Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

My "Quote Thread", has come up with some great human stories. When I was 15 years old and had just left school in 1956, I started a six years Apprenticeship in the printing trade, as a compositor. One of the journeymen was a lovely bloke and he taught me a lot, about type setting, making up pages etc etc etc.
This was in the days of hand setting a lot of lead type by hand in a composing stick. We were talking one day, his name was Tom Illingworth, he was about forty years old, an old man to a fifteen year old and I will never forget this. One day as we were working together, I asked him if he was rich, he half smiled looking at me and replied, "Yes Graham, I am rich and one day, I may have a lot of money". As a fifteen year old I didn't really understand what he meant. Eventually the penny dropped and I thought what a wonderful thing to say about his life. I don't honestly know if Tom had made this up himself but I have never heard it or seen it anywhere else since that day. Talking of Tom, we also had another Tom, his second name was Brabury, to identify them when talking about them, Tom Illingworth was known as Ginger Tom and Tom Bradbury was known as Black Tom, relating to the colour of there hair........It was quite amusing in those days.....................

Cheers and Beers
Graham,
098

bedouin Loc: Big Bend area, Texas

Thanks for telling us this.

llamb Loc: Northeast Ohio

Great story, Graham.

~Lee

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

Happy words of wisdom. Thanks for sharing!

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Life is about having the right attitude...enjoying every day. I am enjoying your posts.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Those of us who have had mentors are lucky indeed. Mine was a German Scientist "Edward Domire" ... "never a nazi" but worked on Radar during WW2 had the philosophy that the basics were the answer to most problems... look for and strive for simplicity. That was good advice. Too many "engineers [genaric term]" added things to correct errors that should have been corrected in the basic design. Then another "engineer" added something to fix the errors in the fix and so it goes.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

Wonderful story.
Had my share of mentors. (Welding)
Bob

Graham Thirkill Loc: Idylic North Yorkshire, England UK.

=-=-=-=-=-=--=

dpullum, thanks for your addition to my thread. Hence the quote, "Simplicity is the art of design".....
and that is very true,

Cheers and Beers
Graham
098

chippy65 Loc: Cambridge

many of us are fortunate to have a mentor that was a big influence on our later development.

Possibly more prevalent in the age of apprenticeships.

I hope the working environment of "The Office" is a joke.........but I suspect it is rather too near to the truth !?

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Print trade must have been a bit different 'tup North' Graham.

My cousin fell into the trade and said even the cleaners were tripping over money. All part of life's rich tapestry. I think he was newspapers but saw the writing was on the wall so specialised in images and went on his own after Murdoch upset the apple cart.

ICN3S Loc: Cave Junction, OR

When I was in my late twenties i asked my mother when I would "feel" like an adult. She replied " I don't know but when I do I'll let you know. " possibly one of the best things she ever said to me. And by the way, I'm in my sixties and I'm still waiting for her to let me know!

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Think Boeing...

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Gram, thank you. That is still good at 83

Scouser Loc: British Columbia

My tale is not exactly a quote, but it roughly follows your quote Graham. I left high school in 1958 at almost 17, to start a 5 1/2yr mechanical engineering apprenticeship. My desire had been to go into printing and I had several interviews under my belt. The one at Tillotson's in Liverpool had me really excited, but the one at Dunlop Rubber Co. was my first successful one. I know, Dunlop's is not known for printing, but if the truth be told, I wasn't really sure at that age what I wanted to get into.
My initial interest in printing had been sparked by some of the stories my uncle Tom told. In particular there was the one about his green arm! He was a 'tin printer', a mystical trade that nobody had heard of. I seems that one day he was printing something in dark green ink when he carelessly fed his arm in between two rollers, right up to his shoulder. The machine tripped automatically, and helpers wound it backwards and fed him right back out again, without any life-threatening injuries. For the rest of his life he would show off his weird impromptu green tattoo to anyone who was interested.
Uncle Tom also had another claim to fame, every day he rode from his home in Knotty Ash Liverpool to work in Widnes, on his bicycle. Anyone familiar with the area will know that this was no mean feat.

pendennis

I took a couple of years of printing in junior high, and the "composing stick" brings back a lot of memories. We hand set type from the "California" type trays which were stored in huge purpose built cases. The biggest thrill was when my first composition was edited and used in the school newspaper, no credits but a lot of pride. I also had any number of spills moving set type to the proof trays before I got my "sea legs".

Our presses were some old Chandler platen presses. I was allowed in my second year, to learn linotype composition, and use real equipment at a local print firm.

Thanks, Graham. You've brought back some wonderful memories.