When I was about 12 or 13 I had my own mimeograph machine (boy, NOW I'm showing my age) and started up a school newsletter. It looked very much like the illustration above. I would use special stencil-type paper, type the newsletter (yes on a TYPEWRITER), and then I had to peel off the back and strap it onto the drum of the mimeograph, and start cranking those sheets through.
I also remember being VERY fond of the ink smell. It was probably toxic as hell. Anyone who is my age or close should easily remember getting a printed handout from the teacher. If they had just printed it off, it would still have that odor on the paper, and would feel slightly damp. I would sniff the paper like some sniff gasoline.
This was fun but I soon discovered a bigger pleasure: My very first letter to the editor was published when I was 14 and was unexpected. It was in the Los Angeles Times! My family had been on vacation in Los Angeles, it was my first visit to the city, and I wanted to write a letter expressing how much I loved LA. Someone who knew my family and was visiting LA just happened to see the letter when it was published and sent us a copy of it.
I was hooked. I began firing off letters to the editor of our two statewide daily newspapers. I focused primarily on the Arkansas Gazette which was quite liberal and at the time I was quite conservative, so I had issues to bring up. I'm not aware of any letter I submitted that wasn't published. And they were almost all unedited as well. I would occasionally send a letter to the Arkansas Democrat, the far more conservative paper. But they had a nasty habit of editing out what I felt were key points in my letters, so I stopped wasting my time after a while. [The two papers are now one, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.]
I continued to publish the weekly school newsletter until I had to transfer to a different high school where they already had a newsletter. I just decided I'd continue with mine. Bad idea. I got shut down, but I did get invited to write for the paper at the new school due to my journalistic streak. Even that wasn't enough.
I started up my own magazine outside of school called the "National Hobbyist." It was terrible and lacked focus. (Not unlike some of my nightly rants at Pam's & Shakes' place!) But at least it was mine and I was in control of all content. Plus, I would prepare the newsletter, sometimes even taping pictures in it, then send it off to a printer. About a week later I'd get 100 or so to mail out to my "subscribers." (You'd be amazed what people will send you money for when you run a small classified ad in another hobby-related magazine -- but nobody ever asked for the $2.50 refund on the annual subscription.)
That venture didn't last long and I doubt I kept it going for a full year. But it planted the seed in me that you see today. Only this is better! Total creative control, total editorial control, and instant publishing capabilities with a potential for an immediate worldwide audience. What could be better?
The only thing missing is that stinky mimeograph ink!
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