My first job was "throwing" a Dallas Times Herald newspaper route as a kid of thirteen. I did it for two years until I got an "inside job" dipping ice cream.

After school I'd rush to the corner and find my stack of papers. I'd fold them and walk my route with the papers in a canvass carrier over my shoulder.

This was a seven day-a-week job with no vacations. On Sunday mornings I'd get up a 4am and head out to deliver.

I'd also go out knocking on doors and "selling" new subscribers every month or so... trying to build "my route".

The monthly door to door collections were a real learning experience as well. If you weren't able to get your clients to pay, it was straight out of your earnings. I had some real dead beats and barely broke even a couple of months.

All in all, it was a great entrepreneurial experience that I would not trade. However, you never see a young person with a paper route in our area these days.

How many others had a paper route as a kid?

Yep, had one for three years starting when I was nine.

I did beginning at age 13. Did it for 2 yrs. Had to deliver afternoon papers. Delivered about 75 papers, six days a week, using either a bicycle or on foot. Had to fold the papers and porch every one. All for $18 a month. Still have the old cloth newspaper pouch that fit across the handlebars.

I never had a paper route, but my first "real" job was going door-to-door selling subscriptions to the newspaper. I think I was in 8th grade.

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'Merica!

I had one when I was twelve and thirteen; fifty-five years ago. I saved five dollars and had five dollars to spend every week. It was a looong time til I had five dollars to spend however I wanted again!

I had 90 customers at the most for my Gary Post Tribune route.
I did it from 1962 till 1968 when I graduated HS.
For the last 2 years of that fun I came home from school, did my route and then worked at KFC till closing. I did that for a year and then went to McDonalds for my last year.

One week in June of 1968 I graduated high school and quit 2 jobs. That was a GOOD week

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In dog years I'm dead.

I had a route during my Jr and Sr years in HS. I delivered every paper that was delivered in my little town. I delivered the Macon Telegraph, Columbus Enquirer, and Atlanta Constitution every morning. That was about 175 morning papers each day. I delivered the Columbus Ledger, the Macon News, and the Atlanta Journal every afternoon, another 80 or so papers. I delivered over 300 papers on Sunday. I bought a used Volkswagen with a sunroof I could throw papers through. I had to put all the papers together three days a week, and on Thursday and Sunday mornings, I couldn't get all the Atlanta papers in the car, even with the right front seat out. I had to get up every morning no later than five a.m., and by 4:30 when I had to put the papers together.

If I kept up with my collections, and kept papers in the racks and didn't steal the money from the racks, I could easily clear $100 a week over the cost of my papers. This was in 65-66-67, and there were men with families working 40 hours a week in cotton mills and trailer plants who didn't make much more. I had to pay for the car, gas, tires, and upkeep on the car from that. Gas probably ran me $10 per week, I could get tires recapped locally for about $12 each, but I would get hit with a $100-$200 expense for a rebuilt front end, transmission, or engine about every six months. I think my car payment was about $60 per month.

I loved every minute of it. I was independent. I had money. I knew who was running with whose wife. I knew who had a late night party. I started my (short) law-enforcement career. We had two police officers who worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off, six days a week, with one "supply" man who worked two shifts a week so the regular guys could take a day off. When I got to town at 4:30 or 5:00, the night man would often meet me at the all-night laundramat where I picked up my papers, and tell me he was going home, and to call him if I needed him. He knew I always had a 20 gauge shotgun, and often a 1911A1 with me. Remember, I was 17 years old. One morning a cotton warehouse caught fire. I smelled the smoke, determined where it was coming from, sent a black cab driver who always slept all night at the Trailways Bus Station to pull the alarm while I went to Bud's house and woke him up. He got to town, got the pump truck out, and got the bale of cotton that was smoldering out of the warehouse and put the fire out. The headlines in the local paper the next week were something like "Due to the vigilance of the Butler PD, a worse fire was averted." It was true. He had left the city in good hands.

On Sunday morning I would swap the cook at the "Convict Camp" five papers for five huge lard biscuits with a slab of streak-o-lean. I was playing basketball in High School, and my coach worked it out so my best friend could miss the first two hours of school if he helped me with the paper route during tournament time.

As you can probably tell from this, these were some of the best times of my life. Thanks for the opportunity to recall some of those times.

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Georgia On My Mind

Yep, the Grand Rapids Press. With a route that maxed out at 110 weekly and 128 Sunday subscribers, it kept me busy. Started getting my first real muscles horsing those Sunday papers around...waddling, actually.

