HISTORY OF FIBER OPTICS
THE WAYNEDALE NEWS FIRST NEWSPAPER IN INDIANA TO RECEIVE FiOS
I vividly remember delivering newspapers during the 1950s and my favorite house to collect from was on Old Trail Road, it was two points off the port bow of the Waynedale Volunteer Fire Station. The Ferguson’s lived one door south of the McCoy’s and the Foor family lived one door north of them. That house was the home of The Waynedale News during the 1950s, that’s where it was written, typeset and printed.
Arden McCoy founded The Waynedale News in 1930 and selling newspapers is how he supported his family during the Great Depression. It was always a special treat for me when that printing press was running, it was poetry in motion, but sometimes the press was down and Arden would have his trouble light over the problem area along with a scattering of wrenches, screwdrivers and, a long stemmed oil can. Other times, Arden was type setting and then he wore a brown leather, ink stained apron, a green bookie’s visor and a pair of half-glasses perched on the tip of his nose while he looked down at a wooden typeset tray. When he looked up and saw me at his back door he stopped what he was doing, took a small leather change purse from his pocket and paid me the 35 cents he owed for a week’s worth of News Sentinels.
It’s hard to believe a half century has passed since then, and back then, it was impossible to know that someday my brother Robert Lee would be the owner and editor of The Waynedale News. After Alzheimer’s disease caught up with Arden McCoy, Jim Noble took the reins of WN and then he sold it to an Insurance Agent who in turn sold it to Robert. During the past seven years, Robert has moved The Waynedale News into a new Millennium, with the latest Apple computers, and Executive Editor (Cindy Cornwell), and a different staff of writers.
Robert’s efforts have not gone unnoticed and recently Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels awarded him with a “Special Small Business Achievement Award.”
Furthermore, last week The Waynedale News was the first newspaper in the State of Indiana to be connected to “Verizon’s” brand new “Global Fiber Optic Network.” The Waynedale News is now operating at the speed of light and that’s no accident. When Verizon work crews strung the one-millionth mile of fiber optic cable, The Waynedale News was the only news media that covered that “milestone” event. And, from the beginning of Verizon’s fiber optic project, WN has monitored, interviewed and photographed Verizon crews including their dogs. WN’s editor and staff warmly welcomed them to our area and they in turn brought an influx of new money to our local hotels, apartments, restaurants, bars, stores and other area businesses. One of their workers even spent some time with me in the chapel at the Waynedale United Methodist Church. We owe a special thanks to Verizon’s Jane Howard who’s leading the state-wide-charge from Indianapolis to connect Indiana to their Global Fiber Optic Network and we feel honored and privileged to be connected to the most important telecommunications advancement in the history of the world. “Thanks Jane!”
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