Please feel free to use the information from this transcript in any scholarly work. The full citation for this document is : George Delaplaine, interview by Laura Draper, March 19, 1998, OH015, Oral History Collection, Frederick Community College, Frederick, MD.
George Birely Delaplaine, Jr. is the President of Great Southern Printing and Manufacturing Co. This company includes the Frederick News-Post ( a morning and evening newspaper), the Job Shop (a commercial printing business), and GS Communications (a cable television company). Mr. Delaplaine is the Editor and Publisher of the Frederick News-Post and the Chief Executive Officer of GS Communications. He is a descendant of John Thomas Schley who built the first house in Frederick, Maryland in 1745. Miss Annie Schley married George K. Birely. Mr. Delaplaine's grandmother was Fannie Birely who married William T. Delaplaine who founded a printing business in Frederick, Maryland in 1880. Mr. Delaplaine views the mission of his company to be the primary news, advertising and information provider in the greater Frederick trading area.
| LD: |
Today's date is Thursday, March 19th, 1998. My name is Laura Draper and I will be interviewing Mr. George Birely Delaplaine, Jr., about the Frederick News Post at Frederick Cable Vision. Mr. Delaplaine's information is very significant because of his involvement, knowledge, and experiences with the Post, which has been successful for over 100 years -- or with the News which has been successful for over 100 years, and the Post.
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| GD: |
All right. Well, let's see, first of all, my middle name is Birely.
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| LD: |
Birely.
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| GD: |
Not Beerley.
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| LD: |
I'm sorry.
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| GD: |
That's all right. Well, the Birelys are pretty extinct around here now, and families come and go.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. You are named after your father of course. And he was named after Louis Birely, is that right?
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| GD: |
Not really.
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| LD: |
Not really?
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| GD: |
Okay, let's -- you're looking for the family tree.
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| LD: |
A little bit.
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| GD: |
A little bit. The -- well, we can go back to the beginning to John Thomas Schley who built the first house in Frederick, about 253 years ago. And a Schley married a Birely, and the Birely family had been in the tanning business in Frederick for about, well, since about 200 years ago.
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| LD: |
And your father also worked in this tanning business, tannery business?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh. That was Birely Tannery. And my grandmother was a Birely who married William T. Delaplaine. And he started a printing business in 1880. And then in order to expand the printing business, and also to be able to provide a forum -- a daily forum for information, thought and civic improvement he began publication of the News, which is currently our afternoon newspaper.
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| LD: |
Did he have any other experience doing that type of printing and with newspapers?
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| GD: |
I really don't know. I don't -- he had gone to a business school, but back then there were very few people who went to college.
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| LD: |
Okay. And you were born in what year?
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| GD: |
1926.
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| LD: |
1926. And here in Frederick?
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| GD: |
Yes, uh-huh.
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| LD: |
What was your childhood like? Did you have any brothers and sisters?
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| GD: |
I have a sister, uh-huh. As a matter of fact newspapering had been a plug because she and I put out a little neighborhood newspaper.
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| LD: |
Oh, yeah? When you were kids?
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| GD: |
When we were kids, yes. We had a regular press with moveable type.
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| LD: |
What kind of stories did you do?
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| GD: |
Oh, just little snippets. Well, we had a feature story always on the front page and just a small publication. It was folded over, it was just about -- just about that size (folding paper). Half of a six by nine sheet size. And we had a story about something of interest in the community, whether it be Francis Scott Key's monument, or the Barbara Fritchie House, or Hood College, or something like that. And then a little just newsy personal items about people in the neighborhood, somebody went off to New York with somebody or other, or somebody was visiting in the neighborhood from Harrisburg.
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| LD: |
So you were interested in it when you were a child?
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| GD: |
Yes, uh-huh.
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| LD: |
Okay. What interested you about it, just being able to tell everybody?
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| GD: |
It was just -- it was just an interest that, you know, what makes people interested in wood carving?
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| LD: |
True. And you went to school here in Frederick also?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
Did you graduate from high school or from Frederick High?
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| GD: |
Frederick High School.
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| LD: |
Did you ever visit the News when you were a child or up into your high school years?
