Bye Bye, Jocelyn

I was sorry to see that Jocelyn Dohm died yesterday as I liked her. She had a little letterpress business in Olympia, and I took my students to see it once or twice. She started the business with a friend, and they bought what was, for a print shop, an old crummy press, but was the start of a 60-odd year adventure for her. She and her father built the little wooden building that wound up chock full of presses, types, stacks of paper, ink, and decorative cuts. Last time I was there I guess there were maybe (uh... don't really remember) 3 or 4 presses, and I'd never before seen the diabolically clever way the press sucked up a sheet of paper, swung it onto the bed, printed, rolled on ink, etc. How delicious! Later I lived at Ward Lake and my landlord had an outbuilding with a press, lots of type, and other things, that I believe his father had used to print various things like Christmas cards. I know not where that press is today. Lunica took a letterpress class, and printed a groovy broadside as a Christmas present. I love type and printing and so one, theoretically, but trying to reorganise type that's got mixed is a horrid nightmare and takes forever. I have an etching press at school, and we use it to print monotypes, which is about the ideal to me. After the Flood, the school was rebuilt, and the architects asked us what we wanted. I had suggestions for the whole school, but many for my own room -- and I got them all, including the etching press, which was built by Takach Press Company in Albuquerque. I went down there to visit, and went through the entire factory, videotaping the very comprehensive tour given Judy and me. I was staggered that they took what seemed to be rusty well casing and machined everything to make beautiful presses. And their ball-graining machine was an incredible thing to see all by itself! Other things I asked for and got were: a flatfile, a storage room, no carpeting, two sinks, tons of cupboards. Of course, I was ousted from my room before last school year, and now I'm in the hottest room in the building (according to the vice-p), which is... well....................................ok.

I saw Kathy, Skunky's wife and my former student, today, with Cecelia and Kathy's two tykes. Kath and Cec were both students I had a lot to do with a million years ago.