I wrote my first book in 1982. I found the draft of it just the other day as I sorted and destroyed the last of my Bellsouth business files. Since 1982 I have written  maybe 50 or so technical bulletins, operational manuals, how to do it articles,  technical papers, research papers, and books. As I have done the house keeping, memories of people and places, rush back to mind.

When I started in business,  filing was simple. A big box at the end of the desk and a filing cabinet on the other end. Paperwork came in, action required, it usually was piled on the desk waiting. As soon as it was finished, it was filed in the cabinet if it was"important", or into the box for the rest.  When the box was full, it was taped up and taken to the archive. Bear in mind the early days writing was on a typewriter, or with a pen,  printing was at the local school with the hand rotated duplicator. We had the first fax machine in the district, and people came in and paid me $1.00 to send a fax.  After a while I acquired a rotary duplicator of my own. 

Time went on and we ended up with a real ink print press, producing thousands of catalogues, pamphlets and booklets. Printing plates were made onsite and allowed pictures in the printing.  Photocopies  were yet to come, and too slow for the volumes we printed.  Now the archives grew, and by 2012 when I sold Bellsouth, I had 5 cubic metres of paper stored.  I sorted all the old stuff, older than 7 years, as we were required to keep all documents for 7 years, but we  kept the highlights and the less than 7 year old stuff  and took the throw outs to a large paper recycler, put them in the pulping tanks myself. The latest round of throwouts allows me to add to my cred as a recycler, but also gives the business credit for growing the gardens. That section is all the bank statements, over there the creditor invoices, these the freight documents, and there the  general correspondence. All nicely covering the ground under a heavy layer of mulch for weed suppression.

So with Covid and supposedly some time to think, I have revisited the stored highlights and remembered  again where we came from, and looked again at the first drafts, and the hand-drawn sketches, the hand made Letteraset titles and headings ( there is another one most won't have heard of). In later days the  high volume office copier printers  and computers made production of literature, catalogues, and books  a lot easier.  Then the internet, websites, emails. The mail declined, and the routine changed.  No longer "remember to  take off the stamps, when the box is full end them to the Salvo's", no more  catalogues to post, orders to write, cheques to cash, then pack and post, deliver to the rail and post each day. Even the number of phone calls is much less today. Now its emails first, pack and be ready for the couriers to arrive. Then at night  I would  remember the questions asked that day, try to figure out which ones people would ask again and write something to answer them. 

 So I hope to publish here the documents that I wrote or which were influential in the growth of Bellsouth, the highs, the lows, the spectacular successes, the humbling disasters,  and how they came about, and the glory of the grind which is the real basis of success.  

Its a bit self indulgent, but for me they are many interesting stories and events. I hope you might like some of them  and they might help you too.

Jim Finger 2021