A Tale of Two Underground Papers

Bob

Joe

This is a story about an underground newspaper. It's also about a friendship that has survived over fifty years.

For the unacquainted, an underground newspaper is defined as a small-scale, alternative publication that operates outside official approval or mainstream media control, often produced and distributed without government or institutional oversight. Historically, the term has been used in two main contexts:

1. Clandestine or resistance publications

2. Countercultural and activist press.

Think for a second about famous journalist duos - Woodward and Bernstein, Wolfe and Halberstam, Bopp and Rockefeller III, I.F. Stone and Robert F, Kennedy, Gehman and McKendrick.

Okay, maybe Gehman and McKendrick were not quite as famous to be put in the Woodward and Bernstein category, but we were indeed a local talent in the Lansdale area in the oft time chaotic mid 70's. Joe and I became friends in high school. He was a junior a year ahead of me when I was a sophomore. We were both interested in creative writing, journalism and active in our community environmental initiatives. We had a lot in common.

We were also friends with strong political and environmental stands and members of the North Penn Knight Crier school paper. I was also a member of the school's literary magazine, the Troubadour.

We would often try to get the school paper to print articles that were deemed too controversial and axed out by the administration for content. Long story short, we took it upon ourselves to publish those ideas in an underground newspaper called Flypaper.

Flypaper filled the void for us to get the word out about stories and issues that were important to our teenage brains at the time. Smoking PODS in school, unfair grading processes, political unrest, jocks verses nerds verses stoners.

I'm not going to pretend that what Joe and I produced was some literary masterpiece. But it was important to us and filled a need that the North Penn High School regular newspaper, The Knight Crier, lacked.

In the beginning, distribution was an issue. We had content but before online publications, there was no vehicle for getting the word out to the student body. We decided to go rogue. We would sneak into the school office with our printed copy to either use the copier or mimeograph machine (Yes, it's that long ago) to run off hundreds of copies of Flypaper that would be handed out to students between classes.

We almost got caught once when Principal Matusky, came in to get supplies and asked us jokingly, "Are you guys printing subversive material?" And the answer immediately was "Yes!" Mr. Matusky laughed and walked out and Joe turned blue.

The paper was good. It was a creative collaboration of politics, culture, with some jokes and cartoons added so the jocks and stoners would read it. Our cartoons featured two characters, Stu Dent and The Infernal Blob, both big hits. Joe even had the great idea to sell space on the paper, netting us $2.00 from another student to advertise his magician act.

But as any creative team knows, with creativity eventually comes conflict. After some time, Joe and I began having philosophical disagreements on the direction to take Flypaper. Our argument turned into a physical fist fight (probably more like a scuffle) in the school hallway that had to be broken up by one of the teachers.

Once cooler heads prevailed, Joe and I became friends again, but Flypaper was finished.

What emerged like a Phoenix from the ashes were two new publications. I produced Foxfire, which was a more cultural newsletter based loosely on the book series Foxfire. It included the subculture of the Georgia mountain people with their survival techniques and customs. Joe produced Friday, which became a weekly two-page supplement to the Knight Crier school newspaper.

After high school, Joe went on to Temple University and continued his journalist excellence throughout his career. He is a renowned author, independent researcher and speaker, published extensively in established respected media like Forbes Magazine, ZDNET, Harvard Business Review and Database Trends to name a few. In addition, he had been interviewed extensively pondering innovation, information technology trends and markets. Joe's style projects a balance between optimism and skepticism. He has been listed as one of the 10 "key opinion leaders" in Who's Who in Digital Experience by Onalytica. He's also my go-to guy for AI questions and technology disruptions. You can find him on LinkedIn or via his columns on ZDNET, Forbes and Twitter.

After high school, I went into the military and then directly into industry. I started working as a systems engineer for a communications carrier and then as a network and telecommunications manager for a healthcare provider until my retirement. Now, upon retiring, I'm working to "reinvent" myself and get back to my creative writing roots with this blog including technology and cultural articles.

Joe and I have stayed connected over these past 50 years. I'm impressed with his many achievements and proud to call him my friend.