Lee High School - Huntsville Alabama Alumni

Technology In Our Time Continued-

Lee's Traveller - The Early Days

by Tommy Towery

Class of '64

I could write a book, and maybe someday will, on my introduction into the newspaper world. The path to today's online Lee's Traveller actually began for me back in the Seventh Grade at Huntsville Jr. High. One day they asked if anyone wanted to be the class reporter for the school paper and I volunteered. I think maybe I had one story, if any, published during the entire year.

When I moved into the Lee Jr. High School district the next year and started the Ninth Grade in Mrs. Parks' class, I took typing from her. When she became the sponsor for the paper the next year, I thought I would continue my journalism achievements and volunteered. We were in the process of becoming a "full-fleged" high school and that phrase followed us throughout the process. So, in the beginning of my year in the Tenth Grade, the school bought us a Gestetner Mimeograph machine to use for printing the paper. Woody Beck came up with the name of Lee's Traveller - named after Robert E. Lee's horse. I was appointed the Managing Editor, and I guess that was how I was selected as the student to learn how to use the new equipment.

We were lucky in many ways that the school bought us a good machine. The one we got had both a handle for manual pages and an electric motor with a counter for large scale runs. If you ever heard one running it produced a "clacky-wump" sound that you can still remember.

I want to say one thing for the record. Printer's ink is messy! The ink came in a tube about the size of a tube of bathroom caulk. You had to take the top off, and screw the tube into the connector on the machine where you had removed the empty tube. The stencils were messy, the whole experience was messy. I don't know how many shirts I ruined that first year nor how many times a day I had to scrub the black ink off of my hands, face, and whatever else I touched while working on the printing process.

Below is wikipedia's explination of the mimeography process:

The Mimeograph machine was made so popular because it had the ability to make many copies cheaply. Mimeography was much cheaper than traditional print because there was no type setting, printing equipment, or intensive and skilled labor involved. One individual with a typewriter and the necessary equipment essentially became his own printing factory. This allowed for cheap mass production in an era when mass production was becoming an essential factor of society. Now instead of costly handbills or time consuming hand written copies, a mimeograph machine could rapidly produce many copies, which allowed for greater circulation of printed material and a wider usage of that material due to sheer number. Essentially, the Mimeograph became the first individual mass-distribution device.

The image transfer medium is waxed mulberry paper. This flexible waxed sheet is backed by a sheet of stiff card stock, with the sheets bound at the top. This "stencil" assemblage is placed in a typewriter to create the original, although the typewriter ribbon has to be disabled so that the bare, sharp type element strikes the stencil directly. The impact of the type element displaces the wax, making the tissue paper permeable to the oil-based ink. This is called "cutting a stencil."

If the typewriter keys are struck too hard, letters such as "p" or "b" will be cut out, causing solid black blobs instead of loops with white space in the center. If carbon paper is used behind the stencil, it will generate a proof copy on the card backing. Such a proof can be read by placing the stencil on a light table.

A variety of specialized styluses can be used on the stencil to render lettering or illustrations by hand against a toothy plastic backing card. On-stencil illustration is an art. Mistakes can be corrected by brushing them out with correction fluid and retyping once it has dried.

The stencil is wrapped around the drum of the (manual or electrical) machine, which is filled with ink. When a blank sheet of paper is drawn between the rotating drum and a pressure roller, ink is forced through the marks on the stencil. True mimeo paper is softer and a bit shaggier than standard bond paper. The ink is most often black, although green, red, blue, brown, and purple inks are available (the purple ink tends to halo after printing). A little caution is required for this process since placing the stencil on the drum wrong-side-out will produce a mirror-image. The process can be messy for inexperienced users.

Bob Walker, Class of '64, was responsible for typing most of the paper's stories onto the stencil. Last week's Mystery Photo was a photo of the stylus and letter guides like we used to create the headlines and artwork for the paper. If you look at the "TRAVELLER" masthead in the photo of the 1963 schol paper above, you can see that the letters are textured. We did this by putting a special surface under the stencil and using one of the stylus to rub over it enough to scratch off the wax on the raised areas to leave the texture desired. The lines that seperated the

This was the mechanical part of printing the paper once the stencil was finished. Next week we will continue with the student roles. Please feel free to email me anything you want to add to this series.

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Subject:Veterans

Aaron Potts

First Class of Lee

The article of the military servicemen to me is never a reason for anyone to get upset for the printing. If anything it would be irresponsible if we didn't take time out to thank the military for underwriting our country's freedom and security. I was rejected from the military on three different occasions and I truly wanted to go in because my dad is buried in Normandy, France where there are 9,386 Americans buried there overlooking he Normandy Beach where they landed on D-DAY June 6, 1944. My dad died 16 days later of a gunshot wound to the head. I was fortunate enough to find the man that buried my dad and he still had the battle casualty report he made on my dad the day he died.

I wanted to go into the military because I was poor and I wanted to see my fathers grave and that was the only way I thought I'd be able to see his grave because we had absolutely no money for me to go. I was able to go to college on my fathers G.I. bill to get my degree and there is nothing I wouldn't do for anyone in the military to help them.

For the ones that served in the military, I would like to just say THANK YOU for your time and service to us (spelled U.S.), unfortunately I wasn't able to serve, I truly wish I had been accepted.

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Subject:Veterans

Escoe German Beatty

Class of '65

I just wanted to thank all of you who served in all the many ways that you have. I am very proud to have known you and I deeply appreciate your sacrifices.

I am so mad that some sad, pathetic, wingnut ass would have the gall to to ever try to belittle your red- bloodied patriotism because you call attention to our American holidays. You have done such a beautiful job reminding us of our heritage and honoring this country in a totally unbiased publication ...of your own creation no less!!

Anyone who does not approve can just get in line with all the other weak whiners out there and let's excommunicate them from any future happenings...is it too late to kick them out of the Silver Saber?

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Subject:Veteran's Day

Polly Gurley Redd

Class of '66

Veterans’ Day also reminds me of my father, father-in-law, and so many others of the generation before us who fought in World War II and Korea and all that they gave for us. This is the generation that we can’t forget as they are dying off and we are the ones to continue their stories, some of which we may never know. A recent article in our local paper told of a Navy man who was burying his own father at sea in the spot near where his father’s ship had gone down during WWII so that he could be with his comrades. The son had only recently gotten his father to talk about his war experiences because the son was also in the Navy. I regret that, as a young woman, I never got my father to talk about anything more than the funny things he shared. I am sure there are stories that died with him in 1984. Thank you, Tommy and all my Fami-LEE, who have served our country proudly.

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Subject:Being Too Right Winged

Michael Griffith

Class of ‘66

In response to the accusation that you are "being too right winged" I would like to offer:

I served two tours, totaling 20 months, in Vietnam. During that time, like most soldiers, I smoked cigarettes (since they were only 10 cents per pack and we were not fearful that the cigarettes would kill us, it was a cheap vice). The “fashion” in that time and place was Zippo lighters with personalized engraved inscriptions. While I quit smoking within a few years after returning to “the world,” I still carry that Zippo in my pocket much of the time. The inscription on one side of that lighter states “For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never taste.” It seems the person that criticized you, has a “protected, sour taste.”

Thanks for being who you are!

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Subject:Veteran's Tribute

Eddie Burton

Class of '66

Tommy, I loved the veteran's tributes issue. I am so proud of all our classmates who served. Seeing the photo of my old friend Mike Griffith in Nam just made me admire him all the more. You guys answered your country's call and served her proudly and in doing so made all us who stayed here at home for whatever reasons very proud. God Bless the USA.

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