Paul thought I should tell you a little about the boys. Ralph was the first to go the Huntington Park High School. He took Print Shop with Mr. Loomis. Then when Ronald came along, he too went into the Print Shop. That was the time when printing was done a lot differently than it is today. Both Ralph and Ron were good on the, forgive the spelling here, lynotype machine. That was how they set type then. When printing was first done, it was with individual pieces of type placed in wooden holders with spaces and punctuation added. Well they still did do some of that, but most of what they used in the Print Shop was hot led being fed by the machine as the operator typed out the words, much like a typewriter would do, only this was in lines. As the pieces were finished, they would drop down into a hopper ready to be set for the press. The keyboard on the machine was similar to, but not the same as a typewriter. The touch on the keyboard was much different as well, and the sound it made was quite clickity, clack. Then as the pieces would drop they were hot and needed to cool down. I don't know that that makes much sence to someone who hasn't seen the operation.
Ralph went on to printing, but ended up in a machine shop. Ronald however stayed with printing and went to work with the city newspaper call the "Signal". He was there for years. For a time he went over to Arizona and worked on a paper over there. Then he left printing and did a number of other jobs ending up working for Sanwa Bank in their Supply Warehouse.
When Bill, Ronalds oldest boy entered High School, he went into the Print Shop with Mr. Loomis. He was as good at the trade as his Uncle and Dad had been. When he went into the Marine Corp, like his Father had earlier, he left off printing and got interested in Computer Programing.
Like all the trades, things are a great deal different today. Modern Technology has changed the way we do a lot of things. Printing isn't different. At this writting even the newspapers are finding it hard to compete with Computers and the biproducts that have come with their advancements. You can read news on the internet and listen to radio as well. You can send mail and receive mail too. People keep in touch by the printed word as they do by phone. It is far from what we old folks grew up with. I won't say it is better, only that it is different. Everything is so much faster. Television brings far away places into our living rooms. Cell phones make it possible for us to talk wherever we may be and Computers have brought us into contact with just about every thing possible. We can shop and take pictures and hear sound while we are doing all the above. Amazing.
I don't believe printing will become obsolete, but it will certainly change, just as much as anything else we have had over the past. Another thing that can only be experienced in a museum somewhere. I don't know if that is good or bad. I just know that it is progress and I for one am please to say, I lived when things were less complicated. At my age, I can't master all there is to know about this computer I am setting at typing out this short history. While I know that my Great Grandchildren will be able to show and tell me far more than I need to know in
a heart beat. They have been around it since they were small, and have grown into it. As for me, I have stopped growing, and wonder if I will ever be able to get past the frustration of learning enough to be able to do it without blowing my cool? I guess that is why they tell us to
"wait" or "strike any key to continue". The first gives you no choice, and the second is an invitation to destroy. I'm getting too old for such instructions. I haven't the time to wait, and I still have too much moxey to have restraint. Such is the end to this tale.
Written this 18th day of July, 2009
by: Eileen Rosenberg
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