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The Local Establishment
I suppose it’s safe to say there is a saloon across the street from every daily newspaper in the United States. A good percentage of the weeklies can probably make the same claim. Given the mounting tension caused by the need to meet ulcer-provoking deadlines, it is small wonder that newspapermen are apt to relax over a schooner of beer or a belt of bourbon.
Employees at the Tampa Tribune-Times like to whet whistles at a tavern called The Paddock and I’m here to tell you that it’s a real tough joint!
The newspaper building and the nearby saloon are located only a few blocks from the waterfront. When you mix merchant seamen, longshoremen, and the naturally combative stereotypers, bloodshed is inevitable. Many a donnybrook erupts in The Paddock and spills out onto the street or the adjacent parking lot.
As a matter of fact, The Paddock is so tough that the customers are searched for weapons as they enter. If you don’t have a gun, they lend you one!
If the dumb politicians keep raising the taxes on booze and gasoline they are surely going to lose the drunk driver vote.
Sorry About That, Tom
In answering complaints published in this paper about the way he is performing his official duties, Mailer Tom Rozzell gently chided me for committing the unpardonable sin… I spelled his name wrong!
By way of begging Tom’s pardon, I should mention that I have already done this to two people whose names aren’t exactly unknown in the hobby: George Henry Kay, founding father of AAPA and Vic Moitoret of NAPA fame.
If it’s any consolation Tom, you’re in good company.
Tramp Printers Here
Tampa may never replace Bristol as the Halfway House of NAPA but you would never know it if you had been here during the last week in April when visiting firemen toured the Citrus and Carpetbagger Presses.
Dick George, who was at St. Pete last July, visited Lee Hawes’ Citrus Press and Phred’s establishment on April 27. He set a few lines of type which were duly printed in Flimsie Excuse, a four pager I circulate in the AAPA bundle.
Dick’s visit was followed by the arrival on April 29 of Winnie and Larry Redmon, a couple of infiltrators from California who wanted us to defect from the SAPS and come out to San Diego next month.
Larry deposited his card here and set the following lines:
With two good printers here, composing in the stick takes on a different dimension. When they are in journalism for a living that’s a still bigger onus. Editor Lee Hawes and engraver Fred Liddle are very nice about it, however.
The honor of setting type in Fred’s shop is undeserved. I didn’t remember to call anyone until Sunday night, and here we are, Monday night, among friends. – LR
Published and printed for the NAPA bundle by Fred Liddle, Tampa, Fla. 33606.