[A true paperboy will shudder thinking about the Easter and the Thanksgiving editions....two to three times the size of the Sunday, due to the extra ads...]

Snow, ice, rain, heat, mean dogs, dead beats! The rough part of the "game" was the fact that the GRP would not let you stop delivery to anyone, even if they owed you for months, you had to keep delivering while they cheated the carriers....I'm sure I still have about 200 bucks stuck in that route!!

But, it was my first in a long, long line of basic mundane jobs...each one a stepping stone to something better!

Len

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Qui me amat, amet et canem meum

Never had a route but sold papers, only in the rain.

Lived on an inland close to ferry. Lot's of tourist. On really nasty rainy days I would run to the local grocery store and get the papers that were left from the day before. Then I'd meet the ferry, stand in the pouring down rain and sell the soggy day old papers. Most people felt sorry for me and gave good tips. Fortunately they never looked at the date.

I had a paper route when I was 11 years old in Inglewood, CA., and delivered papers for 3 years after school 7 days a week. I had a canvas bag on my front handlebars that was pretty heavy when full of papers. The trick was to alternate removing papers to keep the bag balanced. Flat tires, dogs, and rain were things that could ruin my day. On rainy days all the papers had to be wrapped in wax paper and held in place with a rubber band instead of just folding them and sticking them in the bag.

When I met my wife in Orange, CA 10 years later she told me she had grown up in Inglewood and when she told me the street I realized that I had been her parents paperboy. I remembered the yellow house...can't remember if they paid on time.

I am thankful for the experience as it taught me many things that kids today will never experience.

I never had one, but my brother did and I would end up helping out for free...only got the doughnuts as pay...

I had one. Delivered the Washington Evening Star. From when I was 12 until I was 17. First month I made about $25.00. My mother made me save half of it every month, and I could spend the rest. Bought my first car with the money I saved. A Volkswagen bus. I had a lot of fun in that car.

Detroit free press, morning paper. You figured out where all the dogs lived real quick.

I was selling watches (they were company promos from my Dad) in the 2nd grade.

One day, my Dad got a call from the school stating 'Uh, Mr. Lucas .... your son is down here selling watches. He even financed one to a kid' ..

The 'ole mans never been prouder.

But paper route, never had that job.

I had 3 Tri Valley Herald 7 days a week,morning.Daily Review 7 days a week afternoon and the Independant 2 a week, when I got around to it.
I am still a early morning person,love the stillness and quiet.
I can still smell the fresh ink on the news paper.Sundays were the worst,2 trips to fill the bags,still had to go to Church.Circulars were inserted by the paper boy.Some days I rolled and delivered nearly 300 papers.I learned work ethic.
First payday Dad let me buy a .177 cal. Daisy B.B. pistol to ward off indignant dogs

I delivered The Evening Sun when I was in high school. Sunday mornings and collections were rough, but my route was large enough that I generally made as much money as my friends working in the fast food joints. I've been a news junkie since I was a kid and I used to astound my customers by reading the paper as I walked making my deliveries.

i'm only 38 so wasen't that long ago. my buddy and i had a large route, the corning leader, small town but alot of papers. wish i could turn back time....

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George Jamison

Times Union paper route for four years. 72 customers in a somewhat rural area, was around 15 miles long. Hated it on Sundays and during the winter months. Good learning experience.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I started out with the Decatur Herald and Review when I was 9. It was a very small route, but I sold subscriptions and won a trip to Fort Knox. It was my first experience as a salesman and it lasted my whole life. The trip was also my first trip away from home.

I graduated to the Champaign News Gazette and delivered one of the largest routes in town until I was in high school. My dad always delivered on Sunday mornings and let me sleep. Years later when my son got a route, I did his Sundays.

I started delivering again as a substitute for the Bloomington Pantagraph about 25 years ago and did that up until a maybe five years ago. Most of my Smiths were bought with paper route money. I had a good neighborhood and could get a couple of hundred dollars each Christmas. One lady gave me gift certificates to a book store and that is how I got my first two S&W books. I always had a dog and figured I was getting paid to take her on morning walks. A few winters ago, I fell twice on the ice and decided it was time to hang up the bag.

I delivered the morning Detroit Free Press. In 1967 I saved up $200 to buy my first English Setter, kennel and shots, a fortune then.

The paper went on strike for about a year and ended my job. I worked as a kennel boy then for a vet afternoons and then delivered papers too mornings for a while after the strike was settled.
I bought my first car at 16, a 1965 Ford Falcon from the proceeds and then a 1968 Honda 450 motorcycle.

