Memories of Addressing the Prince

I note with a touch of nostalgia the news that the Daily Prince is abandoning daily print (On the Campus, October issue). As a student receiving significant financial aid, I worked a number of different jobs at Princeton, but the best-paying of all of them required me to address 700 copies of the Prince and deliver them to the Princeton post office by 7 a.m. for same-day local delivery. That meant a 5 a.m. wake-up five days a week and a long walk to the paper’s print shop off Palmer Square. 

In that precomputer era, I stamped the papers using embossed aluminum address cards racked up in a simple press called the Addressograph, a device invented in the 1890s. Once I got to know the postal workers, they were kind enough to cut me some slack when I was running late, which I saw as the solidarity of fellow working stiffs. The early rise was a challenge after late-night bull sessions with classmates, but the pain was offset by the magic of walking the gorgeous, silent campus in fresh snow or the dim light of dawn. Times change, and I’m confident that the paper’s shift to online publishing is the right thing to do.