On Feb. 20 and 27, my columns were based on James Bourne and his local monthly newspaper named he Town Talker, which was published by this teenager in the mid-1940s.

A few days after the second column was published, I received a telephone call from a local lady who gave me Jim’s address out in Stockton, Calif. I sent Jim copies of both columns. He wrote back with updated comments, plus answers to several questions I had asked in the columns regarding his unusual small newspaper. Here’s his reply:

“Wow! Did you ever bring back some wonderful memories. I thank you and your associate Kevin Savick for your efforts on this story. A while back I got a telephone call from Phyllis Anderson of Albert Lea, who is a cousin of my late wife Helen (Bergeson), telling me about your articles. I searched the Tribune’s website, but could not find the article. Lucille Pritchard is also a cousin of Helen’s. (She’s the lady who called and gave me Jim’s address.)

“Your assumptions were remarkably correct. I would like to fill in some blanks and ‘tell the rest of the story. I will use your articles as my outline. I can remember like it was yesterday when I answered the doorbell to meet a very attractive young lady who did the first story.

“I was 13 years old on Feb. 15. 1944. Harry and Margaret Bourne were my parents. Dad was a sheep and calf buyer for Wilson & Co. We were transferred to Albert Lea from Chicago in 1934.

“For Christmas 1941, my grandmother, who lived with us, bought me a small printing press. As you said it was a toy, but you gotta start somewhere. It had a cylinder with a crank. There were two rubber rings on each end of the cylinder which pulled the paper through. A smaller cylinder had an inked cloth cover which transferred the ink to rubber type then to paper. The rubber type was set in metal strips which were held in place by the rubber rings on the main cylinder. My first type cases were used muffin tins. The sheet size was about 4 inch by 7 inch. The Hearst chain had nothing to worry about.

“After school I hung out at the old Trades Publishing Co. The men there were very good to me and taught me much about letterpress printing — how to handset type, how to operate a press.

“We had a vacant storeroom in the basement at 512 Park Ave. My dad had a woodshop in the basement and he framed the walls of the storeroom with wallboard, installed lighting and electrical outlets. I found a used 10 inch by 15 inch Chandler & Price press powered by a foot treadle. Most of these presses were powered by an electric motor. I had a rolltop desk, swivel chair, a paper cutter, type cabinets and all the necessary tools to operate a small print shop.

“Once I went ‘big time,’ you were right. The reborn Town Talker was 11 inch by 8 1/2 inch, either four or six pages. I even had a few commercial ads in each issue. You are right again, I sent copies all over the U.S. and to APOs to servicemen. I had a wonderful collection of World War II souvenirs, shoulder patches, D-Day invasion helmet, an unused gas mask, various shell casings, all sent to me by the men who received the Talker.

“This early experience triggered a fascination about World War II which continues to this day. I have studied the Pacific war for over 60 years. I have visited Pearl Harbor, Punchbowl (military cemetery near Honolulu), Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Manila, Corregidor, Tinian, Hong Kong, Guam, Singapore, Maylasia, Bangkok, and all over Japan having lived in Tokyo for four years, but that is another story.

“I remember meeting Burt May, I believe he lived on Park Avenue on the circle. “I was a Boy Scout Troop 10 at St. Teddy’s. I remember going on monthly paper drives on a Saturday. We collected paper, cardboard, scrap metal, used tires and believe it or not bacon drippings! We were told they used the drippings to make munitions. In all these years since I have never been able to prove that story.

I don’t know where you found a class of ’48 yearbook, but your info is correct. Ah La Ha Sa was the school paper. I wrote features and did sports photos with a 4×5 Speed Graphic which always managed to shoot the flash while you were trying to load a bulb. I was student manager of the baseball team whose chores were to collect all the equipment and collect and launder the sweaty towels. The Caesar Club was a discussion club organized by our teacher Clara Berdan who was quite elderly. Behind her back we joked that she got the word direct from Caesar. We had great and dedicated teachers in those years, a number of which I realized in later life had an important impact on me. The class of ’48 was very unique. We have had class reunions every five years, last September was the 60th. We know where all classmates, save a dozen, are now living.

“I had a complete set of every issue of the Talker that went up in flames in a storage facility in Omaha, Neb., in 1991 or 1992. The paper was published from 1943 to 1947.

“Wilson & Co. transferred the family in the fall of 1948 to Omaha. I entered the University of Missouri that year in the Walter Williams School of Journalism. After two years I transferred to Omaha U. which is now University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dad had three kids in college and that was a strain.

“It was very difficult to find a job in journalism with all the veterans returning to college or returning to their former jobs. I answered some job offers on weekly newspapers in North Dakota and the coal fields of southern Illinois, neither of which panned out. I did get a job offer as a salesman for printing plant in Palo Alto, Calif., and then it was ‘California Here We Come.’

“I do not regret that I did not have a career in journalism. Learning to write to express yourself was a valuable tool all through my business life.”

Does anyone out in the community happen to have any copies of the Town Talker stashed away in their mementoes from the past?

Soda fountain counter

Here’s an update on the article about the North Side Drug-Northpark article that appeared in the Lifestyles section of the Tribune on April 12. One of the photos showed the soda fountain part of this business.

However, there was a question as to where this soda fountain counter was located. Several people have contacted me or the museum to say it was at the original store location on the north side of Bridge Avenue.

Ed Shannon’s column has appeared in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.