It sure didn't hurt me to work for what I wanted or else I've have done without. Good memories from those days.

Hi:
During Junior High School (6-9 grade) sold Evening Independent Newspapers on the street corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street after school and Saturdays in Saint Petersburg, Florida. You had to stay until all the Newspapers were sold.
I then went from selling on the Street Corner to a paper delivery route in the Mirror lake neighborhood. This was a better job as you delivered the newspapers and went home. The downside was when the Tourist went back north most would leave oweing you for the Newspapers. Then their debt came out of your pocket. The "Deadbeats" that wouldn't pay for the Newspapers, their debt came out of your pocket also, plus you was requiired to continue delivering the Newspaper to them.
As soon as I reached 16yoa I stopped Newspaper Delivery and became a "Bag Boy" in a Grocery Store.
Jimmy

I gave it a go for a short time when I was about 12.

I had to go into town - about a one mile walk. Pick up the papers and get back to my end of town. Make the deliveries and then try to get the money collected! It is amazing at the methods people would use to beat a kid out of 50 cents.

I found I could make a lot more money being the neighborhood lawn and grass cutter. A push mower and a hand sickle was my way of making a few dollars.

Surprisingly, of the hundreds of customers I had, I recall very, very few problems collecting. Many of my customers left their money in the box for me to get, some by the week and some by the month. Often I would have customers who didn't want to leave the money in the paper box, or who didn't have a paper box, call me to remind me that I hadn't collected. I had some customers who got their daily paper through the mail rather than having it delivered. I only had to deliver their Sunday papers, but I got paid just like I delivered each day.

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Georgia On My Mind

Reminiscing about the old paper route days has been fun...
There were some houses where I put the paper between the doors and a few that I put the paper on the kitchen table or the coffee table in the front room.
One house that I delivered to the inside looked just like ours from the outside - Plain Jane working class folks house. But inside were fabulous artwork, carpets and the most beautiful furniture that I've ever seen in a house - Till this day.... Turned out that the old lady's late husband was a made man and her boys were the local bookies, etc.
I also had one famous guy on my route - THE Greatest Knuckle Ball Pitcher EVER Mr. Wilhelm lived across the alley from us, and not only had the very first motor home I'd ever seen but was THE BEST tipper on the whole route. When the Sox were on the road he'd leave me a note to stop the paper and then pay me for those days anyway.

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In dog years I'm dead.

Got a paper route when I was 11 and wanted a new bike, but something always came up that seemed more important than saving for the bike of my dreams. Eventually, the front forks on the bike I'd been riding since I was 7 (and was used when I got it), came loose and turned the circle where the lower fork bearings are supposed to fit, into an ellipse. Dad loaned me the money for a new bike, but only enough for the Plain Jane model instead of the one with all the bells and whistles.

I learned a lot from that paper route:
One being, keep your "stuff" in good repair. If I had kept the nut that held the forks in the frame tight, I wouldn't have done the impromptu acrobatics.

Another one was that being in debt sucks.

Over time, I also learned Schwinn made really good bikes back in 1955. I still ride it occasionally.

I reclaimed it about 15 years ago after it had been passed down to a couple younger sisters and a dozen or so nieces and nephews.
The fenders and wheels aren't original, but SWMBO believes the last half century was a lot kinder to the bike than to me.

John

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

While in High School, I had a route for about a year and a half and it was not a good experience. I paid hell getting half my customers to pay on collection day. They were always either behind or didn't pay at all. Finally gave it up and went to work for a neighbor who owned a gas station and had a weekend trash cleanup service. I made more money pumping gas and/or cleaning out garages, attics, cellers and backyards than I ever earned delivering papers to deadbeats. It was a great learning experience and I always had money for clothes, dates, etc.

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SEMPER-FI

asked by a buddy to sub for him recovering from a surgery when we were about 12.

Worked all summer, early morning route, 130+ papers, walk the first half rolling/rubber banding the bunch. Got to know the neighborhood pretty well and came to enjoy the early morning world.

Buddy came back and pretended all the money was HIS and didn't want to pay ME.

