a newspaper clip glued onto a piece of cardboard. It had $12 written on it and I thought 'Geez, I'll take it!' so I took it."
"When I got back to work at the Citizen, I hung it up in my office," said Lesniewicz. "The publisher at the time, Del Laverdure, got me up to 50 bucks for it, but I wanted to keep it for sentimental reasons."
Lesniewicz was happy to have the memento of The Citizen's front page of John F. Kennedy's assassination from November 22, 1963, that cost seven cents a copy to buy back in the day.
His Catholic mother, Emily, was very fond of the president and she felt a deep connection to him and then he died on her birthday, he explained.
Lesniewicz recalls that was the first portrait he ever painted. He painted Kennedy and it was intended to be a gift for his mother's birthday but he wanted to show it off at school before he gave it to her and someone offered him $20 for it. He took the money and said his parents were proud he sold the painting.
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