Copyright caymancompass
Caymanian Jewel Levy worked for the newspaper for more than 40 years, joining the company in the mid-1970s, when she was just 15. Jewel started out as a typesetter, moving on to work in the darkroom and production departments before joining the editorial team as a journalist and photographer. During her time as a reporter, she chronicled the vast changes the islands have undergone, and documented oldtime traditions, people and places to preserve for generations to come. This story was originally printed in the Caymanian Compass in 2010, when the newspaper marked its 45th anniversary. Looking back at my time with the company, there are numerous favourite recollections but one especially stands out: the friends I met along the way. It made for a lifetime of memories working at Cayman Free Press. I still laugh when I remember reporter Rick Catlin hiding in the bushes in East End for a number of days trying to get a picture of some famous person who was on-island at the time. He did get a picture all right and lots of mosquito bites, and burning, itchy skin from the maiden plum plant. Those olden days were good days, even when humbug days came along. Those were the days when Compass publisher Brian Uzzell and Desmond Seales, publisher of Cayman Net News, competed to have the biggest Christmas party and swapped materials because their shipment had not arrived. It was a time when Mr. Uzzell dressed up in a Santa tie, socks and hat to deliver the Christmas bonuses. It was a time without a lot of modern technology, and getting the Compass published was done piece-by-piece in an atmosphere of fun teamwork and, at times, arguments. I remember losing pieces of type in the wax machine many days and getting burned when it clung to my fingers as it was put on the layout sheets. Never would I have imagined that today the paper would be put together in less than a day using computers. Funny times There were also embarrassing times and funny times working at CFP. During a power outage one morning I turned up for work dressed to the nines wearing two different colour shoes. I happened to get a good laugh some years later when another coworker of mine made the same mistake. Karen Ryan did the same thing and related to her boss, Trevor Hills, that after 30 years of working at CFP she had finally gone off the deep end. I will never know why one of our editors took to writing editorials on paper napkins for the typesetter to decipher or why a coworker brought a pillow and blanket to work and was caught napping behind the door by the big boss. Some strange and funny things happened back in those days when the newspaper was only printed in black and white. The company’s MacGyver One of my favourite memories is of the Mr. Fix-It of the company. Only a teen at the time, Justin Uzzell could patch, mend, fix and put together anything that was bent, broken, or not working in any department, to get the paper on the press and out for distribution. To this day I still call him MacGyver, an expert at making complicated machines out of ordinary things, quickly. One thing I don’t think he ever mastered was getting a roll of black and white film into spools that I had twisted and bent out of shape. I can still hear him now swearing under his breath as I listened from behind the darkened curtains in the darkroom, chuckling at his attempts. I have so many great memories I could write a book. The many faces that have passed through the doors of Cayman Free Press and the new ones who continue to come are what makes it an exciting place to work.