Learned a bunch that summer.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I delivered the Pueblo Chieftain/Star Journal in a small Colorado mountain town from 1955 until I graduated HS in 1962. My average customer load was 21 and the route was five and a half miles. The monthly subscription was $1.25 and I did have some dead beats who were hard to collect from. Normally cleared around $5.00 a month spending money, I didn't save any of it. My Sister took the route in the summers because I got a day job on local ranches for the high pay of $6.00 a day for a 10 hour day. Got dog bit a couple of times on the route. Learned a lot about people and dogs. On Oct first, 1959 snowed three and a half feet over night. Army had to come in and dig us out. No school but the papers arrived every day. For three days it took me all day to deliver my 21 papers wading through the snow. I would deliver half in the morning, go home at noon for lunch and dry clothes and finish last half in the afternoon. Someone wrote to the paper about my efforts and the paper did a nice writeup about me a few weeks later. It was a great learning experience and as my Mother would remind me when I complained, "It builds charactor". By the way, I carried a .22 pistol most of the time for the local rattle snakes. Keep shootin'

I did at 13 and 14, the San Juan Star, an english language paper in Puerto Rico at the time. In a a small town, weekday mornings only. About 30 customers but spread all over the place, picked them up at six, it took over an hour to walk the route. Papers had to be folded and placed by the door on the porch, never thrown! Papers were a dime each I got 3 cents out of that (a fortune). About 2 years ago I finally got around to cashing a couple of savings bonds I bought with that and some egg money.
Steve W.

Had a Des Moines Register route for 2 or 3 years at about age 10/11...probably 8 or 10 on the weekdays, but about 30 on the weekend. If it was really nasty, below zero cold, my dad would drive my brother and I around the route in the old Willys station wagon with the flip-forward passenger seat.

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Rick, W0FG
CTR2 68-72

Yep. Courier Express before Buffalo became a one liberal rag town. Also learned that if you booted a nasty dog in the chops one time he was smart enough to leave you alone the next morning.

One of my customers had a large Doberman that attacked my VW viciously every morning. One morning he must have gotten a particularly good hold on the front tire, because about four houses down, the tire went flat. Later examination showed that the dog's teeth had indeed punched a hole in the sidewall. I was bit one day collecting. As I walked on the lady's porch, her 3/4 breed German Shepherd was acting very aggressive, barking, growling, and retreating slowly as I went up the porch steps. "He won't bite," she said. I kept coming, and again, she assured me, "He won't bite." After the third time, she finally said, "I think he's gonna bite you!" He did. I got a tetanus shot. Still have the scar.

When the devastating explosions and fire broke out on the USS Forrestal, the father of a local boy who was on that carrier met me every morning for about a week to check the Atlanta paper for the casualty list. Apparently, someone at the Navy Department had told him that was where he could get the most up-to-date information. The son is a friend of mine today. Oddly, I remember the news stories of those days, not from reading about them in the papers, but from listening to the radio as I ran my route. Two other events that stick in my mind from 1967 are the deaths of the three astronauts on the launch-pad fire, and the Six-Day Arab Israeli War in June.

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Georgia On My Mind

CW SPOOK,

Do you remember the Johny Gosh incident? I was living in Ames at the time.

Yep, three years on foot 5 days a week. Taught me a lot about business and standing up for myself. All for five bucks a week.

Shared an afternoon route with my brother. Between deadbeat customers and those who paid with produce, I don't think I made a dime in two years.

But the eggs were good.

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

I had a newspaper route when I was 13-15 back in 1953-1955. It was the Bartlesville, Oklahoma Examiner-Enterprise and I had route #24 which is in my neighborhood.

I started out on a Huffy bicycle with a big square basket on the front, then moved on to a Cushman Deluxe Highlander and the to a Cushman Eagle.

I delivered about 130 papers, six days a week....Thursday and Sundays were the big ones.

On the two big days, papers were rolled and I used rubber bands. On the rest of the days I used the old "chicken wing" fold....both the three sided and four sided. (The three sided was best and fastest, however on a real small paper, the four sided worked better.

The routes were right after school, about 3:30 p.m. and on Sunday morning, I picked up the papers at about 4:00 a.m.

I had to collect from each subscriber monthly and that was the worst part of the job. It would take about a week to catch them all, and like some others have said, some were deadbeats.

Now here's a good one, the biggest deadbeat was a fat old single woman....that worked in the circulation department at the newspaper! I was chasing her all the time.

The price of the paper back then depended upon how many Sundays were in the month. On months with four Sundays it was $1.20. On months with five, it was $1.50.

Back then, the adverts and comics were printed off site and had to be "inserted" into the Sunday morning paper. This was a job that was done by hand and you could get paid about $5.00 for a shift. You worked from midnight until about 4:00 a.m. I did that a few times.

The same paper today is entirely different. All routes are delivered by adults in cars and payment is made directly to the newspaper office. No "collecting"!