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| GD: |
Occasionally, yes. My father was working with his uncles in the tanning business and his brothers were running the newspaper which would be my uncles running the newspaper.
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| LD: |
And you are married?
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
Is that right? To?
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| GD: |
My wife (laughing).
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| LD: |
(Laughing) What's her name.
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| GD: |
Well, you know her as Bettie.
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| LD: |
Bettie?
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| GD: |
B-E-T-T-I-E.
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| LD: |
Okay. And you have children?
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| GD: |
Four sons.
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| LD: |
Four sons. And do any of them work at the paper now?
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| GD: |
Well, two of them work at the -- our new venture, GS Communications.
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| LD: |
Okay. Now, when you started working at the paper it was in the '40's?
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| GD: |
Yes, I worked summer times in the '40's, yes.
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| LD: |
Now, at that time the Post was the morning paper and the News was the evening?
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| GD: |
The Post had been a morning paper since 1910 and the News had been an evening paper beginning in 1883. When the Post started it started as an evening paper.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. Why did it switch to a morning?
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| GD: |
In order to draw -- the Post started up in competition with the News. And the News was an evening paper and the Post started up as a competition in the evening. And then in order to attract more readership than they had, they switched to morning publication.
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| LD: |
And when you started where was the company located?
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| GD: |
At 26 North Court Street.
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| LD: |
Okay. And your Uncle Robert Delaplaine was president at that time?
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| GD: |
I believe he was president then. He and my Uncle William were the two who were -- we weren't strong on titles -- we used the term manager.
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| LD: |
Okay. And do you know who the editor was at that time? Or did you all go do that also? Or did you more manage the business?
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| GD: |
What time are you talking about now?
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| LD: |
The '40's.
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| GD: |
In the '40's the -- during the war the newsprint was hard to get, everything was hard to get. Advertising was hard to get. People were hard to get. And so it was a slim pickings during the war. After the war, yes, there was an editor for the morning paper and an editor for the afternoon paper.
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| LD: |
And I've read in here in the summers of '42 and '43 you worked as a printer's devil in the summer What is that about?
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| GD: |
Well, it was redistributing type into cases after forms had been printed.
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| LD: |
What does that mean? I don't really know anything about that.
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| GD: |
Do you know what movable type is?
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| LD: |
Well, I know -- can you describe anything about it?
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| GD: |
You don't know what movable type is?
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| LD: |
I'm not to sure about what any of it is.
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| GD: |
That's what Gutenberg invented. He didn't invent the printing press, he invented movable type. Here I'll give you a piece of type. I happen to have a little bit right here, I'll give you a piece. Here's movable type.
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| LD: |
So this -- I mean it made it go quicker, faster?
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| GD: |
No (laughing). It made printing possible.
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| LD: |
Okay. Made it possible.
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| GD: |
Before Gutenberg, before 14 -- what was the year, 1458 or something like that, the way that books were manufactured was generally -- the major books which were manufactured were Bibles, and they were done by friars and monks in monasteries who would sit on -- on stools on slant top desks and would copy letter-for-letter and word-for-word what was written down. Moveable type made it possible to be able to get the printed word out. And once that word was out, then the type was moved -- removed from this printing form back into its home in this -- in this case. And the letters then could be used over and over and over again. That's what movable type is all about.
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| LD: |
Okay. That explains a lot.
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| GD: |
And well, I'll even fill you in a little bit more.
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| LD: |
All right.
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| GD: |
Okay. A type case has a box for each letter. And there is -- the California type case actually consists of two cases, one of them is the -- the capital letters, and capital letters aren't used nearly as much as the small -- what we call small letters. So they were put on a case above and that's the upper case and lower case is for the lower letters. That's a little bit of information you didn't know. And typewise it's nothing more than getting out the type. Getting up the type, that's all it -- a printer's devil is a kid who is beginning in the early stages of apprenticeship.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. Okay so that's what you did.
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| GD: |
Printer's devil is -- that's right, the early stages of printing apprenticeship.
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| LD: |
Did you work at any other jobs before that? Any other experiences?
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| GD: |
No, well, I was in the service. In the Navy.
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| LD: |
When were you in the service?
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| GD: |
1944 and '45.
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| LD: |
And then you began full-time employment in 1949?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
What did you do then?
