Inky fingers for life.

Goss4High Amen to that my dad has worked at a newspaper now for 47 years and is still working.

I went from flyboy to operator from 1972 to 2005, San Diego to San Luis Obispo/Atascadero/Paso Robles, CA. on 8 and 12 unit Goss Urbanites, as well as 7 and 9 unit Fairchild News and Color Kings. The in between times were spent on a variety of sheetfed and roll-to-roll job presses. I also got to climb around for hours on and explore a non-operational early 20th century 12 unit, 3-story-high Hoe letterpress sporting brass guard- and handrails that had been shut down in a labor dispute years before our press was installed. The press was still webbed, rolls in place, thick-skinned ink still in the fountains. In a time of powerful unions, they shut it down and walked out in the middle of a press run. When I first started printing it was just the first job I could find. I never dreamed it would become a life long trade. I couldn't believe the things those wild, insane bastards did. The whole trade at the time was like that; every one of the people I worked with either drank too much or couldn't drink anymore. Drugs were ubiquitous and no one wore ear protection, and the labor laws in Cali back then allowed for overtime pay after 40 hours, but not 8. Consequently, it wasn't uncommon to work 40 hours straight, then get sent home before OT pay began. I'm astonished that no one got flattened. Safety laws and measures were ignored, but nobody cared; that was for female orifices (the intended word wouldn't pass the KZfaq™ Mythical Council of Elders® Code). Boy, were we stupid. Does anyone recall monkey poles? We'd climb down the pole holding on with one hand and gripping a 90 lb. steel roll shaft in the other. What idiocy. The terminology was wonderful; outside of the pressroom, if you said to someone, "After we mounted the new blankets, I went up on the balloon to adjust the trolleys so the webs would feed." they would back away slowly and use soothing words to keep you calm until psychiatric help arrived. I had become one of those wild, insane bastards when I wasn't looking. I couldn't wait to get away from the stink of ink, but a few years after retiring I found myself wishing I could stand on an ink-stained diamond patterned deck plate once again and cut color; or stand at the console, finger on the go-faster button as I yell over the roaring silence of the press, *"SAVE 'EM!"* When I left after uncountable trips up and down those cold steel ladders, my legs were as hard as that steel, but my knees were shot. It's just as well; I didn't have to watch the big, heavy Sunday editions, like I threw when I was 14, shrink down to the pamphlets they have become today; or see the presses that created them get cut up and sold for scrap because now the individual papers are all printed at one facility in another city. What a shame.

It is profound that things are not what they used to be.

@@captainkeyboard1007 strongly agreed.

@@jasonrussell3252 Thank you for tapping or typing to me.

Yeah, it gets in your blood, doesn't it? I miss it too. But the internet and recession killed a lot of printing. Thank you for watching, John. Merry Christmas!

I was a newspaper Pressman for over 25 years, yeah" I think it does get in your blood, I deliver papers as a kid, then printed them, must have been my destiny, now its pretty much gone.

@@jamoke59 Do you ever find yourself sitting somewhere, carefully examining a newspamphlet (you can't call them papers any more) for even ink coverage, tight color register (one of my old bosses used to snap at transgressors, "Registration is what you keep in your car, dammit!"), correct folios and no ink offset, all while explaining everything to a bored and baffled friend or relative? No, me neither; I was just wondering.

Basically why I'm the only one left running the web where I'm at. The guy who trained me retired, and I got it after that. We've had two people try to learn to help me, but it's almost a one man job now. Luckily, it's just a 5 unit King web so it's not really that big.

Which phase of the installation? 1971?

Hello wilson🏴‍☠️🚵🏻‍♂️😆

I meant men not man

@@AS1ANAM3R1CAN I did that when I started, and worked my way up to operator. We called your position "flyboy" (or flygirl, although we never had any) because of the flapping motion of your elbows as you square off the turns when they come off the counterveyor. It's been two years; are you still there, or did you move on to something else?

@@budlewis721 I'm still working there. It's paying for my college. I'm currently almost an operator.

@@budlewis721 I've been trying to get an official promotion.

@@AS1ANAM3R1CAN Now you done it! You're in too deep to turn back. Even if you left, in a month or two you'd find yourself longing for the throb and vibration of the press through your shoes; and when you go out somewhere you tell perfect strangers about the mistakes you see in the paper they're reading. Of course, it'll look fine to them so they'll think you're nuts. Tell me... are you in a union shop? And with that name, are you a girl? Because both of those factors have an effect on your upward progress, although your gender isn't supposed to.

I don't this the printing industry is in crisis. The newspaper industry is. I think print will be around for a long time.

I’ve been in the industry for 38 years seen every change and my advice to you is to change careers ASAP - I love the industry too, but it’s a downhill spiral my friend.

@@ssnoc I used to think I would never be out of a job because even little podunk towns had a newspaper. No one's ever accused me of having too much foresight. I'm retired now, but the printing is on the wall.

miscible21 - Good name. Coincidentally, I had that word put on my blue work shirts shortly after I learned it from the solvent cans. No one new how to pronounce it at first, so they called me "Hey!" Have you achieved Journeyman, or did you move on in the 6 years since?

@@budlewis721 thanks for the reply! I actually used the name miscible when I used to DJ, long before my days as a Journeyman lol. Amazingly, I am still working or the same company. I have moved off the press to the CTP/DTP department. I don't consider it an upgrade to be honest. I had an opportunity to move to a digital and work on a Kodak Prosper set up for book printing. But the pay was poor in comparison to role at the time so I had to decline. I still love working in print and I'm grateful for all that it's thought me. But I am finding it hard to plot a decent career path. Or at least one that I'm happy with.

We would cruise at 48,,000 IPH. Max was about 54,000.

​@@matorbeckin double production i guess?

@@MartinFroland We ran collect, so 24,000 copies per hour. Single wide press, 2 around cylinders.

The Olympian. It is printed in Tacoma now.

Yo tambien. Más que 35 años en San Diego, Paso Robles y San Luis Obispo, Cali. Buena suerte.

@@budlewis721 gracias mano

Scott Short it is sad that the newspaper industry is now a dying breed the digital age is to blame for that.

Most of those people were just there to watch as it was the last time that press ran. How big is the press that you work on? This press that I worked on was 18 units, 2 folders, and 9 RTP's. No automation either...

just 8 units n a 2 folder n also no automation.

So, you are running 2 color webs and 2 black? It also depends how many copies you print too. Rule of thumb is one press operator per color web/other duty (reel stand or folder). So that sounds about right. Again, we just had all hands on deck for the last run. Thanks for watching and commenting!

No