Even though it’s been 30 years since James “Spot” O’Donnell retired as a pressman from the Sunday Dispatch, he looks back at his years with great fondness and joy.
The first thing you must know about O’Donnell is nobody calls him James. Spot has been his nickname ever since eighth grade when a Catholic school nun grabbed a mischievous O’Donnell and put him against the blackboard.
“When she let me go, a spot appeared where my head was,” O’Donnell said. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
At 95 years young, Spot has resided at Wesley Village for the past two years. His mind isn’t the clearest when it comes to dates, but his memories of working as a pressman for Sunday Dispatch original owner John Kehoe, Jr. and later for William “Pidge” Watson are very clear.
Jimmy O’Donnell, 57, Spot’s son, also worked at the Sunday Dispatch from an early age. “Dad brought me to the Dispatch when I was 15 years old when I started to learn presswork.”
By the time the younger O’Donnell graduated from high school, he was working full time side-by-side with his dad.
Spot didn’t start working for Kehoe and the Dispatch when the first edition was published but he did work on the letterpress for maintenance purposes from the beginning.
It wasn’t too many years later when Spot had a chance to work for the Dispatch when the owners were looking for a pressman. “When Pidge asked a bunch of us (pressmen) if we wanted to work for the Dispatch, Carl Rhoades said he would go but not without me,” Spot recalled.
Both Rhoades and Spot worked for many years together before Spot’s son Jimmy was hired.
Spot recalls great times working for Kehoe and Watson. When the Dispatch began operations on Feb. 9, 1947, the letterpress was assembled in the basement of the Dime Building in downtown Pittston now owned by Reilly Associates.
“The press took up so much room near the (bank) vault that we barely had two feet of room on either side of the press to operate it,” Spot said.
Along with good memories of the Dispatch, Spot recalled the time the paper was in jeopardy of not being printed on time when the press seized up.
“The rubber roller became vulcanized and Carl spent a lot of time scraping the rubber off of the roller,” Spot said. After scrapping and cleaning the roller, the press resumed and the paper was published on time.
In 1972, amidst of Hurricane Agnes making its way through Greater Pittston, the possibility of the Dispatch not being published loomed large with Spot living at Harveys Lake. Pidge Watson pulled some strings and Spot was transported from Harveys Lake to West Pittston. The only way over the river was to walk over the Coxton Bridge.
Spot remembers signing waiver papers, clearing him to cross the bridge.
“I could remember the river was flowing eight to 12 inches just below the bottom of the railroad ties,” Spot said. “It was pretty scary looking down to see how fast the water was flowing.” It was a harrowing experience as he could feel the river rushing against the bridge pylons.
“You don’t find dedication like that anymore,” chimed in Jimmy.
Spot stayed at the Dispatch for several days until the river receded enough for him to return to his family. The Dispatch was the only newspaper to be printed in Wyoming Valley at that time. Spot recalls printing 40,000 copies that Sunday.
A few years before Spot retired in the 1980s, a brand new press was installed at the Dispatch. With the help of Jimmy, Spot designed and laid out the plans for the offset machine.