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| GD: |
Oh, I started as a reporter.
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| LD: |
Did you? How did you find stories? What was the normal way of doing that?
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| GD: |
The way that it should be done today and is not being done that well, and that is talk to people and keep your eyes open to see what's new.
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| LD: |
I've also read that there was new press additions. Can you tell me the need for the additions and/or the advantages of them? I think it was in that article around 1951.
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| GD: |
All right. After World War II there was growth in the Frederick community and growth in the retail trade sector, and more subscribers, more advertisers, and so we needed a larger press to pass it.
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| LD: |
Okay. And then your father became president in 1964?
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| GD: |
Yes, I guess he was, yes, uh-huh, that's right.
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| LD: |
And you became the general manager?
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| GD: |
Yes, uh-huh, I think.
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| LD: |
Was that just of the paper or of the whole business of Great Southern?
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| GD: |
The paper was the whole business. I mean we -- the newspaper had a small division called the Job Shop which was the commercial printing aspect of the paper.
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| LD: |
What was it like working with your father? Can you describe anything about that? Or working with your uncles as well?
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| GD: |
No, it was a very congenial relationship. I did leave in 1955 for about a year and a half to work for another paper to get some ideas on the way other papers do operate.
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| LD: |
Did you like working at this other paper?
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
Did you learn a lot from it?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
What different things did you learn from working?
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| GD: |
Well, just different ways of doing things. It was a similar paper, similar in size, the morning and evening addition at the time.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. Did your father encourage you to do this?
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| GD: |
Yes, uh-huh.
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| LD: |
Okay. And then you moved to 200 East Patrick Street around the late '60s. And now that was an expansion to there? Were you still keeping up with local businesses and, you know, getting bigger, more subscribers, advertisers?
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| GD: |
Yes, subscribers and advertisers were growing and we had outgrown the location and press on North Court Street.
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| LD: |
And I also read at that time that there was a new Goss Press installed. Is that right?
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| GD: |
It's still being used.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. How was this one different? Was it more advanced? Easier to use printer?
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| GD: |
It was a completely different principle in printing called offset lithography.
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| LD: |
Offset?
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| GD: |
Lithography. Lithos meaning stone and graph meaning to draw.
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| LD: |
Okay. So what exactly did it do for you?
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| GD: |
Well, it had more pages, also color capabilities. It's the press we're using now.
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| LD: |
Okay. So it just made everything easier in general, more color?
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| GD: |
Well, it gave us color capability and more page capacity.
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| LD: |
So in turn you can print more up in the newspaper for advertisers and such, and then you will make more money.
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| GD: |
Uh-huh. It was also -- let's see, one other aside going back to my experience in the navy was I was in an electronics program for a year and developed my skills and my interest in using electronics for communication purposes. And when cable TV came along back in the 1960's, I thought of the possibility of utilizing a cable system to possibly distribute information, which we are currently doing through the Internet. We have parts of the newspaper which are in the Internet each day.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. So then you saw the idea for the -- for taking the cable system over, Frederick Cablevision?
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| GD: |
I was one of the originators of it, and then several years later Great Southern bought out the other originators.
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| LD: |
What location was covered by Great Southern in the cablevision?
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| GD: |
What do you mean by what location? Do you mean where was the office located, or?
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| LD: |
Well, the cable was sent out to Frederick. Did it go farther than Frederick?
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| GD: |
No. It just went from the Frederick side of Yellow Springs into Frederick itself.
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| LD: |
That's where I live, because we didn't get it for a while.
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| GD: |
You live where, Yellow Springs?
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Uh-huh. Right there back of Bethel Road by Mountaindale. If you go up 15 then you'll see Mr. Natural's.
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| GD: |
Yes, uh-huh.
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| LD: |
Okay. I live right back there. About five minutes from the highway.
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
Through all this I've read that the paper has never missed an issue.
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| GD: |
The afternoon addition has never missed a regularly scheduled printing date.
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| LD: |
How is this possible with all the blizzards, storms, floods, power outages?
