Dec. 18—Editor's note: Today's profile of pressman Lionel Bridges is the latest in a series focusing on Norman Transcript employees.

Lionel Bridges is quick to smile, but not so quick to talk. You have to talk him into talking.

It's probably a good thing Bridges in soft-spoken because once the presses start to roll inside The Transcript building on East Comanche Street you can't hear much anyways.

The 59-year-old pressman is going on 14 years with the company. Prior to that, Bridges spent three years with the Oklahoma Publishing Company.

It was there where he met Dave Sipes, now The Transcript's head pressman.

"We know how each other works," he said. "We don't have to say anything to each other to know what the other one needs to do."

A typical Transcript press run of about about 5,300 copies can takes between 30 and 40 minutes "if everything is lined up where we don't have to stop and bump plates or remake plates."

"It depends on who you're working with," Bridges said with a smile. "Some people run the press faster than others."

In addition to the local paper, The Transcript prints 13 other newspapers, including those in Chickasaw, Enid and Duncan.

There's plenty to do before starting a run. Bridges arrives between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and starts by checking the ink levels and newsprint to make the supplies are adequate.

"If the roll runs low, we've got to stop the whole press," he said. "When we start back up (there) are spoils, or bad papers, until we get the paper lined out just right."

Gigantic rolls of newsprint, some weighting as much as 300 or 400 pounds, wait their turn nearby.

Following a run, Bridges will clean the "blankets" or cylinders, which are covered by plates that capture images seen in the paper. His day often ends after midnight.

Bridges enjoys the hands-on work and the autonomy that comes with his job.

"I don't have to have anyone to be behind me and tell me to do this or do that," he said. "Whatever needs to be done I just go ahead and do."

Bridges, who lives in Edmond, lost his wife of 20 years to complications from COVID-19 in November of last year. The pressman also battled the virus and double pneumonia and missed three weeks of work.

"That's the way my year went," he said.

Bridges has coped with the death by spending more time with family, including five children and nine grandchildren. Doctors told him to get outside and move around to help build his lungs back up.

"We always had kids at the house. After I lost her, it was just me there. All the burden fell on me because we were always doing everything together. I just try to keep busy and keep my mind from thinking about stuff," he said.