Photos from the Vault

1963 Hydrant Break

April 15, 1963

By 10:30 a.m. an afternoon newspaper was in the home stretch, reporters and editors finishing last minute edits, copy editors writing headlines, the pressmen making final adjustments before starting the press that prints thousands of copies in time for circulation to deliver the bundles to the carriers.
When I worked for the Washington Star as a paperboy the bundles would hit my lawn about 3 in the afternoon and it was expected that the last paper would hit the porch no later than 5 p.m.
A bromide about the newspaper industry said it was the only business where you handed million-dollar product off to a bunch of teenagers on bicycles. Now with early morning delivery you have to have a driver’s license to deliver papers.

Another saying is that newspapers start the day with blank pages, make a product and finish the day with nothing left on the shelf.
It is a frantic but predictable rhythm, until the police scanner crackles on deadline. A truck knocks over a fire hydrant and traffic signal while turning from Santa Rosa south onto Monterey Street.
A reporter and photographer scramble a few blocks to the accident scene, gather information then get it back just in time for that afternoon’s paper.
The city was planning on billing the trucking company $200 for the estimated 60,000 gallons of water lost before the water was shut off 40 minutes later.
It looks like the front page had to be scrambled to fit in the extra photo. Pushed to the top of the page was an election preview story talking about Los Osos trying to pass a tax increase to pay for under funded schools and new community college district?  In two years the San Luis Obispo County Junior College District would become Cuesta College.
Another interesting story was from the wire, steel prices were going up and this year President John F. Kennedy was not going to intervene and Barry Goldwater approved. I can’t see either of today’s presidential candidates having much to say about steel prices.
Why was steel important? Those Ford’s in the background on the Hysen-Johnson lot used a lot of steel back then. The dealership is now called Perry Ford and has moved, like most of the car dealerships to Los Osos Valley Road.