Up and down el Rio Blanco: Getting the paper out

Every Thursday morning Ray Castle Sr. drives to the south end of Rifle to pick up more than 2,000 copies of the Herald Times. He drops them off at the Hugus Building in Meeker, where our office is, before 4 a.m. Also every Thursday my younger brother Joe, Steve Harman and myself meet at 4 a.m. and take the delivered papers into the Hugus Building basement, or what we affectionately call “The Hole,” to insert sales circulars and special editions, prepare for rack distribution, label and deliver copies to the post office.

It’s tough getting up that early. Thankfully we are a weekly paper and not a daily. I received a text from Mr. Castle last Thursday about 3:45 a.m. that he was just leaving Rifle, so we waited inside Cuppa Joe, also located in the Hugus Building, for the papers to arrive.

I made us all some coffee and played a game of cribbage with Steve, the eventual champion of the first annual Carl Rector Memorial Cribbage tournament. If I remember correctly, I won that early morning game.

Mr. Castle arrived and we went out to start hauling the papers downstairs. I held out my arms and Mr. Castle started to stack bundles of papers on top of them. I noticed the mistake right on the front page in the headline of the feature story, when he handed me the second bundle. Immediately, my stomach turned and I used a couple of words never printed in the Herald Times.

“What?” my little brother asked.

“The name should be Coy, not Cox,” I said of the mistake, followed by a couple more unprintable words.

“Oh no,” Steve added.

I should have caught it, I had more than one opportunity before it went to the printer, but I didn’t. Dang it.

“What are you going to do?” Joe asked.

“I have to go to Rangely as soon as we’re finished here, apologize and tell her we will reprint it,” I said, which is what I did.

Mrs. Kenney-Coy was very kind. We visited for a good 45 minutes. I told her about the mistake and read her the story and she told me some others. She’s a character. I left feeling better but knew I still had to talk with her sons, Bill and Johnny, who Mrs. Kenney-Coy also spoke of. They too were kind, as was their sister Mary Truitt, who also told me we spelled her sister’s name wrong, so we corrected that as well in this week’s issue.

Our ultimate goal is to publish an error-free paper. In my experience, that has never been accomplished and it’s a terrible feeling when a mistake is on the front page.

It has also been my experience that people are very kind and forgiving when I immediately admit my mistakes and make amends.

Thanks for understanding.

By BOBBY [email protected] Thursday morning Ray Castle Sr. drives to the south end of Rifle to pick up more than 2,000 copies of the Herald Times. He drops them off at the Hugus Building in Meeker, where our office is, before 4 a.m. Also every Thursday my younger brother Joe, Steve Harman and myself meet at 4 a.m. and take the delivered papers into the Hugus Building basement, or what we affectionately call “The Hole,” to insert sales circulars and special editions, prepare for rack distribution, label and deliver copies to the post office. It’s tough getting up that early. Thankfully we are a weekly paper and not a daily. I received a text from Mr. Castle last Thursday about 3:45 a.m. that he was just leaving Rifle, so we waited inside Cuppa Joe, also located in the Hugus Building, for the papers to arrive. I made us all some coffee and played a game of cribbage with Steve, the eventual champion of the first annual Carl Rector Memorial Cribbage tournament. If I remember correctly, I won that early morning game.Mr. Castle arrived and we went out to start hauling the papers downstairs. I held out my arms and Mr. Castle started to stack bundles of papers on top of them. I noticed the mistake right on the front page in the headline of the feature story, when he handed me the second bundle. Immediately, my stomach turned and I used a couple of words never printed in the Herald Times.“What?” my little brother asked.“The name should be Coy, not Cox,” I said of the mistake, followed by a couple more unprintable words.“Oh no,” Steve added.I should have caught it, I had more than one opportunity before it went to the printer, but I didn’t. Dang it.“What are you going to do?” Joe asked.“I have to go to Rangely as soon as we’re finished here, apologize and tell her we will reprint it,” I said, which is what I did.Mrs. Kenney-Coy was very kind. We visited for a good 45 minutes. I told her about the mistake and read her the story and she told me some others. She’s a character. I left feeling better but knew I still had to talk with her sons, Bill and Johnny, who Mrs. Kenney-Coy also spoke of. They too were kind, as was their sister Mary Truitt, who also told me we spelled her sister’s name wrong, so we corrected that as well in this week’s issue.Our ultimate goal is to publish an error-free paper. In my experience, that has never been accomplished and it’s a terrible feeling when a mistake is on the front page.It has also been my experience that people are very kind and forgiving when I immediately admit my mistakes and make amends.Thanks for understanding.

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