Copy Boy with the NY Times

One of my first jobs in journalism was at the top, at The New York Times, but the job was at the bottom: copy boy. The tasks in 1962 included fetching coffee and refilling paste pots. In those pre-computer days, the paste enabled editors to cut up and rearrange the stories on paper before they were cast into metal type for printing.

I was promoted to news clerk, and later, copy editor. But I was still at the bottom in 1965 during the first great power blackout that hit New York. I was off work and uptown, but walked and caught a bus down to Times Square to go to work. I remember the third floor newsroom filled with people and lighted only by candles and an occasional flashlight. Unlike subsequent blackouts, this one was characterized by comraderie among New Yorkers, and an absence of looting and other crime.