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| GD: |
Well, there have been several times when we printed papers and they were not distributed, they did not get total distribution for a day. With the -- all right, in the blizzard of 1932, March of 1932, there was a -- Frederick City was without electric power. At that time the Frederick City Government had its own electric generation facility on East Street, at East 2nd Street, to generate electricity for the street lights of the city.
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| LD: |
So you all used that?
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| GD: |
And so the mayor of Frederick was an electrical contractor by the name of Elmer Munshower and he ran an electric line from the East Street plant to the newspaper plant on North Court Street, and we were able to run one linotype machine and the printing press for an abbreviated addition of the afternoon paper. At nighttime the city generating facility was used to light the city streets. So the morning paper was not printed but the afternoon paper was.
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| LD: |
At that time would you all use backup materials, articles that you've had that maybe is waiting for a time to be used?
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| GD: |
No, it was -- it was just a very abbreviated copy of the paper, just enough to get it out. What one linotype machine would produce.
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| LD: |
And you became president when? I don't think I've read that.
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| GD: |
You know, see what happened was my father's youngest brother survived and my father died in 1977. So I guess I became president in '77.
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| LD: |
Okay. What went on inside of you at that time?
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| GD: |
To get the paper out.
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Were you excited to be the president? Or did it not change anything?
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| GD: |
No, I -- it didn't change anything, no, no. We always effectively had been running the paper for 20 couple years anyway, and with expanding the cable system and buying cable systems in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
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| LD: |
So at this time the cable was expanding also out of Frederick?
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| GD: |
Yes. Cable has -- since we went on-line the first week of July of 1967 cable has been expanding.
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| LD: |
Do you know exactly where it's at now?
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| GD: |
It's -- we are pretty much in every -- on every street and road in Frederick County where there are -- where there are 10 houses or more per mile. In other words like if you take a road like Orndorff Road or Mud College Road up in the -- or Rocky Ridge Road where there are only about three or four houses per mile, we're not on those roads yet. So that's what I mean by so many houses per mile. But we cover every -- every housing development in the county. Also in most of Adams County, Pennsylvania and almost half of York County, Pennsylvania, and Jefferson County, West Virginia, and Berkeley County, West Virginia.
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| LD: |
And when did the paper start to use computers?
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| GD: |
For -- for business purposes, let's see, we had an electro-mechanical bookkeeping machine in October 1st of 1957. And for business purposes the first computer we had was in March 1st of 1979.
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| LD: |
And they were first used in the offices just for business purposes as you said?
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| GD: |
Yes. The -- yes, the bookkeeping machine was strictly a business machine. And for the newspaper the first computer was for business purposes. That's general purpose digital computer. Let's see, let me think. We actually for newspaper production had been using a special purpose computer to handle the Associated Press wire, I guess began about 1972.
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| LD: |
And when was it used for employees? When did it get to be used for widespread in the paper?
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| GD: |
It was sort of an evolutionary move. We actually were utilizing specialized computers in typesetting, but they were not tied into a mainframe, it was just called a torn tape system. And actually it was sort of a bridge between the linotype machine and the -- and a computer input, because it worked with a keyboard like a typewriter or computer keyboard. But instead of going into a central database processing unit it turned out a paper tape, and then the tape was used to feed the machines which actually were computers which drove pulsed xenon lights which flashed through -- well, they generated the image on photographic paper. It's -- it is very technical and you're not familiar with it so, you know, it -- I can explain it and you won't know what I'm talking about it.
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| LD: |
So basically it was a bridge, it was an in between type of thing.
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| GD: |
Yes, it was -- it was state of the art. Because it was the time of the IBM 360 computer, which was driven by punch cards. But instead of punch cards we were using paper tape. See -- are you familiar with the -- no, you wouldn't know what an IBM 360 is or a 370. Do you know what -- what a Holerith card is? No.
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| LD: |
No.
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| GD: |
Do you know what an 80 column computer card is?
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| LD: |
(No response).
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| GD: |
Okay.
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| LD: |
Well (laughing) --
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| GD: |
(Laughing) You're asking me questions and you don't know what they are. Let me think. Okay. Let's see if I have a picture of one, I don't think I have one. Ah ha. Holerith card. It is a -- this happens to be a U.S. Savings Bond. It's an 80 column card, it has -- see the punch holes in it? And this would go into a card reader. So this -- this was the memory.
