IT was one of the biggest days in my career as a publisher. The Goss printing press finally arrived at the office one sunny and hot day in July.

     Through my office window, I saw the trailer park in front of the building.  I couldn’t wait. I jumped up from my chair and ran outside. I was so excited I was almost screaming at the driver.

     Moving toward the park vehicle, I could see the shining brand new machine at the back of the 18-wheeler.

     The driver approached me and asked if I was Mr. Lee. I said yes, almost grabbing the documents from his hands because of excitement. My hands were trembling with joy as I signed the delivery receipt in a hurry.

     Our forklift, ready to unload, seemed too little to carry the printing machine, which was so huge and heavy. We had to hook a heavy metal chain at one end of the printing press container to the tail-end of the forklift, which pulled the cargo slowly toward the end of the truck.

     It took us some two hours to unload the printing press to its place in the warehouse. The 100-degree heat made everybody sweat profusely.

     When the machine was finally rested on the floor, I told everyone present I was going to treat them to good Chinese dinner.

     “Be my guests,” I said.

     We walked to the Chinese restaurant down the street. I ordered an eight-menu dinner to celebrate the arrival of the new printing press.

     It was a happy occasion celebrating a new milestone for my newspaper business.

     I got up very early the following day. In fact, I hardly had any sleep that night. My mind was on the new printing press, thinking of how I could make it work as soon as possible. I couldn’t wait to have it installed.

     I arrived at the office before seven o’clock in the morning with a box of donuts and freshly brewed coffee.

     Mike, the Goss technician sent by the manufacturing company, was waiting when I arrived. He said he had been with the company for some 25 years and had installed more than a hundred Goss printing presses around the world, mostly in Central and South America.

     He said his experience with the machine made it like “a piece of cake” for him, but for us the machine was like a monster. It was so huge and high we had to literally take it to the ceiling.

     The installation needed the services of a plumber, a mason and an electrician. To accommodate the electrical line and a new underground pike, we had to reinforce the foundation because the machine weighed thousands of pounds.

     After a week’s work, the “experts” finally had the basic things ready.

     One of the most important things to do next was to level the machine. And it has to be 100 percent accurate. Anything less would render the machine ineffective.

     Another important thing that had to be addressed was voltage. The machine needed more than 500 volts of electrical line, and this had to be done with precision.

     Then there had to be a darkroom, where pictures and shot and developed.

     We had to put so many equipment and big rolls of newsprint in 3,000 square feet of space.

     After three weeks of work, we finally had the machine in line. I spent days and nights with the technicians and other laborers to get things done correctly. And every day, we had Chinese food for dinner. Mike said jokingly that he had never eaten as much Chinese food in his life.

     The new printing press was one of the biggest news in the community at that time. People came in droves just to look at the new machine. They were amazed at how the machine was such a “monster.” Many of them came, of course, to see how the printing press works.

  (To be continued)