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'Twas The Night Before
News Day
'Twas the
night before news day, and down in the basement,
Articles
waited for newspaper placement.
Photos were
half-toned, and advertisements designed,
Ready for
paste-up; proofed, waxed and aligned.
The computer
was humming, the waxer was hot,
Ready for
Newton,
who appeared not.
So
Bill
and I both, with glasses on our face
Stayed late
to put everything in its proper place.
When out of
the printer, there began to rise smoke!
And
Bill
tried to put it out with his Coke!
On the way
to the outlet, I fell in a sprawl,
But still
managed to unplug the machine from the wall.
The plastic had melted,
the paper had charred
The cord to
the central unit was marred.
So
Bill
ran to my office, up street and up stair
To swipe the
laser printer we use up there.
With the
printer in place, we began work again,
Rewriting,
editing and pasting and then,
We came upon
another printer kink,
When it appeared on the
monitor, “You’re out of ink!”
We dug though the
shelves and we dug in the stacks,
And while we
were looking, we ran out of wax.
As we hung our heads and
stamped our feet,
We heard a
ruckus out on
Main Street.
Distracted from our
grief, we went to the door,
To see a box
at the threshold, but nothing more.
As we opened
the door to examine the prize
We heard a
greeting called from the skies:
“Don’t worry, it’s
Christmas! Don’t get the blues!
The
Calhoun
community will still get their news!”
We looked at
each other with confusion and fright,
Thinking
some freak had come out in the night.
We opened
the box with caution and care,
You will not
believe what we found in there.
A new printer! With lots
and lots of ink!
A new waxer
with wax! We were tickled pink!
New cameras,
and iPods, and office supplies!
The valuable
gift brought tears to our eyes.
We
returned to our task, with glee and with joy,
So pleased
to be working with fancy new toys.
When we finished,
Bill
looked down in the box again,
Where he
found a letter written in pen,
“Merry
Christmas to The Chronicle and all those who read.
I love this
weekly newspaper, yes indeed!
Do me this
favor, or you’ll end up with coal,
Send a free
subscription to,
Santa Claus,
North Pole.”
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