published November 3, 2011
in the Stockton Sentinel
Stockton, Kansas
Here at the Sentinel,
we were talking about the amazing evolution of events that Bob Hamilton, our
esteemed-owner-and-editor-in-chief, has seen in his lifetime of putting
together a newspaper. I thought we should write a story about all the changes
and new-fangled things he has had to learn in his 60+ years in the newspaper
industry. I suggested taking pictures of his collection of old relics of
printing, but he took that way too personally, even though I assured him I was
not calling him a relic.
When
school kids come to visit us at the Sentinel,
Bob enjoys showing and telling how he used to set type for the newspaper, long
before computers revolutionized our world. But kids can’t possibly comprehend the
fact that type had to be set letter-by-letter, line-by-line with characters
made of lead. Perhaps we can get that story out of Bob in the future; but for
now, he is way too humble to allow a story about himself to appear in his own
newspaper. So I’ll share my own experience of changes in the publishing world,
even though his would be much more interesting.
Way
back when dirt was young, I was working in the publications department at
Hesston Corp. when we got our first CompuGraphic typesetter, and I was one of the
lucky few who learned how to operate it. This was a very large, bulky machine
that would print out type on a strip of paper through a chemical development
process. I remember how crazy excited we all were in the department that this new
machine had a 26-character window where corrections or changes could be made.
After a letter or word passed through that little window, it was too late to
make corrections. If changes were needed, everything would simply need to be
retyped, or fixed by a manual “cut and insert” method. We could set large
headline type, but there was no way of knowing what it would look like until it
printed out, because “WYSIWYG” (pronounced “wizzy-wig,” which means “what you
see is what you get”) had not yet become a household acronym. Those were also
the days of “paste-ups,” and instead of an office desk, I worked at a large
drafting table next to the coveted typesetting machine.
It wasn’t long after I mastered the CompuGraphic, that “desktop
publishing” was born, and everyone in our publications department received one
of Steve Jobs’ new Macintosh computers. Oh, my! We thought we had died and gone
to heaven! The CompuGraphic was quickly mothballed, never to be seen again.
With the new Mac, we could type an entire story and “scroll” (a word that took
on new meaning with the Mac!) up and down to see the whole story on the little
six-inch screen. We could save the story, close the story, turn off the little
Mac, and go home for the day, then come back the next day and finish or even
revise the story! This concept was unprecedented, and it was an exciting time
to be in the publishing business.
Of
course, everyone is aware of the revolutionary changes that have transformed
our lives since those first desktop computers were introduced by Steve Jobs in
1984. His goal with that first Macintosh was to produce “a computer as easy to
use as a toaster.” I still have one of Jobs’
Macintosh-toasters in my personal traveling museum. It is one of my own relics
of the past that was a game-changer in my life story, and I will continue to
keep it in storage, along with a crank-style telephone and other museum-worthy
artifacts. I hope they will at least prove to be conversation pieces at my
estate sale in the future.
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