When I walked through the front door of the old Hennessey Clipper office Sunday night, I couldn’t believe how small the front office looked. That was even though it was missing a desk, or two, along with the cubbies against the north wall where we’d once stored each week’s papers.

My old office just seemed empty, but when I stepped into the production room I was transported back in time when I saw the two banks of light tables.

That was where we “pasted up” the newspaper pages Tuesday evenings and into the wee hours on Wednesdays.

Back then, we had to run each story through the Big Blue machine that printed it out. Then it was trimmed using scissors and we’d run it through the waxer (a table top machine that held hot wax).

We then placed each story on one or more of the grid sheet columns.

If there was a photo to go on that page, we’d make a “blackout” that size and our printer did the rest.

Yes, I went wa-a-ay back in time when we moved to Hennessey in 1978. That’s when we used small rollers to make sure the stories and ads stayed attached to the grid sheets.

Blue “non-reproducing” pens were used to write instructions to our printer.

I can’t remember when it was that all of us had computers and we were able to layout pages on them, then sent them through the air to El Reno.

Then Sunday night when I walked into the back of the once-Clipper office I reverted back to my 30-something self when each subscriber’s address was “stamped” on their paper.

Thankfully, that’s one job I never had at the paper, but luckily, my husband, Bill, could run that machine.

That makes me think about all the girls who’d been able to handle that job: Linda (Frakes) Pribyl, Penny (Burrows) Pospisil, Mary Ann Hickey, and Victoria Park. However, I believe that Ruth (Cavin) Kelly was the fastest stamper ever.

I think Linda (Stephens) Craun missed those stamping days, but was there for our “peel and stick” labeling years that also included inserting grocery store and other flyers into the paper.

Did I mention there was no air conditioner and only a “water cooler” and plugin fans in the back part of the building?

Or, that Linda C. and I were joined by Marjorie (Maw Henkel) Anderson for a few years of entertainment while we labeled newspapers?

Thankfully, Hubby Bill did the heavy lifting. He bundled and tied the papers and put them in mail bags and later tubs so he, or Kenny Williams, could take them to the post office.

Sunday night when I looked around at the onceupon- a-time newspaper backshop, I couldn’t remember where the old snapper press stood on the south wall, or even where the 1050 W offset press used to be.

The other night I certainly recognized the door to Bill’s once-upona- time darkroom. That’s where on a hot August day in the late 1980s he had 15 rolls of film to develop that we’d shot at the Pat Hennessey Days and Re-enactment.

He called me back there to teach me how to process film in that 2 ft. x 2 ft. darkroom where it was about 110 degrees.

After my first lesson, I told him I’d give him two choices: He could teach me how to soup the film, or we could stay married.

He went on to win many awards for his photography before we sold the paper effective Jan. 1, 2014. The new owners quit publishing the paper a few years later.

My thanks to Jeremy Beaman (HHS class of 1995), whose 7B Construction Co. is the general contractor for the couple who recently purchased the old Clipper building at 117 S. Main St.

Jeremy had suggested to the new owners that after they decided what they’d keep, there might be something of special value that I might want.

There was: historical documents that Bill’s dad, Art, had researched over the years about Patrick Hennessey. Also, an afghan my mother had knitted, and a baby blanket she’d made, plus some historical photos and programs.

Thanks also to Daphne (Wehling) Marshall who’d contacted me before the inside demolition on the building started this week.

She lives in Hennessey, is with Cobblestone Realty Partners and is an executive assistant for 7B.

Her parents are Dean and Carol, and Carol is the daughter of the late Dorton and Evelyn Robinson, who I’d known, and who’d lived west of Hennessey.

I can’t wait to see what the new owners do with the property and understand they may find some way to use pages from old Clippers on the interior.