-30-, old friend. You've served Democracy well ...

The front page from The Last Run.

As I type this, my fingers still carry the ink from having pulled five copies from the last run of the Goss Urbanite press that has served Democracy at The Daily Times since 1982. I can't bear to wash my hands just yet, so this iMac keyboard will just have to suffer a little.

It wasn't until we started researching "The Last Run" that I realized the cylinders had only run at this location for seven years when I arrived in December 1989. A lot of ink has flowed throw its veins since then, marking history for then and future generations.  Front pages carrying headlines of events such as:

•  Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990, which if memory serves correct took place the week The Daily Times became a morning newspaper. The front page was done and the press had to roll, so we stuck a paragraph in the left ear at the top of the flag. It wasn't much, but it was all the story we had at press time.
• The Blizzard of 1993, which took place this very weekend and was sometimes referred to locally as the storm of the century. A certain metropolitan newspaper missed an edition, but not The Daily Times. At least one person slept in the newsroom and the Goss kept rolling, giving our readers important information for days as they waiting on the streets to clear.
• The 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which left 168 people dead. I can still see the iconic photo that came off of our press: firefighter Chris Fields holding the dying infant Baylee Almon. I played it big; three or four columns, if I recall. Sometimes you just know: Photographer Charles Porter won a Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for that historic shot.
• Space Shuttle Columbia's ill-fated re-entry on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003. I was helping a band set up for Sunday worship at Green Meadow UMC when I got a call on my cell phone. I left and spent the afternoon gathering wire copy, photos and designing Page 1A.
• And then there was the 2000 presidential election that rolled off of our press. Well, the press got it right, even if I didn't.

But the runs I'll really remember began the night of Sept. 11 ... followed by Sept. 12 ... and then Sept. 13. The newsroom rocked for what became 15- to 17-hour days. The Goss cranked out what became award-winning front pages.

There were many others, to be sure. But it's 12:30 a.m. Sunday. I have to get up in a few hours and preach. I couldn't sleep; I had to be here. My flock already knows.

Within 12 hours I'll be back at this keyboard, helping to put  together the pages that will become our first edition to be printed on the Knoxville News-Sentinel's press later tonight.

In the coming years, I'm sure there will historic Daily Times editions printed across the river as well.

But as for our own press room ... it's -30-, old friend. You've served Democracy well.