How Tofield Mercury changed my life

As a fresh-faced kid following a summer of part-time jobs in 1952 working for farmers, and out of a job and living at home with my parents, my father Henry took the initiative to ask Clifford Patterson, the Editor and Publisher of the Tofield Mercury if he could offer me a job.

Even though we had never met previously, Clifford agreed to give this greenhorn a job full time.

This was the first time I had ever set foot in a print shop, and upon arriving for work, Clifford and his wife Ruby were going for lunch, and told me to look around and familiarize myself with my new surroundings. Well, the sights and smells of a print shop were very new and strange indeed, and upon looking at the pages of the next edition of the Tofield Mercury, I happened to touch the masthead of the paper and it fell over and was scrambled.

I was amazed . . . it was moveable type assembled into a page, and now without any experience I had to put the page back together without any errors!

Upon returning from lunch, they had to chuckle about this “new guy” and his lack of knowledge about the field he was about to embark upon.