Terrific trio turnout

While only three showed up today for the monthly BJ retirees lunch at Papa Joe's restaurant on Akron/Peninsula Road, the lowest turnout since no one came during the January 2011 snowstorm, we found the conversation so interesting that we chatted for two hours.

Retired printers Dick Gresock and Gene McClellan and newsroom retiree John Olesky made it. McClellan has the longest attendance streak, at 13 and growing.

Since Dick and John joined Ken Wright in the same BJ room for years to coordinate electronics technology between Composing and the Newsroom, a big chunk of the chatter involved the BJ changes from linotypes to punched tape to APS-4 to computer terminals for every reporter and editor. And how the ITU negotiators tried not to show their glee as they accepted a John Knight-inspired offer for lifetime jobs in exchange for cooperation with computer expansion.

Since Dick and John have made the rounds of national parks in the West and Southwest, another chunk of conversation was devoted to the pleasures of the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Bryce and other natural national treasures.

Gene wasn't left out of the conversation, though, particularly when the trio discussed their early days in the business and how they wound up at the Beacon Journal. Gene's Mom and Mr. Church, who hired him at the BJ, went to, ironically, the same church which led Gene from his railroad employment to the BJ. Dick bowled in the Printcraft League, while he worked in a job shop, where the BJ guy who hired him also bowled and persuaded Dick to switch to the BJ to put together ads. John wound up at the Beacon Journal because publisher Ben Maidenburg liked to help a difficult cause, such as being fired by the Dayton Daily News for union activities.

"When I walked through those double doors" to Composing, Gene said, "and heard all that noise, I knew this was where I wanted to be." And he was, for decades.

If you want to swell the crowd, and find something worth listening to and laughing about for two hours, show up at Papa Joe's -- where Akron/Peninsula meets Portage Trail Extension -- at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month.

Not many have recently, but those who do seem to enjoy themselves a lot. Or maybe they're just glad to get out of the house.