After Mike returned to Kent in March of 1970 to discuss his meeting with Amos, we decided to build a 23,000 square foot building in Medina. It was necessary to obtain a loan from the local bank, Old Phoenix National Bank, on automatic silk-screening equipment, which would help support, the greater overhead we would have if we moved into the 23,000 square foot building from the 5,000 square foot building we were renting in Kent. We would have a 10-year lease with an Option to buy the building for a set amount of money after the ten-year lease was up.

Mike attended a ground breaking ceremony and made application for an equipment loan at the same time.

Paul Jones was the President of Old Phoenix National Bank and David (Dave) Jones, Paul's son, was a Vice President in the Commercial Loan Division. Old Phoenix National Bank was the largest and most conservative bank in Medina County. It must be stressed that this was a farming community and very, very conservative.

While Mike and I looked and acted relatively "straight" in our appearance and manner, we hired "hippies" that were college students and their appearance was often very "radical" to say the least!

Even in Kent, during the May 4, 1970 riots when the Ohio National Guard shot four students to death, some of our employees were actually there on the Kent Commons at the time the incident occurred!

I recall May 4, 1970, as if it had happened yesterday.

It was a sunny bright day and the National Guard had been called into Kent because of the protests that followed Nixon's bombing of Cambodia.

Our poster shop had been selling blacklights, anti-war posters; incense, Zig Zag Rolling Papers and other Peace oriented merchandise to the students at Kent.

A few days prior to the shooting, students were forced by the local police to walk back to Kent's Campus from the Kent Downtown area. During the walk the thousands of students, most of them feeling very upset with the local police and the war in Viet Nam, began throwing beer bottles at the display windows of the many retail stores that lined the way to the campus.

Breaking thousands of dollars in windows, which included both of our own retail store's windows, the National Guard was called into Kent shortly thereafter.

A few SDS Organizers (Students for a Democratic Society) and Weathermen (the more erratic militant faction of the SDS) began organizing the students and had decided to have an anti-war rally on the Kent Commons (R.O.T.C. parade field).

They were going to vote on a "student strike to boycott classes" until the National Guard had left the campus.

A few days earlier, some students had set the R.O.T.C. study buildings on fire and with the riots in downtown Kent; the Mayor of Kent had requested Governor Rhodes to send the National Guard to Kent to keep law and order at the Campus.

Martial Law had been declared and after curfew, I had to travel the outskirts of Kent to get to my apartment, which was on the other side of the city from our Ravenna warehouse.

On May 4, 1970, I was listening to WHLO radio in Akron, Ohio, about Noon when an employee, Roger Carson, came speeding into our parking lot.

He jumped out of his car and came running into the front office where I was sitting at my desk. He was as pale as Casper the Ghost! He blurted out; "They're shooting at us!" I replied, "Who's shooting at you?"

He said the National Guard had "opened fire" on the students at the Commons. I said, "What are they shooting? Blanks?"

He said, "No, bullets!" I said, "You must be kidding!"

"No," Roger said, "The guy next to me went down and he was bleeding!"

Now this could have happened only ten to fifteen minutes from the time Roger had entered the warehouse. I was amazed to hear it differently from the radio.

I recall the first news release from WHLO stating that the students had fired upon the National Guard and that several guardsmen were shot and injured!

This first impression must have been the first part of the news releases by the media that afternoon. There was so much confusion as to what had actually transpired that everyone would be glued to the National T.V. News that evening to see what had actually happened.

By the seven o'clock news, the truth of the incident finally came to light. Several students had been shot and four were killed!

In retrospect, I feel that the student body had been "set-up" by the government since the first impression of the shooting led the "Silent 51% Majority" to believe that their "National Guardsmen", the protectors of the National Interest were the victims!

Those dirty rotten "hippies" had shot the fine red-blooded American Soldiers that were protecting the very thread of our democracy, our learning institutions.

With this first "impression," the Hippies were more alienated to the American public than ever before. For ten years thereafter, the court cases buried the truth and hid the facts from the people until such time that the people ten years later truly did not give one damn about the incident.

Even after the truth became known, the soldiers that shot the students went unpunished.

One of the National Guard units that came to Kent was from my hometown, Wooster. A few times I had met with a few of my buddies to have a beer after work in Kent and while dressed in their military outfits, they would point at a hippie across the bar room jokingly stating that "that one's mine!"

While it was in jest, I cannot help thinking how many guardsmen had this attitude about the hippie? Perhaps this was an underlying element of the situation that fueled the condition that caused the shooting on May 4.

It was during this time that Mike and John looked at several automatic Silk-screening equipment systems before deciding on the Hardtfelt Printing Machines.

Advance Process Supply was a Chicago based company with an office and warehouse in Cleveland.

While other companies indicated that their equipment was more reliable and better, Mike and John decided to go with two 35" X 45" Automatic Silk Screen presses, two Gas Dryers and 2 air cooling units; plus two "joggers" to collect the posters after they had been printed, dried and cooled.

With Amos Meires breaking ground and our loan application being processed by Old Phoenix National Bank, the plan for the September 1970 move was undertaken.

A few weeks later Mike received a letter from Old Phoenix National Bank signed by David Jones, the Vice President, stating that our loan had been denied!

Mike called Amos immediately. He told him that he had better "hold up on the building" since the bank did not approve the loan for the equipment! Amos had already poured the concrete footers and was erecting the steel beams for the siding and the roof!

Amos said he would get back to Mike very shortly. Amos was very influential with Old Phoenix since he had brought so many businesses to Medina. He must have had a "heart to heart" talk with someone there because a few days later the $100,000.00 loan was approved!

Advanced Process had promised several things in their presentation to our company during the selling period.

While other companies told us that their printing presses would give an average of 400 to 500 impressions per hour, Advance stated that the Hardsfelt would give us 900 impressions per hour!

While one machine would require 2 to 3 people to run it, the two Hardsfelt machines required only 3 total people! While the average "waste" or misprints might average 3 to 5% of a printing run, the Hardsfelt would only have 2% wastage!

When you compare the Hardsfelt to the other systems based upon the verbal representations, it was "easy" to purchase the Hardsfelts from Advance. Accordingly, we did. Advance had agreed that the presses, dryers and other parts necessary to begin printing would be in the new Medina plant by mid-September of 1970.

Shortly after the building was completed. While the equipment arrived in September, I had written in the dust on the dryer's conveyor wheel the date November 28, 1970 as an indication as to when I felt the units would be "on line."

Though the equipment was set up by late November, it was six weeks thereafter before we started running our first posters.

Mike and John had decided to keep the Ravenna warehouse and printing facility operating through October of 1970. Luckily that was done or we might have had worse problems than those that were yet to come.