I have basically grown up and lived in central-Ohio my whole life. My grandfather has always been a resident of Wisconsin. I haven’t had the chance to see him much over the last 20 years, so I was happy to see some paperwork pass my desk the other day knowing that Steel City was supplying circulation supplies to Leader-Telegram in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. From 1965 until his retirement in 1997 my grandfather was a pressman at that paper. Seeing the paper’s name brought a smile to my face on a rainy fall day in Ohio as I thought back to when I was a kid and laughing as I watched my grandmother do laundry at all the ink stains on grandpa’s underwear. That was always a family joke. I also thought about how at holiday times my grandfather would fashion hats out of a sheet of paper for us kids and we’d carry on looking like little sailors.
I enjoyed the nostalgic moment and thought how special and unique it is that both my grandfather and I work in the newspaper industry especially since it’s mostly by chance. I shot an e-mail to the circulation manager at Leader-Telegram and shared a quick thank you and reason for my nostalgia. After a few back and forth messages, I learned that my grandfather was well known and liked and that there were a handful of employees still there that had worked with him. Without prompting, I was even told that my grandfather “could really make good hats from a paper” which made me chuckle. It’s a small world, indeed!