I'm retired but I spent most of my working life running printing presses, but never any newspaper work. In high school I wanted to be a journalist. Our journalism teacher took us on a field trip to see where they print the newspaper and he told us that in general, the people who print the newspaper are better paid than the people who write the newspaper. I took his advice.

As long as you are on this career path, never forget you don't just work at a printing plant, you are also one of the guardians of the free press. Keep up the good work.

Short consolidated bio for my Dad. He was a Typographical Union Member until the Union went bust.

1. After USN, job shop printing. Letterheads, business cards, political flyers, wedding invitations, small runs (100) and large runs (1000-10K)
2. Newspapers composing rooms. Linotype operator, page makeup, and tape punch operator to feed automated linotypes.
3. At least four New England newspapers. Each was a step up in pay and working hours.
4. He had his job shop for years, taking small jobs that helped pay the bills.
5. Finally, teaching printing in a state prison system to inmates. Retired from that with a small state pension and SS.

He had printer's ink under his nails and in his blood from his teenage years until he retired.

Not much different from myself. I even spent a few years at the linotype at a check printing company in the late 70s. I spent most of my printing years at small family-owned job shops. I did some really high-end business stationery in Silicon Valley in the 80s. There was so much money flying around there then that I actually once printed 1,000 business cards that cost one thousand dollars. Seriously.

When I left Silicon Valley in '91 for a small town in Northern California, I kept printing for awhile (not paid as well here) then I tried a few other things. I owned an upholstery shop for three years, sold cars, bartended and even owned a gym for awhile. I always came back to printing, though. I estimate that I have pushed two or three million sheets of paper in one end and out the other end of printing presses. I love machines and I get along with them well. Sometimes better than people.

I started a tool repair business on one of my sabbaticals from my regular job. I ran it for a couple of years, then sold it to a friend who moved it to a larger community.

I still have my small workshop that I tinker in, weather permitting.

But here is one of my favorite machinery escapades.

The check printing company I worked for was a small San Carlos satellite plant of a company in L.A. We only had three of them but in the main plant they had a few dozen. They had several full-time mechanics. They were all from Mexico because by the late 70s not many newspapers in the USA were using them, but there were still lots of newspapers in Mexico that were.

A couple of times they flew a guy up from the main plant to work on ours.

A Linotype operator has a pot of molten lead sitting in very close proximity to him as the machine works by casting type slugs. Those guys didn't live too long.

Along with your experience you've obviously shown initiative and leadership skills. Those are traits that can't be learned. Good luck!!

Best wishes to you too!

However, at work time I'm still team chief.

Interesting hearing about your work too...thanks for sharing!

sure sounds like you earned it.

My son is having an appointment today for a position he interviewed for a couple weeks ago. It would also be a big promotion. hope his news is as good as yours.

Congratulations! Stand firm about getting back to a five day schedule! That will be awesome!

Reality is, with the hours we put in four days a week will generally net you at least three hours of overtime...or more than that if either something happens (high school sports tournaments are a big driver here, as are things like the Trump Day Dinner the local GOP holds every year) or we have an issue with a piece of equipment. And it's pretty nice to have three days off a week, although with my schedule I never get three days in a row off.

It sounds great!

I used to write custom code for an old Apse printer back in the day. Nice to hear about people doing publishing work.

Congrats!!!

Your hard work & flexibility obviously paid off!! (But then again, of course you're a hard worker, you're a Democrat.) Enjoy your new income...and as my late husband would tell you, go out and do something for yourself. Buy that toy, take that trip, etc. You've worked hard and you've earned it.

Congratulations!

Congrats!

I'm sorry.

..town newspaper when he was just married to mom. Wednesdays were 'press days' and he would come home late covered in printers ink. When I was little, going into dads work was special. The wooden floors, the big machines, the smell of the ink, the sound of the printers and all the guys would yell HI and wave. Later he was the editor, then he started his own weekly newspaper..the kind that was free and situated outside grocery stores.
Do you bleed printers ink yet?

I've been printing as a career, with a few breaks, since 1995. I did it as an additional duty in the Army starting in 1988.

Which ink do you want me to bleed? Petroleum-based heatset ink, soy-based heatset ink, soy-based coldset (what we run at this shop), full solvent inkjet, eco-solvent inkjet, latex inkjet or UV inkjet?