Fine Line East Coast Pinstriper
by Lea Ellen Dunham
This year while at the world’s biggest 50’s party, Lead East, in Parsippany, New Jersey over the Labor Day holiday, I had the opportunity to met Charlie Decker, better known as the “One Arm Bandit” and his wife, Anna. While Anna was stationed at their vendor space chatting with folks that stopped by to see Charlie’s newest hot rod and pinstriping merchandise, Charlie was a little harder to locate as he walked through the lot talking to everyone and doing what Charlie likes to do best and that is to stripe.
Months after Lead East, Charlie and I finally found some free time to talk. I learned that Charlie comes from a large family with its share of artistic talent. Charlie told me stories of when he was a young boy growing up around his dad’s brother-in-law, Mark. Charlie recalled hanging out in his Uncle’s old cow barn in Sussex County, NJ where he watched Mark build some serious traditional Hot Rods.
Charlie then told me of another Uncle he hung out with, this time his mother’s brother Art, a sign painter. Art motivated Charlie to pick up a brush and have some fun with it.
There was a weekend set aside where artists would get together to do want they loved and that was to paint. Charlie was invited to go with Art to this gathering. It was here, in an old grist mill in northwest New Jersey, that Charlie the “One Arm Bandit” picked up a brush for the first time at a gathering of fellow pinheads. A traditional winter event, known as “Cabin Fever”, hosted by Alan Johnson.
Since the age of 15 Charlie has been “spilling paint all over the place.” He’d pinstriped anything he could all over the house, you name it Charlie laid paint on it. At 16 he was paid for pinstriping the tailgate of a truck. The owner loved it and paid 100 big ones for Charlie’s work.
Charlie proceeded on to art school in Boston at the Butera School of Art studying the art of lettering, Charlie was awarded “Best Sign Painter” at the completion of his studies there. Charlie wasn’t content in the world of computers or vinyl, his veins were full of “one shot”. His Uncle Mark, the car builder, would break out the “little books” from the ‘50’s and encouraged Charlie to hone his skills to the old style of pinstriping. In time Mark eventually let Charlie run lines all over the cars he built and would have no problem critiquing his work.