Bob Turner’s certainly kept up with the times. Still working part-time in the print industry at the age of 68.
We had to pay a scrap dealer to haul it away after I disassembled it. Sad!
This took place at Patrick & Company, a rubber stamp and marking device manufacturer at 563 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, USA, March 18-20,1987.
After this I “set” type on a Graphitec (pc/ms-dos front end, photopaper for paste-up), Compugraphic (pc/ms-dos front end, film for stripping) and a Mac+ running Ready, Set, Go! for laser paper output for rubber stamp copy.
Currently using HP state-of-the Art Laptop running Quark Express, PageMaker, Freehand and Photoshop. I’ve come a long way!
I first started typesetting from the case in High School. Graduated to Linotypes on the Cleveland (Ohio) News and then Intertypes on the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer.
Formed a preference for the Intertypes. Chevy over Ford, Luckies over Camels, Bud over Schiitz, etc.
Also worked Cleveland (Ohio) Press,Tampa (Florida) Tribune, Clearwater (Florida) Sun, Atlanta (Georgia) Journal-Constitution and San Francisco (California) Chronicle and several small commercial shops in between.
The oldest I have run was a Model 8 Linotype and the newest was an Intertype Monarch. Went through Linotype Comets and Electrons, also the AP Linotype and I don’t remember the Model No., but it was a double-plunger, 42-pica Linotype monster that brought a new dimension to the term “tight line squirt.”
My favorite was a Model G4-4 Intertype with a Star Parts hydraulic quadder, a Mohr saw and split Visilite mags in 1st and 3rd position.
I am currently semi-retired (68) but working part-time at a junk-mail printer making plates for 4- and 5-color Heidelbergs, a Didde 4/1 roll-to-sheet and two Halm Jets.
I also double in brass on an MBO folder.
Did you enjoy this story? If so, you may be interested to know that it appears in “Printers’ Tales” available as a paperback or ebook.