DOING a spot of Googling this morning got me thinking how I managed without this wonderful internet tool when I first started in newspapers.

As a cub reporter, I would have to nip across to the local reference library to look up some fact or other; but the information held would be only a tiny fragment of that potentially obtainable over the web.

There were no personal computers in the sixties, of course.

Instead of the tip-tap of the modern key board, old Imperial and Olivetti typewriters clattered away, above which everyone had to shout.

Without computers, there was no winging a story off to the subbing pool via a fibre optic wire. Our reports were typed on copy paper which was placed in a ‘bus parcel’ and taken by one of the counter ladies to the local bus stop. The parcel, which also contained photographs and adverts, would then be handed to the bus conductor (do they exist anymore?) who would subsequently hand it over to another counter lady waiting at the bus stop outside our head office.

We did have telephones, of course; although back in 1969 when I first started as a trainee, four reporters had to share one phone. It was a huge bakelite contraption which could do serious damage if you dropped it on your foot.

Then there was the question of transport. Until I got my own motor I would have to go out on stories either on a pushbike or bus. My first powered wheels were attached to a 1959 Lambretta, which still haunts my dreams.

Because not everyone had a telephone, we would have to out on far more stories than we do today.

One I’ll never forget is calling at a house in Castleford to gather information for an old dear’s obituary. Unfortunately, it was the day of the funeral.

The grieving son offered me a piece of pork pie - and a butchers of his mother in her coffin!