Martha Gibbons and Terry Mommi Clayton spot 40 years this month as employees at The Union Democrat.
They began their careers in 1972, when the price of gas was 36 cents a gallon, a first-class stamp cost 10 cents, a new residence could be had for $30,500, and the stagnation rate was 5.9 percent. On the flip side, the median domicile income was $9,697.
At 19 years old, Clayton was the youngest worker at the newspaper. She proposed as a typesetter, retyping stories in to a press P.C. that had been created by reporters on typewriters.
As a 21-year-old, Gibbons proposed in the prolongation subdepartment "pasting up" journal pages when that obviously meant slicing and pasting stories onto a page, a routine that is completed to one side by P.C.today.
Neither of those jobs still exists, but Gibbons, 61, and Clayton, 59,both developed as technology changed. Both remained in prolongation formany years, working on getting stories and advertisements onto theprinted page.
Today, Gibbons is an in-house promotion deputy and"dummies" the paper, receiving in the needs of the newsroom, advertisingdepartment, prolongation and press to figure out ad placements and theamount of space for stories, that pages will have shade and that willbe black and white.
Clayton is an promotion deputy with a territoryrepresenting customers in Jamestown, Copperopolis, Groveland and partsof Sonora.
"It’s a completely not similar work than we had when we proposed here," shesaid, adding that she unequivocally enjoys using her advertisingclients and assisting them publicize their businesses by The UnionDemocrat.
Gibbons changed to Tuolumne County henceforth in 1963 when she was13, nonetheless she ! was a vi sit caller to the county all her life. Hergrandparents changed to the county in the 1940s. She was tied together to JeffGibbons for 28 years, until his demise in 2001.
Clayton is a Tuolumne County native. She grew up in Jamestown and tied together her high college sweetheart, that didn’t work out.
Gibbons and her spouse brought together Clayton and her secondhusband, Adriano Mommi, after both finished relationships. The Gibbonsinvited them to stay and fool around pool after The Union Democrat’s annualChristmas celebration at the aged Mono Inn at Standard Road and Mono Way. Thatwas the commencement of their relationship.
Clayton and Mommi were tied together for 26 years before divorcing in2000. They had two daughters, Nicole, 27, and Katrina, 26, and remainedfriends after the divorce. She met her stream husband, Rick Clayton,through the Internet dating site Match.com.
Gibbons and Clayton both credit the late Harvey McGee, who ownedThe Union Democat, from 1959 until his demise in 1998, and his managingeditor, Sally Scott, with mentoring them.
"Harvey was a wonderful person, employer, teacher, everything,"Gibbons said. "Everything we learned, we schooled from him and Sally."
Clayton said, "Harvey unequivocally took caring of his employees. He was agenerous man, and he was so professional. He always pushed to obtain thejob completed right."
Union Democrat Advertising Manager Gary Piech mentioned he has worked with Gibbons and Clayton for more than 25 years.
"I’ve always appreciated their undertaking to glorious customerservice and their faithfulness to the newspaper," he said. "Forty years isan extraordinary accomplishment. we honour both of them."
Gibbons, 61, and Clayton, 59, mentioned they outline to go on workingalongside one other and the rest of the Union Democrat staff forseveral more years before retiring.
Clayton mentioned she schooled the meaning of ! the word , "teamwork," working is to paper.
"One day we scanned cinema for a full color, full page ad for thefirst time, and we was so excited, we went to squeeze one of the firstpapers off the press to see it. It looked only great."
Then the promotion deputy came in and mentioned her clientwould admire the ad she put together, Then the pressman mentioned he pulledthe ad together and offset the colors to make it look good.
"That’s when we satisfied that it takes all of us to put the papertogether," she said. "We all work as a group to make the journal whatit is."
Contact Lenore Rutherford at This e-mail address is being stable from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to perspective it or 588-4585.