The "The First 100 Years" Story

It was an ordinary day. The publication had just arrived. It was titled "Manheim Township Schools: The First 100 Years." The publication was written by C. Nat Netscher who graduated from Manheim Township in 1947. Nat called me one day and asked if I would be interested in helping him with a book that he was going to write. He needed someone to take his hand written pages and audio tapes that he would make and transfer them to type. Since I also graduated from Manheim Township and was teaching in the graphic arts department of the high school, he thought I was the perfect candidate to help him. I wasn't sure how involved I wanted to get, but agreed to assist him if I could. I even requested help from my second year graphic arts class and a student, Jennifer Sarley, volunteered to help. Between the two of us we were able to typeset the copy, scan and crop all the photos, and get the publication ready to be printed by Acorn Press. A former student, Scott Reighard, was the president of Acorn Press and Don Roseman was the owner. Both were graduates of the MTHS. Jennifer graduated in 1997, Scott in 1981, Don in 1956 and myself in 1962. We had quite a bit of history just in the composition of the publication. I must admit I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but after a few weeks of working with Nat, I knew he would author a comprehensive story of the school district. And it was fun and interesting to work with him. The body of the publication was set in 12 point Times Roman to make it easy for older readers. Captions were in 10 point type. Pages were 8 1/2" x 11". The publication even had a centerfold that featured a photo of 424 pupils taken in 1927 and one of the class of 1934. The centerfold opened to 34" long by 11" high. Pretty neat! Nat's original plan was to list the schools and tell some history about each school, but after talking with so many people, he added many stories from contributors to add some human interest to the book. Plenty of old photos filled the pages. It was a very time consuming effort on the part of Jen and me to prepare the publication for printing. Nat had his daughter proof-read everything to check for mistakes we may have made. And there were plenty! The final result was 72 pages of fantastic research and interesting stories that told more than the history of the schools, but a history of the students who went to those schools. Nat autographed a copy for me and invited me to participate in his next adventure, a book he was going to author called "From the Beginning - A History of Manheim Township." What do you say to a guy who had just finished a great piece of history and was ready for his next effort. "Let me know when you're ready," I told him. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs from the top show Nat's publication and photos from the book: school transportation in the form of a trolley, M.J. Brecht Elementary where I went to school, and a group of students collecting tin cans to aid the war effort.