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| LD: |
Okay. The dots or the holes, punched out.
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| GD: |
The holes -- this card is the memory actually. And those holes which are there actually then control the machine, and the card reader would read those holes and tell exactly what it is. Okay. So this was the -- before memory was so cheap in computers, this was the -- this is the way that programming was done, and it was done by great big boxes of cards that would be the programming that's done for computers. It was punched out. So you really can't say, you know, did everybody have one. Well, it's when did the computer get to the point that it was used around, and for business purposes, okay, fine, we had -- that was in '79. That's almost 20 years ago. You don't remember when that was.
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| LD: |
Un-huh. I was born in '78.
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| GD: |
Okay. In '79, yes, we had this -- as a matter of fact we're still using the same system now, it's an excellent system, for some of our business applications where it doesn't -- where you don't need to have the fancy screen and all the other characters jumping up and down and fish swimming through and all that stuff.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. (Laugh) Hands pointing.
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| GD: |
Okay. So really '79 was the beginning of the system, but as years went on then memory became cheaper and cheaper and cheaper until you have this box here. As a matter of fact this is an old box, this box is probably 10, eight years old I guess. And it has -- this thing here has 100 times more computing power than our first computer which was about the size of that filing cabinet there. Just the way -- the nature of the beast.
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| LD: |
"Sound-Source" was started in 1990?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
Was it being used in other papers or anything else?
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| GD: |
We were early on with "Sound-Source". It was something which I had run across, as a matter of fact it wasn't even a newspaper meeting it was another meeting I just saw and went to, and it looked like it had an application so I got involved with this. So we were early on using the telephone.
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| LD: |
And that's been successful.
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
A lot of people use it?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
The next thing is the Internet. You said before that you all have a website on there or a page?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh. Yes. Have you ever seen it?
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| LD: |
No.
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| GD: |
Let's see.
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| LD: |
We don't have Internet at my house.
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| GD: |
Okay. Now, this is-- this should pop right out like this, it's run on very high speed. Okay, here it goes. Okay. This is the -- these are the front page stories, in case you don't know, and the pictures of the truck accident which tied up Interstate 70 in eastern Frederick with respect to the truck. And this is what we have going on the back of our drawroom, the newspaper drawroom. We have the forecast and editorials. I do a column about every other week. Actually I sometimes I do it more often than that. This is the column which I wrote last week. And I have another one during this week. Sports stories. We also then have our classified ads. Somebody calls, and that's the display, it's called a display type-ad, but the -- let's say you have a washing machine for sale. You call and it appears in the newspaper and also in this -- in this, let's see -- but we also take directly. You can input your own letter to the editor here.
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| LD: |
Oh, really?
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
You can do a lot of neat things.
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| GD: |
Oh, yes, it's -- I tell you it's -- okay. People read your classifieds. There we go, that's better. (Indiscernible) read now. Okay, let's say we'd want a -- okay. Okay. No ads found, we don't have any ads with John Deere. Let's see. Okay, all these things ads now have (indiscernible) both sides (indiscernible) -- Reichs Ford Road, so you see Ford is in the name.
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| LD: |
Oh. Anything -
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| GD: |
Anything, yes. There really - see Hughes Ford Road. Okay, we could have specified a particular -- here is a Ford tractor, Ford dump truck, backhoe. I mean it just -- all the categories are right there, that have Ford in it. So I mean we could have done a more limited search than that. But anyway, that's -- that's how those searches work. Yes, it's a pretty nifty thing.
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| LD: |
So this is one thing that you're really -- you do it a lot.
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
Okay. I just read it was your first year anniversary with it?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
And you've had a lot of success with it I assume?
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| GD: |
Well, nobody (laugh) -- no newspaper other than the Wall Street Journal is making any money on the on the Internet. No, because it's all free. We really don't know which way it's going except that it's a way that -- way of the future. So that's what we're doing, we're just trying to keep up with what everybody else is doing. But, we also are going to be an Internet provider. Have you played around with the Internet at all?
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| LD: |
A little bit. I don't have it at my house, but, you know, I've done it in the library here and there. Not a lot though.
