Jim Sherraden
Manager and Janitor
June 4, 2008 | by brett | Permalink
Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the world, having been around since the invention of the light bulb. The shop is now a division of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The technology used today is the same it was when the shop opened in 1879. It essentially consists of taking hand crafted wood blocks with carved images and printing posters, using one color at a time. It’s a place where the designer is the printer and the printer is the designer. We made our way past the tourists, walking on the worn wood floors to the counter and asked to speak with Jim Sherraden, the manager and janitor of Hatch.
Jim is a native of Salina, Kansas and would be a great extra in a cowboy movie. He has a thick goatee with hints of emerging gray hairs. Mysterious, dark brown eyes challenge anyone they settle upon. He speaks with conviction and honesty, not only about his passion for Hatch Show Print, but about his life.
Leading us to the back of the shop, where thousands of designs imprinted on wood blocks are chronically ordered like books in a library, Jim began the interview by describing how he came to Hatch.
“I’m not lying when I say this,” Jim began, “but I came to Hatch at a time where I needed Hatch as much as Hatch needed me.”
Jim had no direction in particular while finishing up his schooling in his mid-twenties. As a waiter, Jim pursued his passion on the side by convincing a restaurant to display his wood cuts and linoleums. A Vanderbilt professor saw the quasi art exhibit and got a hold of Jim, saying he had to check out a dying poster shop before it went out of business. Jim visited the shop and instantly fell in love.
Feeling he could rescue the business from going under after operating for over a hundred years, he wrote the owner a proposal with what he felt he could do.
“Now here it is in 2007 and I have you guys talking to me, being two of over forty thousand people that come here a year,” Jim proudly stated.
Even in 2008, Hatch Show Print faces challenges of holding onto outdated technology while remaining profitable. When questioned about what he would do if the shop were to go under, Jim provided a thoughtful response and one of the most interesting answers we had heard.
“If the shop went away tomorrow, I hope I’m in a place where I could accept that. I think I am,” Jim said, pausing a moment to grasp the thought. “I don’t want it to happen. That same appreciation for history, both living and lost, is what I have knowing that I enjoy every day while it is living, and will have known that I enjoyed it to the fullest, if ever it becomes lost.”
“You can’t go back and wish,” Jim continued in his heartfelt manner, “I can’t get upset about history lost, knowing that I am in the process of making tomorrow’s history today.”
What Jim said to us struck me as profoundly important. This simple lesson easily applied to our tour, but was more significant to how people go about their everyday jobs. To say you enjoy your work while it occurs, and to know you enjoyed it to the fullest if it ever ceases to exist, is the pinnacle we all hope to reach.
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THERE ARE 5 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
Media Districts Entertainment Blog » Manager and Janitor Says:
June 4th, 2008
[…] Pursue the Passion: The Interviews placed an interesting blog post on Manager and JanitorHere’s a brief overview […]
Steve Says:
June 5th, 2008
This guy is the definition of passion for a job. Wow.
jobing : scriptbest Says:
June 19th, 2008
[…] Manager and JanitorHatch Show Print is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the world, having been around since the invention of the light bulb. The shop is now a division of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The technology used today is the … […]
link:jobing.com | Lasts information Says:
June 19th, 2008
[…] Manager and JanitorHatch Show Print is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the world, having been around since the invention of the light bulb. The shop is now a division of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The technology used today is the …Pursue the Passion: The Interviews - http://www.pursuethepassion.com/interviews […]
link:jobing.com | Hottags Says:
June 19th, 2008
[…] Manager and JanitorHatch Show Print is one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the world, having been around since the invention of the light bulb. The shop is now a division of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The technology used today is the …Pursue the Passion: The Interviews - http://www.pursuethepassion.com/interviews […]
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