‘The company has been my life:’ longtime Post employee retires after 47 years

Published 12:10 am Sunday, February 2, 2025

Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

 

SALISBURY — What started as a paper route as a young boy developed into a 47-year career at the Salisbury Post, and at the end of the day on Friday, Jan. 31, Mike Bostian officially began his retirement.

Bostian has seen many changes throughout his time with the newspaper including its production, the building and the number of employees that have come and gone, many whom he calls his friends.

Crediting his dad, Paul Bostian, for pointing him in the direction of the paper route, as he and Jim Hurley, the owner of the paper at that time, were good friends, Bostian said he started out with approximately 60 customers on his route.

Getting out of school, he would go home, roll his papers, hop on his little banana seat bike and for the next 35 to 40 minutes he would be delivering those papers. Then it was time to get back home and “do what normally a 10-year-old little kid would do,” he said.

After graduating from Salisbury High School, Bostian said he was trying to decide what to do when a job came open driving a delivery van for the newspaper.

Thinking that it would not be hard, he decided to go in and talk with then Circulation Director Don Dedmon, and he began in that position, the one that began his long career with the Post.

His time driving the delivery truck eventually expanded into other responsibilities as Bostian said his co-worker, very good friend and neighbor John Rink mentored him and taught him other jobs. In time, they moved him into the office and showed him how to work on the business side.

Jimmy Hurley III and his brother Gordon Hurley were running the operations and Bostian said he talked with Jimmy, who “liked what I was doing.”

They continued to work with him and teach him more and more responsibilities, he said. 

“Before you knew it, I had enough knowledge of this building, the daily operations, and in fact at one point, they actually let me push the start button to start the press,” Bostian said. However, the press room set up was one job he didn’t get into, he added.

He got to know every nook and cranny of the building, he said.

He passed that knowledge to others as reporter Elisabeth Strillacci shared that “when I came to the Post several years ago, I was interested in the history of the paper, not just of Rowan County. Mike was more than happy to take me on a tour of our whole property, telling me the entire history along the way, which I both loved and appreciated. His pride in and love for our newspaper was clearly in evidence. When I needed someone to connect me for a story, Mike was my go-to guy. He introduced me to his dear friend John Rink, whom I had the honor of writing about in both a feature story and later, when he died, all thanks to Mike. He is both a walking encyclopedia of all things Salisbury Post and a testament to the paper’s entrenched place in the heart of Rowan. Of course I wish him a happy retirement, but I’m going to be a bit lost without his presence here in the office.”

His titles and his responsibilities have been many and varied, and he has tackled them with a willingness to do them when asked. He said he never said “that’s somebody else’s job. I’d just jump in and do it,” he said.

Mike has always been the go-to guy, said Janice Swink, business manager at the Salisbury Post. “He is willing and will always try to help, whether it be maintenance or moving, he is the go-to person.”

In addition to having a route himself and driving the delivery van, Bostian was the city circulation manager for a while, during which time he supervised the carrier boys who rode their bicycles and delivered papers. 

“They all called me Mr. Mike,” he said.

His work has included working with carriers, the motor route men, assisting Rink and Jerry Dudley with unloading freight and other duties as needed and delivering magazines. 

An opportunity arose to go into the paper vending machines, he said, which is where he stayed for the remainder of his time at the Post along with providing customer service and handling business work for several other publications, including the Davie County Enterprise Record and the Stanley News and Press, and making sure that sales racks were working properly. 

Bostian said he attended several rack schools to learn new technology on how to repair the machines. He said he had a little rack shop at the Post where he fixed everything.

He is in the process of training several others to take over the repairs after he retires.

Customers could also find Bostian sitting at the front area with co-workers Lee Ann Garrett, Winfred Mention and Janice Swink providing service and answering customer questions on the phone.

Bostian said he has lots of stories he could tell from his time at the Post, many of them centering around the paper machines. He remembered a large paper rack theft when roughly 50 paper machines were stolen and remembers fishing them out of Lake Fisher.

I took the trailer down there, I had it loaded. They had a dive team in there, and they caught those folks,” he said.

He also told of someone trying to get a paper and it was windy and raining and their coat got caught in the box and couldn’t get free. Bostian got the call answered and told them, “don’t go nowhere, I’ll be right there,” and he went to help. 

Another paper machine story he shared was a prank played on him by one of his friends and co-workers, Hodge Evans, who worked in the mail room. 