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| GD: |
Okay. Well, this is -- this is really -- this is faster than the usual home hookups. And we actually have the test right now of our cable system. We have 17 locations which are using cable modems which are even faster than this. I mean it's instantaneous, it really is quick. We really don't know what the way of the future is going to be, so we have to make sure we're on the cutting edge of every -- every development, whether it be a newspaper, what is it that takes people to read the newspaper. We don't know.
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| LD: |
Okay. What about when reporters, do they ever use the Internet?
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| GD: |
Yes. There's a tremendous amount of information available on it. And any way we can get information faster and easier it's a great way for doing business.
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| LD: |
Is there any -- do you tell the employees any way to check to make sure that their source is reliable, that it's just not, you know, a web page of someone that doesn't know what they're doing?
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| GD: |
Well -- well, reporters they are educated to check all sources. And they just -- they use the -- the Internet for research purposes, not really for developing stories.
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| LD: |
Okay. Presently you oversee operations of Great Southern all over, and you also write columns still. Do you usually write the column you said every other week if not more. Is there any other columns that you write?
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| GD: |
No. No, that's enough. That's enough (laughing).
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| LD: |
Why do you think the Frederick News Post has been so successful over the years?
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| GD: |
Our mission has been to be the primary news, advertising and information provider in the greater Frederick trading area. And we have adhered to that principle by providing prompt service, quality product, to a growing population base.
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| LD: |
Since Frederick is becoming so big, do you think that there is going to be other papers starting now and competing with you all?
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| GD: |
Well, there are -- our biggest competitor is the Washington Post and it has been for the past 30 years. But the biggest competition which all newspapers have is for people's time. That is by far the biggest challenge we have.
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| LD: |
Yes, I would agree. Oh do you think that another factor could be that it's been family owned and influenced all throughout the years?
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| GD: |
Let's say -- let's put it this way, we live here, we work here, we're a part of the community, we know what's going on, and we do our shopping here and we make our contributions here.
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| LD: |
What are the satisfactions you've gotten from working at the paper?
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| GD: |
I guess the biggest satisfaction is being a part of the force to continue the -- let's see, how do I want to phrase this. Frederick has been blessed in that it's been a clean community, it hasn't had the taint of corruption and vice, and the newspaper has been a vehicle for extolling the virtues of the community and encouraging healthy endeavors to the benefit of the entire area. That's probably been the most satisfying thing which -- which I feel I've been able to accomplish. And that is making sure that the proper atmosphere for the conduct of trade, and business, and politics, and law, and government is maintained on a high level. I think that really says a mouthful. That really is what we try to do.
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| LD: |
What about the satisfactions of getting involved with Cablevision and extending that to so many different counties?
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| GD: |
I'd say the satisfaction is that -- has been to take an idea and be able to run with it, and see that it has been the right way to go, the right thing to do, and it has been a success. But it is also along the same line as the newspaper is, and that is it is a means of communicating. So I don't see too much difference between newspaper and cable in that they are two different ways of getting of getting communication out.
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| LD: |
And what about the satisfactions of working with not only your father, but your uncles and your sons and other family members?
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| GD: |
Uh-huh.
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| LD: |
What is that like?
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| GD: |
It is -- it's interesting watching them grow and develop along the same lines of wanting to perpetuate the family business concepts.
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| LD: |
And you've already said before that it basically gives you a sense of community of making sure that everything is being done in a right -- the right manner and stuff.
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| GD: |
Uh-huh. In other words, we try to point out or in the negative vein those areas where there needs to be improvement, where there needs to be help given, whether it be to somebody who has a pot hole, oh, in his front yard or in the road in the front of their house, or whether it be someone who is down and out or who needs some assistance. One of the satisfying things which we did just -- well, just before Christmas, was one of the soup kitchens needed -- it was about out of money and we ran a story in the paper and they became overloaded with turkeys.
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| LD: |
Really?
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| GD: |
Yes.
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| LD: |
That's great.
