Portage Printing: 2009 Calendar

Welcome to the 2009 Portage Printing calendar. This is the 22nd edition and, like the others, it shows some interesting, amusing and forgotten bits of Kalamazoo/Portage area history from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The Uptown movie theater is now the site of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Many of us fondly remember this building as the home of Flipside Records, a place that I still miss very much. The 1958 photo of the Portage Plaza (January) shows the future home of Portage Printing (in the jewelry store next to the post office). We would not show up for another 28 years. I did visit that part of the Portage Plaza around 1959 or 60 when I won a contest on Beany Brown’s afternoon kiddie show on WKZO. The prize was provided by Hepp’s, I believe.
Many other memories are associated with the rest of these photographs — my brother and sister skated with me downtown at the Silver Star (February).
Does anyone else remember the “Handle Bar” located just north of the Burger Bowl (March)?
One of my brothers worked briefly at the Imperial Beverage Company (August) The current president, Joe Cekola, gave us a little information about the bottling machinery (thanks, Joe!). His family had a terrific pizza joint downtown near the Silver Star location and his dad, Joe Senior, was our landlord back at the Portage Plaza!
Bill Abbe, the architect who designed the Portage Printing World Headquarters in 1994, had his offices in the old Columbia Hotel Building (November, surrounded by cheerful teenage Democrats).
And here’s an interesting fact: I just noticed that the bartender’s photo from Willow’s Café (December) is tacked up on the wall behind the constable who’s wearing a pinky ring and holding a black jack (May). (Cue music from Twilight Zone.)
Our thanks go to Steve Rossio at the Portage Public Library for again allowing us to use their Todd collection of area photographs. We hope you enjoy these images from our 2009 calender. Projects like this allow us to combine our affection for the forgotten corners of Portage and Kalamazoo with our love of design, printing and finishing. Please remember us for your business or organization’s next project.

We offer award-winning:
Art Department
Design and Layout
Creative Services
Typesetting, Copy Writing
CD/DVD Duplication
Graphics – Web and Print
Offset Printing
1, 2 and Full Color
Digital Copies
Black and White Digital Printing
Full Color Digital Printing
Full Bindery
Die Cutting
Numbering
Perforation, Scoring
Trimming, Folding
Punching, Drilling
Corner Rounding
Stapling, Gluing
Laminating, Banding
Shrink Wrapping
Foil Stamping
Embossing

Cover

January	February	March	April
May	June	July	August
September	October	November	December