A typical summer day at Swift Printing 50 years ago

Pictured above is Walt Gutowski Sr. running a Kluge Letterpress machine.

An amazing piece written by an old friend who wishes to stay anonymous.

"What's on the docket for today Walt?" I start up the small offset press and start producing the jobs.

Halfway through the morning, Walt calls me over to the Kluge to help him with a rush "stinker job".

Crash imprint 1,000 heavily embossed cards for another printing company - they needed it right away.

Because of the heavy embossing, it wouldn't feed.

I suggested that I just hand feed it, I could have it done in a couple of hours.

Walt kept tweaking, putting sucker feet on the feeder, more adjusting, and soon - waa-laa - it started to feed.

He said "watch over this while you are running your other job, bring them up front when they are done".

Amazingly, about 30 minutes later, they are done. I box them up, put a Swift Printing label on the end, and bring them up front and put them on the railing in the lobby.

Walt scribbles out an invoice (bad handwriting) for $50 and tapes it to the box.

The other printer walks in to pick them up and thanks Walt profusely for doing it so quickly.

Walt points to me and says "he ran the job".

The guy shakes my hand, and leaves. I said "wait, what, it was you...."
Walt smiles and says "I set it up, You ran the job".

Back to work.

Half an hour Walt calls me up front - paper delivery.

Unload, stock it down stairs through the "secret staircase" in the floor.

It's lunchtime. Walt goes to the Y.

I put the sign on the door "back in 30 minutes" and go down to the Red Lion and get a coney, chips and a Coke.

Back to work.

Mid-afternoon, Walt needs me to make a few deliveries in the old station wagon, and stop by the paper company retail outlet and pick up some paper.

He gives me a signed blank check for the paper. As I walk out to the station wagon, for a brief minute, I consider making the check out to myself for a bunch of money and take off to some exotic place, but then I think better of it and do my job. I crank up the tunes on the AM radio and make the rounds.

When I get back to Swift, I hand the paperwork to Walt, and he asks if I turned down the radio when I was done, I said yes. When I unloaded the station wagon, I go up front and turn down the radio.

I help out with some bindery work, sweep the floor of all the scraps that missed the barrels thinking "if Walt would just slow down a little when cutting, he'd get more in the barrels and less on the floor".

Clean the presses.

Oil the Kluge and Miehle Vertical.

Rewash the Kluge, because Walt has a job with light ink color to go tomorrow, and he wants it extra clean.

"See you tomorrow Walt"

Just an old guy and a young guy putting in a good days work. Swift - all that its name implies.