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30 & 2 Dogs Whoop It Up
Helen was embarrassed when Fred Liddle phoned from Tampa during the auction to complain about the noise. She thought she had warned the neighbors….
The meeting notice said Virginia, but they came from as far as Cranford, N. J. (the Babcocks) and from the southernmost corner of the state, Virginia Beach (Bill Bogardus), for an ecumenical meeting embracing members of the NAPA, AAPA and APA. With the locals (including Baltimore and Bristol, Pa.) it added up to 30 frenzied printers, spouses and kids, and two dogs.
Those present and able to write their names were:
Dave and Jake Warner; Harold Segal; Ellen McKee; Bill Bogardus; Nathaniel and Jacqueline Polster; Alan, Louanne and Vicki Wheeler; Jim Kapplin; Dave Smit; Helen and Alf Babcock; Gussie Yasgur; Joe W. Schram; Joan and Roy Butler; Maryann and Jon Rozzel; Hazel Peck Wilford; Jerry Jennings; Soren and Gordon Powell; Lona Carlson-Powell; Dottie and Quick Carlson; Guy Botterill; and the hosts, Helen and Sheldon Wesson.
Who Are The Fossils?
by Sheldon Wesson
Writing in NAPA West, Spring 1978, Dick Fleming is but the latest in a long line of members and non-members who have misunderstood The Fossils. If he wishes to resign from the group, that is Fleming’s privilege – though it seems strange he should do this after acknowledging that membership is up and The Fossil is flourishing, and then concluding that there isn’t enough interest to keep The Fossils going.
Certainly, The Fossils has teetered on the edge of extinction on and off for some years. But it goes on, a source of pleasure, and sometimes of inspiration, to those of us who care. If Fleming does not, that’s his choice.
However, I cannot allow to go uncorrected his suggestion that the publishing ends would be as well served by running Fossil business in the National Amateur.
For the benefit of newer ajays of all associations, it should be recorded that The Fossils are not and never have been an affiliate of the National Amateur Press Association. Membership has never been limited to persons belonging to or formerly belonging to any ajay association. In fact, many members only practiced amateur publishing or in contexts other than so called organized amateur journalism.
A majority of present Fossil members are or were affiliated with these groups, and most of them with the National because of its longer history. However, the fact that present membership includes members and alumni of the American, the Amalgamated, the Uniteds, Lone Scouts and non-association types is a source of strength to The Fossils and satisfaction to its veteran members. The tie that binds is a common devotion to preservation of the history of amateur journalism.
TYPES unquestionably have character and personality. Ralph Babcock recalls in Weaker Moments that the late Burton Crane had called Neuland the most “brutal” type he knew. For sheer brutality of line, I nominate this Resolut. Tell us, what anthropomorphized “characters” lurk in your typecase?
Ralph also extols the (debatable) joy of treadling an 8 x 12 C&P. My earliest visual memory of him dates to March 1941, when arrivals for an APC meeting found him racing to complete a WM – pumping the press so fast that it was creeping across the floor, forcing him to hop his left leg to keep up with it!
These pages and the heading printed in advance by APA 307 and 357. Great chance to get this soft old 10 pt Kennerley composition monotype to kiss coated paper, and thus weed out worn sorts – getting other people to set the type for fun!
Social & Financial Notes
Joe Bradburn had intended coming today; but his sister phoned to report he is back in the hospital after another heart attack. VAPA sends him our best wishes.
Jacqueline Polster, wife and creative inspiration of Tanny Polster, new AAPA printer member, has just had a one-woman show of her pen-and-inks and water-colors at a Washington gallery.
A marathon two-hour auction saw 111 items – mostly type and paper – change hands.
“After having waited ten years to greet my first fellow amateur printer vis-a-vis, it’s an inspiration and pleasure to find myself in the company of so many ink-stained wretches of talent and note.” – Bill Bogardus
“A Certain Polemicist scoffs the fact that women’s arms are jointed to hold babies, citing cultures in which babies are carried on the back. True – I still have Peko-chan’s Japanese back-pack from Yokohama.
“However, I did find it rather awkward to nurse her in that position.” – Helen 357