I had a good time, learned a lot, got to buy some guns and two motor scooters.

At age sixteen I "moved up" the career ladder and went to work for an old photographer from about 2:00 in the afternoon until 6:00 p.m. I worked 9:00 until 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays. (No rest for the wicked!) Back then they would let you out of school early to go to a job.

I then used my earnings to learn to fly. It cost $6.00 and hour dual with an instructor and $4.00 an hour solo in a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub.

Things certainly have changed.

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G.P. Charlie

I delivered the Las Vegas Review Journal for two years from 11 1/2 thru 13 1/2. Afternoon delivery 7 days a week and Saturday collection. Collection was once a month, so I got smart and collected approximately 1/4 each Saturday. I learned about dead beats and people who thought paperboys were just 'servants' and not people. Had one family from back East that moved out owing me money and left their pigeon coop latched and full of live pigeons. Not knowing any better, I released the pigeons thereby single handedly starting the Las Vegas pigeon problem. :-(. I saw my first totally naked adult 'lady' when a lady met me at the front door on Sat. afternoon thinking I was her husband. :-) I found out exactly what the saying, "Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.", meant in total reality. I developed a real distaste for a well known fraternal organization when I walked in one Saturday to collect just as the old guy passed out on the pool table barfed all over himself and the pool table. I lost all fear of dogs after I discovered 50% ammonia/50% water in a water pistol. I grew to love the radio adventure serials (Sky King, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon) being broadcast between 3pm and 4pm while I was folding my papers for delivery. As soon as I was out of college I became a private pilot because of that series. Come to think of it, I eventually became a LEO also. ........ Big Cholla

paper route....yeppper. get up early every day, roll em and deliver them, before breakfast and school. back then (in the 1950's) you put the newspaper where the customer wanted it. now its where ever it lands and the customer is told "thats as good as it gets".

Deliverd the Guthrie Leader in the little town of Coyle OK when I was eleven and twelve. It was a quarter a week and I got twelve cents. Collected every Sat. and was lucky to collect enought to pay my paper bill. Usually had to chase people all week and some never paid.

I was on my bike delivering papers, when I got clobbered by a car while passing through an intersection where I had the right of way. I wasn't technically old enough to have a paper route, so while the newspaper managed to print my picture in their newspaper, the couldn't find it in them to mention that I was their darn carrier!

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WWSSD?
What would Skeeter do?

I delivered the Minneapolis Tribune for a couple of years. Got up at 3:30 a.m. to get my papers. Some of those winter mornings were cold, -20° sometimes. There was a fourplex on my route where I would stop to warm up and fold papers. Often I would fall asleep on the steps. An old lady who lived upstairs would invite me in now and again for a cup of hot chocolate.

My buddies all had routes in nicer neighborhoods with mostly prepaid customers. I had three prepays out of 60 customers with a lot of rooming houses, and a lot of deadbeats and alcoholics. Collecting took a lot of time, and some weeks I just barely made my bill. My Christmas tips were kind of cheesy, too. I got a lot of socks and flashlight batteries while my pals were racking up $5 and $10 tips from almost all their customers. My route was just a couple blocks away, but what a difference. A lot of those run-down old rooming houses have been rehabbed in the years since, and now sell for half a million or more.

In August, during the State Fair, the paper would smuggle a bunch of paperboys into the fair grounds in the back of a paper van. We would sell papers in the fairgrounds, and the top sellers by noon would get to go into the grandstand to sell papers. Some days there would be something like a square dance show, but some days there would be a stock car race, or even a flat track motorcycle race.

I delivered papers for Gary Post Trib for about 2 years till I got a job
at the Gary , In. Sears store.

Wow... I expected that I'd hear from some other forum members with early life experience as a "paper boy".

However, I had no idea that so many folks would respond... and how similar the memories and feelings about this "starter job" we be from folks who grew up all across the country.

The stories sure had some funny moments as well as some painful memories. Several of them really made me laugh out loud.

Thanks for sharing!

BTW, I graduated from paper boy... to ice cream "dip"... to Chicken Delight delivery boy... to box car loader... all before I finished high school. However, I'm sure that the paper route had the most significant effect on my basic understanding of business and giving me a self motivating work ethic.

Delivered Detroit Free Press to 25 homes on my Columbia. If memory serves me, I had to roll all the papers, load into bag in front and baskets on back of bike and be "on the road" by 5:15 am. My route covered about 2.5 miles.
I started when I was 12 and retired after 3 yrs.