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| GD: |
Response to needs in the community and is tremendous. So that's just one example of what we do. And then on the other -- other side, the people who are doing well, who have done well, who have done an outstanding job, as an accompaniment, accomplishments, we try to bend over backward to promote oh, the good endeavors that people have done. We have constantly stories about people in their jobs, in their leisure time, in their activities. Sports, it's a tremendous field for people. We devote three, four pages a day to sports. We're heavy on the local sports. It's the local information, the community information, the community endeavors which we have to give people a pat on the back, tell them that they're doing a good job, use our column to let people know what they're doing. That's what we're doing.
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| LD: |
Before when you said that you were a reporter you said that people weren't getting stories the way that they should be. What do you mean by that? How do you think they can change it?
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| GD: |
What -- what I mean by -- by reporter is -- a lot of journalism today, and this is true not only in Frederick but across the country the President will have a press conference, and so a reporter will report for the press conference. The Congress will have a hearing on -- I believe they have six or eight hearings going on at one time a reporter will go and report that. That's pretty much just like note taking. It -- what really is different is -- is to get reporters to be able to see, to use their own enterprise to go out, not to be just a reporter of the facts, but to go out, talk to different people, see what's going on, look around town, see when there is a pothole developing. It is not just a matter of chasing an ambulance or chasing a fire truck, but it's a matter of initiating something or seeing something which is different or unusual and then asking questions about it, finding out about it. It's like seeing a street closed sign, not a main thoroughfare but just a side street, and stopping the car, walking down and see what the trouble is, finding a sinkhole in it, think sinkhole story. We can't rely on everybody to have the nose for news. It really means having a nose for news.
So many of the things which I write about, and let's see if I can find my articles over here, you're supposed to keep a hold of these -- plus you also have -- I've been around so long I have too much going on. Okay. This is about portable classrooms. And, you know, what's 100 percent crowding in schools, what's 110 percent, 120 percent. Well, when did this get started? Well, they got started in 1962. I remember I went to the meeting when Dr. Harold Schaden, who is a veterinarian now retired, was the one who -- school system -- okay, heading "Frederick County High PTA was Harold Schaden" He said a portable classroom would eliminate split shifts, a mass meeting was held and that's what -- that's what happened. Okay. It's because -- this is something that a reporter on the education beat should have thought about writing, you know, how long have portables been used, who was the genesis of the first idea.
This is one I just happen to know the 1932 blizzard on March 5th, no electric in service in Frederick, death due to the frigid cold. Well, this was in oh, let's see, February 21st. People are saying, you know, winter is over, I'm saying, no, it's not over. I've been around because I know it's not over yet.
Looking at trees in downtown Frederick, within -- a couple trees removed, why were they removed -- Wall Street Journal, price of gasoline. Okay. Here, I predicted the price of gasoline was going to go down below a dollar. This is on February 22nd, it did a couple weeks later. I mean it's -- I guess the most frustrating thing is -- is being able to tell a reporter, look, read my column you'll find out what's going on.
This is one I just happened to run across reading a little piece of literature that this company put out about the spotted salamanders, and then the fact that they had done a study on it, financed by the state. $35,000 to find out are salamanders climbing a curb or not. And that's sort of like, you know this is the type of thing.
Harold Weisburg, well, he always comes on with something usual. That was on -- let's see. I always have my source material there too. Okay. We had rains, heavy rains, it was really one of the tests of this flood control, a downpour -- it was a downpour since the flood of '76, before your time. But that's what caused all this revitalization of downtown Frederick. I remember that because October ninth is my father's birthday and my wife's birthday and '76 was the year -- you see that the newspaper office is right along that line so some of these things stick in your mind. Then what happened was right down here West College Terrace in front of Frederick High School, ducks were floating across West College Terrace. This is the type of thing.
Middletown Valley election districts and the fact that they're dry. Well, how long were they dry and when did this come from. This is the type of thing which I write in my column. It's the type of thing that I get a kick out of doing it frankly. There is something about being a celebrity, you know, sort of an ego trip you get on.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. I think I -- I just have a few questions I'd like to ask you.
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| GD: |
Okay.
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| LD: |
Has the content or style of the news stories changed from the late 1800's to the -- to now, if you know?
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| GD: |
From when?
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| LD: |
From the late 1800's, early 1900's.
