The Medicine Laker Story
In the beginning The Medicine Laker staff consisted of several volunteers since not only did the news have to be gathered but printed as well. Eunie Miller wrote this of the printing ordeal, “…once a month we'd all charge down to the village hall to do battle with the uncooperative mimeograph machine lurking in the office. After hours of tinkering and cajoling, knee deep in bad copies and with ink up to our elbows, we'd finally have enough good copies for distribution. Not only did we fight with the ’machine’ and the elements as we hand delivered all of the copies, but we took on the US Postal Department when they caught us stuffing the mailboxes without proper postage.” Over the years, the city's monthly newsletter had many contributors—typists, envelope addressers, and feature writers. But when Eunie retired from the Laker in 1978 it looked as though the newsletter would be no longer. Eunie published a Laker eulogy in November, but as usual, volunteers stepped forward to carry on without missing even one issue.
One Laker volunteer needs special mention Agnes Stelzner one of the original staff. Agnes did several jobs for the Laker over the years. Her last was mailing the newsletter and keeping up with the mailing list, which she did with the help of her daughter Joan. (When Joan was a child, she was the winner of the contest to name the newsletter.) in 2004 Agnes retired when she was 98 years old.
Currently, Julia Wear-Jackson is the editor of The Medicine Laker. You can reach her at [email protected]. If you’d like to submit something to be published in The Laker, please send it to [email protected] by the 15th of the month.