I was too busy helping my father work on his tractor trailers when I was 11 years old and up until I got a paying job when I was 14. After that I bagged groceries and flipped burgers until I got out of high school.

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Vaya con Dios

I delivered the Greensboro Daily News for a couple of years while in jr high. Getting up at 5, pedalling up and down those hills was a tough way to make money.I was a little skinny kid on a big bike with a huge load of papers in the basket. Whenever it snowed you had to walk the route and that took forever. I still hate snow to this day.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I started delivering the small local paper when I was 9 & graduated to the # 2 city paper the Miami News a couple of years later.Afternoons Monday through Friday & 5 a.m. morning delivery on Sunday.I had to collect,hound the deadbeats & pay for the ones I couldn't collect from.I aspired to a morning route delivering the Miami Herald-a friend's older brother had a route that he delivered on his Vespa every morning.I got to ride along once & throw the papers for him-tearing through yards & around corners in the dark was every bit as cool as I thought it would be but I never graduated to that morning route.
After that a University of Miami student hired me to sell pony rides.He'd drop me off in the morning in unincorporated areas of the county with a pony & I'd walk all day selling rides for a quarter.I'd belt a kid in the saddle & ride him to the end of the block & back-I got 30% of the day's take(usually $12-15 gross) & figured out that lunch should be on the boss as well.I was 12 & enjoyed walking with the big pinto pony they gave me.He'd step on my feet periodically so I wore a pair of army surplus boots.
I always did something as a kid to earn my own money & am proud of that.
Regards,
turnerriver

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turnerriver

I "graduated" from paper boy to janitor at the DuPont factory in the 70's. Not sure that was actually a "promotion."

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WWSSD?
What would Skeeter do?

Can you imagine a kid today getting up at 4am and riding his bike all over town, in all kinds of weather, and only making a pittance in wages?? Then going door to door collecting money, and walking around with a pocket full of money?

Those days taught me life-long lessons that the kids of today will never experience...kind of sad.

First carrying newspapers is what led me to a S&W addiction almost 40 years ago!!

Second I agree with Lee and we had that same discussion at the tavern just Friday night and I have had it many times before.

I started in a working class neighborhood at the age of 9. For some reason the local paper which had a evening and morning the age limit was 9 for afternoon and 11 for morning. I started with 125 evening papers. Had to be folded with rubber bands and placed in doors when raining/snowing. I like Gutpile had a Huffy bike with basket on front. Afternoon papers did not go out on Sundays. Papers were picked up at a local bowling alley. It was four of us guys who had local routes. We would link up, drink soda, roll papers and deliver. Collection was done every two weeks. At night from 7pm till 9pm. Yup a 9 yr old out at 9pm! But my parents made me shut it down at 8. At 11 the guy who did the morning route went into the Army. I had to actually interview for the job with my parents. It meant a lot more work. To include Sundays with the giant Sunday paper. The fillers for the Sunday paper were dropped off on Thursdays in my driveway. My Dad and I build a small shed to cover them. They were dropped off(morning route) at the shed. Afternoon paper still at the bowling alley. I carried both and continued till I was 16.

Morning route when I gave it up was 164 evening 172. I did this on a bike in summer sled in winter. Morning route I would get assist from my Dad on Sunday's if very bad weather. He had a Datsun pickup I would sit in back wrapped up like Ralphies brother.

Good parts. Yes I knew everyone for many years. To include the milk man(chocolate milk very good) the Krispy Kream man, yes used to have their own trucks. I got extremely good tips even in good weather. Bought my first K98 Mauser with paper money at 12.

One guy on my route was the range instructor for the local PD. Retired Marine and all around great guy. Handed me my first Model 10. He took a liking to a few of us. He was divorced and no kids. We soon would ride to the local PD range and pick up a Model 10 or 64 and shoot as much as we wanted.

He and my father were members of the local masonic lodge. At 13 for Christmas I got my first S&W a Model 13. They picked it out and from that day till 16 I shot that gun at the PD range. Carried in my paper basket in a gun rug.

I also saw my first fatality on that paper route and the worse thing was it was a police officer. Killed in the line of duty I was collecting. A violent domestic where the officer was shot on the front porch.

I could go on and on about the things I did, saw and accomplished but from 9 to 16 those routes made alot of me what I am today. I have at times even thought about writing a book about it.

With that said I'm glad I did it and give a hearty salute to all that did. It made a better person out of me and also helped me to endure the rest of my life to include 20 years in the Army.