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| GD: |
Oh my goodness, yes, there is tremendous change. The stories -- so many of the stories were just very short, as a matter of fact very newsy type items. Such as the -- one of the -- one of the three painters in Frederick, name was Henry Lampe, whenever he started a new project, a reporter who would be walking along town would see Henry Lampe is now starting to paint the woodwork on -- on the Smith family home in the second block of East 3rd Street. News like that is -- is what made Frederick what it was years ago, it was of a newsy type town. Today the issues of -- of how people spend their time, their money, what they're doing, it is so much more complex. Life in Frederick is so much more complex, life in the world is so much more complex today. We live in a global society. A hundred years ago electricity was just being brought into the area. The incandescent light was not -- was just new. Transportation, well, the railroad had come to Frederick in '32, -- in 1832. But -- well of course before the time of -- of automobiles, before the time of radios, televisions, computers, all this, that and the other thing, life was very -- was simple, but it was also very hard. It took an awful lot of muscle power to get things done years ago. So and -- and the stories reflected it too.
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| LD: |
Now there is so many things to write stories about.
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| GD: |
So many -- so many things. And people are doing so many different things, you know. What do you do? If you go out on the west coast and have -- go to somebody at a party or something and said, what do you do, well, I mean, you know, are you a jogger, are you a mountain climber, are you a bungee jumper. You go to the east coast, what do you do, well, I'm a student, no, I work for a newspaper, I'm a reporter. There's a difference. But these are all things that the people are doing and, you know, what people are doing is what makes news. What they're doing and what they're thinking about.
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| LD: |
I'd like to go back to the '30's just for a minute. How did the depression affect the company?
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| GD: |
I really can't tell you because I wasn't around then.
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| LD: |
Have you heard any -- did you hear any stories about it? No?
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| GD: |
The depression was very severe around here because the -- it was an agricultural community and agriculture was really very hard hit. And the leading bank of the largest bank outside of Baltimore City was headquartered in Frederick and it went -- it went into bankruptcy.
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| LD: |
Do you remember a time when a retraction had to be printed for a mistake in information?
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| GD: |
We -- we print them all the time, yes. We had -- well, about two weeks ago we had the wrong vehicles involved in an accident and we had to write a correction on it.
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| LD: |
So it's just a kind of an every day thing?
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| GD: |
It just goes with the territory. Unfortunately people make mistakes.
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| LD: |
Uh-huh. The incorporation of Great Southern Printing and Manufacturing Company with the News Post -- or the Frederick News, it changed the paper a lot. Did it also change the status of the paper?
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| GD: |
The incorporation?
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| LD: |
Uh-huh.
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| GD: |
Back in '88?
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| LD: |
Yes.
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| GD: |
1888?
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| LD: |
Yes.
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| GD: |
No.
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| LD: |
No? Well, I think that's about it then. It looks like it.
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| GD: |
Okay. Well, if you have any further questions -- I think you'll have enough information there.
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| LD: |
Yes, I do. Most of the history was, you know, in the books. You know, I've read a lot of the general stuff of that, so I know most of it. Is there a number I can reach you at in case I have a question about something?
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| GD: |
Yes. Well, the newspaper number is 662-1177. And that comes into East Patrick Street, but it will need to be transferred if I'm up here. I start out at the newspaper office -- I start out at home, read the paper at home first thing in the morning and phone in any corrections, then I start -- when I get into town I start at the newspaper office and come up here. And I spend most of my time here unless I'm down at the other building or have an appointment outside. And unfortunately one of the -- one of the burdens of being in the newspaper is that you're terrible at filing and you always have piles of papers around every place. And that's -- this is typical. I was out of town for two days and one of these -- it's worse than usual.
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| LD: |
Well, I'm sure you'll get it fixed up.
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| GD: |
Well, I've never been done because tomorrow is another day, and there is always another edition.
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| LD: |
That's true. Okay. If there is anything you'd like to tell me, anything that you'd like to add?
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| GD: |
I think you about wrung me out (laughing).
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| LD: |
(Laughing) Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. You know, it was fun, it was interesting, I learned a lot.
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| GD: |
Well, you even found out what typewise is. And where lowercase and uppercase come from. And what movable type is.
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| LD: |
I know now. So really it's -- I really appreciate it.
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| GD: |
Okay. Well, very glad to meet you.
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| LD: |
All right.
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