Today, your morning paper is probably delivered by an adult. Years ago, this wasn't the case. Newspapers, both morning and evening, were delivered by children who like mailmen, slogged through rain, snow, sleet and in New England sometimes all of the above. Most paperboys were 10-12 years old. I was lucky enough to be entrusted with delivering both morning and evening Boston Globes to subscribers in the neighborhood immediately adjacent to my own, Oakvale. Most kids lucky enough to have a route, were responsible for either evenings or mornings, but I was extraordinarily lucky: I had both!
My dad had a paper route during WWII; I had a paper route during the Vietnam War. Both he and I read war stories under street lights in the cold.
In nice weather a paperboy used his bike, wrapping the denim paperboy bag by its Flourescent orange shoulder strap around the bike's handle bars. These bags passed from paperboy to paperboy over generations so they were as soft as diapers, comfortable and easy to carry; practically self-programmed to wrap around handle bars, as if they had a memory.
My dad passed paperboy lore to me as I would later pass it to another kid. He taught me how to fold my papers so that I could throw them from the street onto doorsteps; a newspaper bag would hold more folded papers than papers it would unfolded ones. He showed me how to keep my collection book, which was a weekly ledger; and importantly, to give the driver , who dropped my papers to me, a buck so he wouldn't throw 70 wire wrapped Globes into a puddle; He also showed me how to pop-open the lead wire that held the bundles together.
In bad weather, a paperboy walked his route. You'd walk to the house farthest from home and work back towards your house. There were 2 reasons for that. I big route required a refill as the bag emptied, second, it felt good to be walking toward home as you tired, as opposed to away from home.
I loved the idea of making money. I made $10.00-$12.00 a week when I
was in grammar school. To become a paper boy was the child's equivalent of winning a medal of honor. It meant that you could be trusted with money; that you were responsible to do a job.
People were picky about their papers. In the morning they had to be delivered by the time dads went to work, 6:30 AM the latest, so it was incumbent on the paperboy jump out of bed well before 5:00AM, when it was coldest, darkest and quietest, i.e. scariest. Evening ran to different hours, but the paper had to be delivered before dads got home from work.
Everyone knew the paperboy, even dogs, just as they knew the mailman.
Christmas was a huge payday. Most families tipped a buck at Christmas so my combined subscribers of both my morning and my evening routes were well over a hundred families. A weekly tip was a nickle or a dime. By the time I'd passed the routes on, I had built, for a kid, a sizable bank account, my mum requiring that I make my savings deposit the day after collection day, which was Saturday morning.
I don't know why, but 40 years ago, when farthest from my home I decided to remember a particular night. And I do. It's boring. Nothing happened, but a few images retain an almost ghostly power over me. My green pack boot had a crescent shaped tear near my left toe and my foot was cold; it was a bitter night. I'd lost a glove and unless you've been a paperboy, you don't know how warm a bare hand can be shoved deep into a bag full of newspapers. The stars didn't cast light on the snow, which was deep and crusty. I was cutting across a field and it was a long and tiring walk. I was looking forward to walking on the street again. I fell spilling the papers, which weren't so warm after I'd picked them up. They rested on the crust of snow. There was no moon, but the night sky sparkled. I felt small in the world. It smelled of pine. I had a long walk back to my house, but an even farther one to my home.
thx for the memories! my first job was a paperboy and I was thrilled to get paid for work - even though it was very little, it was official.
Posted by: tomawesome | June 15, 2007 at 12:19 PM