1971.
Ah, I remember it well.
I learned to drive that years. Keep pets and small children away from the roadway!
I started my junior year of high school that year. Rah-rah…oh, crap.
I also began a journey that I would never have thought possible.
My first job in a print shop came that year. My dad worked at Lorain Priniting Co. in Lorain, OH. He felt that I needed to have a real job. I guess full-time student didn’t count. I should really have a paying diversion from all of the rock-n-roll stuff that was fogging up my brain.
Anyway, my first position was cleaning the overhead. For those who have never been in a commercial print shop, the overhead is the ceiling, pipes, ductwork, and lights. Basically, everything “Over Head.”
Commercial offset presses used a spray powder that coated each sheet as it passed out of the printing units and was stacked at the delivery end of the press. The powder was to keep the sheets with wet ink from sticking to each other.
However, the powder was not particular about what it actually attached itself to. It floated everywhere. And, stuck to everything. Including, yep, the overhead.
The problem with this was that once the powder built up above the presses, any vibration would cause the powder to fall into the press and possibly cause unwanted spots and dirt on the final printed sheet.
The powder had also been known to become explosive when enough of it built up and a static electric charge was applied.
So, yeah. Someone needed to get out the 30 gallon vacuum and suck up the powder.
Anyway, that was, what? 49 years ago.
I had, at one time, planned to go to college after high school. I had been accepted at Malone College for the fall semester of 1973. But, I had a job in a print shop. I was no longer cleaning the overhead. I had moved up to making deliveries and there was a position on a press that was available.
Hey! Don’t judge!
I was 18 and had gas money coming in.
So, I rationalized my future and skipped college to remain in the work force.
Yay, me!
(The stupidity that led to that decision will have to wait for another time.)
Anyway, this is all a long way to say that, as I wrote in an earlier post, I am retiring from printing this year.
I think that 49 years is long enough.
It’s time to move on to a new chapter of life.
Today I went to Social Security to get that ball rolling so that on April 1 I will start receiving benefits.
Yeah, you heard that right.
March 31, 2020* will be my last day of being gainfully employed.
On the next day, April Fool’s, I will be officially retired.
The date does seem kind of appropriate.
So, here’s looking to the future.
I have no idea what it will hold for sure.
There are several possibilities that I’m currently weighing.
It will be a journey, though.
One that I hope you all will come along with me on.
*Date updated to March 31.
No, I am NOT staying until May!!!!
Sheesh!