“He was my buddy,” he said.

The two of them would often eat at a small country cafe on Council Street, he said, and nearby was a coffee shop where Bostian would be putting papers in the rack.

Knowing this, he said Evans opened the rack and put a tray of barbecue in there, which is what Bostian found when he opened the rack.

“He was always trying to play some pranks on me,” Bostian said, “but they were good pranks, and when he did it, I knew it was him.” 

He has fixed the coin-operated machines, sometimes pulling out folded dollar bills which stop them from working properly. He has pulled out slugs and toothpicks as well.

“Over the years, I’ve seen it all,” he said.

Describing the old press and how a conveyor line ran up to the next floor of the building and went into the mail room where the papers would be scooped up, 50 at a time, by his friend Evans and tied up and sent by a chute to the carriers. During his years at the Post, he saw a new press installed replacing the old one and in time, saw that press taken out as well as the paper’s printing operation moved.

He also said he had watched this third floor newsroom “sitting on Lincoln logs and still operating while all of this down here where the old press room was gutted out to where we are today,” he said.

Bostian recalled when he first came, the paper was an evening edition and remembers the two editions being printed and how the carriers would load up their papers and head out to deliver them.

About 19,000 papers were printed for the early edition, he said.

Then the second edition came off about 2:30, which was the city edition, he said. “The front page would probably be entirely different from what those motor route guys carried.” 

Bostian carried the truck route to West Innes, Spencer and East Spencer, and he “got bundles for the carrier boys who delivered on the bicycles when they got out of school,” he said. 

Noting the changes in ownership that he has seen as well, Bostian said, with emotion, that he had “to thank the Hurleys for putting me where I am.”

“It’s just a great place to work for,” he said, ‘I just wish all the people that are still here the best.” 

He said that everybody he has worked with through the years “are the best set of people you would ever want to work with.”

Many people all over town know Bostian and will stop him and ask him about the Salisbury Post and if he’s still there and he would tell them yes and then let them know that if he didn’t know the answer to their question, he would find out and help them.

He said that he occasionally talks to those employees who have come and gone and wishes there would be an alumni get-together.

Chandler Inions, editor at the Salisbury Post said that “Mike is the type of coworker who makes coming to work more enjoyable. Always a buzzing and chipper hello no matter what day of the week it is, Mike had a way of always making us laugh. Going to miss having him around.”

As for what he plans to do in his retirement, Bostian said he doesn’t have a bucket list, but will continue doing things he’s already doing including helping a gentleman at his store sometimes, help his neighbor with some building projects, continue cooking fundraiser dinners for Boy Scout Troop 448 of which he is a committee member, do some cooking occasionally for his little catering business, continue helping take care of his 95-year-old aunt, continuing going out with his friends to what he calls his breakfast clubs, live at the lake and enjoy boat rides with his little Chihuahua Chibbs.

A sports fan, Bostian said he enjoys watching football and the Atlanta Braves. And locally, he tries to go every Friday night in the fall when Salisbury High School is playing a home football game. He did that with his friend John Rink and his uncle Sam Howard, who both have died. But he said he can be seen in the stands with his high school buddies, faithfully cheering the team on.

A lunch was held at the Salisbury Post on Bostian’s last day to wish him well. Several who had worked with him previously attended the special event and spent time visiting with him. These included Ron Brooks, who served as circulation manager, Ernest Raduly, who was a district manager and Greg Anderson, former publisher.

Current publisher John Carr shared stories of Bostian working around the building, sometimes scaring those who looked on and thanked Mike for his time there and told him to consider the Post his home away from home and to be sure to come back and Bostian said he would. Others commented on some of their memories of their years working with Bostian as well.

Co-worker, Winfred Mention, operations manager, said that he has “known Mike since 1997 and can’t ask for a better co-worker, jokester and someone who’s very dependable. Working in circulation with Mike has been an experience that will last a lifetime. I wish him the best and look forward to seeing him on a regular basis.”

Carr also shared that “for 47 years the Post has been Mike’s home, and as far as we are concerned it always will be. He has been a constant we all all appreciate and enjoy working with. Mike has always been quick to jump in wherever needed, and his versatility has often been a blessing when faced with unexpected hurdles.”

Bostian said that he has “enjoyed working for this company. This company has been my life, my whole life really. I’m going to miss it.”