The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I would like to add my name as an "also ran" to the notable list of previous employees (including my brothers,) of the Times during Tom and Anita's ownership. My first summer job out of high school was as the teletype setter. It was not long after that when Tom upgraded to cold type. I count myself as fortunate to have experienced firsthand the machines that are now on display in the Coppei Café as relics of a bygone era. The cacophony of the machinery, the smell of the molten lead, and the drama of the deadline are all indelibly etched into my memory.

Tom was a great boss. My folks taught me that when you work by the hour, you are getting paid for 60 minutes, and one day I came into the office to find him adding up all of my minutes for the pay period on the calculator. It dawned on me that he would have saved some time (and therefore money) if he would have just told me to round up a few minutes to the nearest hour when I wrote my time in and time out on my timecard. He never said a word. I think he was affirming my work ethic early in my working career.

Doris Hulce was my preceptor. She was amazing in her grasp of the intricate mechanics of the linotype, in her ability to trouble shoot the machines when they alarmed, and in her patience. She could fix anything, including the numerous glitches resulting from my lack of experience.

A perk of the job was getting to know Bettie Chase as the font of wit, wisdom and Waitsburg history and happenings that she is.

Count me in as someone who loved working for the Bakers to make the Times happen each week for the summer of '72.

Linda McKinney Herbert

Walla Walla