Sad about end of local printing of newspaper

I just haven’t felt the same since I read the article on how The Eagle would be printed by the Kansas City Star (“The Eagle’s commitment to Wichita stronger than ever,” May 29 Eagle).

Most people would say “So what?” about the printing change, and they, for the most part, would be right. I fully understand why this move is necessary with all the changes in communications in this new electronic high-speed age. To me, though, I guess it’s my history that makes it more personal.

In 1947 I was 10 years old, too young to have a paper route. My brother was 11 and old enough to have a Wichita Beacon route. I went to work for him, delivering half of the papers and doing some of the collecting. (My brother hated collecting, and I liked handling the money.)

As soon as I turned 11, I got my own route. I stayed with the Beacon about a year and a half until an Eagle route was available close to my home. I took the Eagle route and stayed with it until I was almost 16. The reason I changed papers was that there was more money to be made with an Eagle route.

I finally gave up throwing papers to go to work at a small Wichita print shop. Printing was fun for me, and I stayed at it for the next 49 years.

I had a couple of friends who were pressmen for The Eagle. They were a father and son, working together for many years. One of my big regrets is that I never took them up on their invitation to come and watch the press run.

Growing up delivering papers was a great experience for me. Today we all pay for the paper with checks or bank withdrawals and never have contact with the one delivering the paper. I loved doing my own collecting, meeting the “mostly” nice people who became like friends.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Sad about end of local printing of newspaper."