Ridin' the Rapids Ah yes, the color photos certainly look nice in this edition. We wish we could run them in the paper every week but the costs are prohibitive. We do, however, make use of color in our Christmas issue and on the anniversary of the newspaper during the last week of August. It was back in 1978 that the first issue of River Reflections was printed. The paper was on a twice monthly, rather than weekly schedule. That was a good thing because the process of producing a publication then was much more labor intensive. A manual typewriter was used for text. It had no memory and didn't justify. That meant stories were typed twice: first to get an idea of how much space they would take up and then again after counting how many space bars had to be added between words to make the columns come out even. Headlines and ads were created using "press type" that was applied by rubbing individual characters from a plastic sheet onto a page. Photos, of course, weren't digital and required processing 35 mm film and then printing a picture using a half tone screen. All those components had to have hot wax applied to their backsides so they could adhere to full size layout sheets. As time went by upgrades brought us through the era of photo typesetting and an early adoption of computers (with thank God, memories) both of which still required the wax and layout sheet routine. And, those sheets had to be physically transported to a web press to be printed, then brought back to the shop to be addressed and bagged for mailing. So what was in that initial edition? A front-page story outlined potential development of the old stage stop in Vida for both commercial use and 14 homesites. That drew opposition from the Vida Citizens Committee who showed up at a planning commission meeting with a petition bearing 300 signatures. An inside story detailed another petition, this time supporting a plan by the Blue River Water District to create a fire department. We also welcomed back a graduate of the class of 1944 as the new McKenzie High School Principal ­ Dr. Katherine King Shelly. We had one ad letting people know that Phil's had a new fall line of school clothes and a classified ad for a "chord" of firewood for sale at only $35. Our publishing process has evolved to a much more streamlined operation that has includes an Internet presence as well. As we go into our 34th year we want to thank everyone for their support and look forward to continuing to serve the McKenzie River community.

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