The "Bones and All!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Watching the bundles of newspaper that we just unloaded from the car drop into the big vat of liquid and get ground up by the huge swirling blades.  I think back on those days and just shudder.  How dangerous that must have been to stand there with my sons and watch the blades churn the water and tear apart the newsprint to make it into recycled cardboard.  

The Printers Paper Mill at Eden.  It was demolished in the late 1990s.

OSHA would be shocked!  But, luckily we survived the ordeal.  We had just delivered an entire car full of newspapers that we had collected from our neighbors, relatives and even the high school where I taught school.  Both my sons were in Scouting and for years we collected paper to recycle at the Printers Paper Mill in the village of Eden, Lancaster County, PA.  The original paper mill and neighboring covered bridge burned down in 1882, but was quickly replaced with a new one on the same spot along the Conestoga Creek.  Once a month on a Saturday morning the three of us would scour the neighborhood for papers and pack the old Mercury station wagon as full as we could, then head out New Holland Pike to the paper mill.  The paper would be weighed and we would pull the car to the open door leading into the papermaking machine and unload the newspapers.  The Scout troop would get the money for the newsprint.  It must have paid well, since we continued to collect paper for years.  The kids would head in the house upon returning home and tell their mom all about the trip and the big machine that mixed water with the newspapers that were being chewed to shreds by the blades.  

Perelman Park is what remains today where the paper mill used to be.

Reminded the boys of their mom's blender she used to make a variety of dishes for supper.  Eventually the mill closed.  I'm not sure why, but probably not because there wasn't a need for recycled paper.  More likely it was too costly to make all the safety precautions that should have been made years ago.  The  workers at the mill would always tell the boys the tale of the man who fell into the vat and was ground into the pulp, bones and all.  Boy did that get their attention.  My guess is it wasn't true, but who knows.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary  guy.