The "Sir Speedy" Story

It was an ordinary day. I was in my backyard at 929 N. Queen St. I was sitting in my pup tent that my Aunt Doris had bought for me. I had an old carpet, small chair and desk and plenty of snacks. I started my own company. I loved to play with the small printing set that my parents had bought for me. It included a small block printing press with water soluable ink and a roller. You could set rubber letters on the bed of the printing press, ink them and print them on paper. I started my own newspaper in that pup tent. I did stories about my family and the neighborhood. I only had so many rubber pieces of type and had to keep the stories short. What I needed was more letters. 929 N. Queen was next door to Science Press which was a printing company. They used the linotype method of printing where a compositor would type stories into the machine and metal letters in reverse form would fall into place. The lines were usually 3-4 inches long which would accommodate about 6-8 words. Molten metal was poured into the form to produce the lines of type. After the lines of type were printed they could be remelted and used over again. At the rear of our yard was an alley which stopped at Science Press. There was a double door at this point so they could receive supplies. Since the press room was extremely hot during the summer months due to the lack of airconditioning, they always kept the doors open for ventilation. They also threw their used lines of type into a bin by the door until they were needed for remelting. Can you guess where I found the perfect place for a supply of letters? My only problem was that my stories now had to have the same words in order as the lines of type I found inside the door. Hey, no problem for a struggling reporter and printer! Made for unusual reading. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.