 |
Ken and his friends load my paper cutter
|
It was an ordinary day. Watched as Ken loaded his trailer with my vintage Chandler & Price manual guillotine paper cutter and drove out of my driveway. The paper cutter has been a friend of mine since 1968 when I began teaching at Manheim Township High School. When I began teaching in the Industrial Arts Department there was a small print shop that had been set up by the department chairman, George Ehemann, who also did the in-house printing for the school district. When I arrived I sort of inherited the print shop so I could eventually begin the Graphic Arts program. There were a few pieces of equipment at the time such as two mechanical platen presses, a few type cabinets with drawers that held a variety of type fonts, an imposing stone for locking the type into a chase and a big manual guillotine paper cutter. The following year I began a class in printing that had about 12 high school boys in the class. The class became two classes the following year and three the year after that. I also began a class in photography my third year which eventually grew to three classes. When a new high school wing was opened my classes grew to about 20 students each, both boys and girls. The new darkroom was large enough to hold a class of about a dozen students. Throughout those years, we still printed with hand-set type and letterpresses, but eventually added a small offset press, and later one more press, to the mix. The one constant throughout all those years was the big guillotine paper cutter. It could cut a ream of paper in a second. By this time I was employed throughout the summer months doing the in-house printing for the school district. Eventually I retired in 1999, but was asked if I could still do the in-house printing for the district. I agreed and one summer morning that first year after retiring, when I entered the school to run the press for the day, I noticed something was missing. THE GUILLOTINE PAPER CUTTER WAS GONE! How will I ever cut all the paper I print during the summer?
 |
| Using the paper cutter at home |
I inquired about where the paper cutter might be and was told the insurance adjuster said it was too dangerous to use in a high school setting. I tried to explain that no one had ever cut themselves on it while I was teaching. Students had cut fingers off on the table saw in the wood shop and cut fingers off on the metal shear, and they weren't taken out of the shops. Didn't matter! So, I asked where the paper cutter might be. It had been sold for scrap metal. They received $250 for the paper cutter. I told them it would cost double that amount to take all the printing jobs somewhere to have them trimmed. The next day they asked if I would like the paper cutter in my garage at home. You Bet! The following day a crew from the high school maintenance shop arrived at my house with the guillotine paper cutter and unloaded it and placed it in my garage. The paper cutter must have weighed close to 1,000 pounds. Wasn't long before I got a bill for $250 which was the amount the school had lost by bringing the paper cutter to my house. I called and said they must be kidding. Nope! "Ok, I'll be adding a fee of $5 for each job I trim from now on." Never heard back from then. I had that paper cutter paid for in the first summer of printing. That cutter sat in my garage until today when I donated it to the Heritage Printing Museum in Lancaster. I had finally given up printing the school jobs due to a bad back and the stress on my body from having to cut the paper on the paper cutter. I had spent over 50 years of cutting paper on that guillotine paper cutter! Boy, will I miss my good friend! I watched the truck and trailer round the corner with my paper cutter and wondered if I had made a mistake. Then I turned, and in pain, walked back into the house. I made the right decision I thought to myself! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
 |
My granddaughter helping me trim on the guillotine paper cutter. This
photo was taken about 8 years ago when I first had the paper cutter
and Camille was about 8 years old. |
No comments:
Post a Comment