If you know what this is, you may have been a willing participant in child labor.

[Rougarou]

you may have been a willing participant in child labor.

 

[BamaJohn]

I'll take a stab...but didn't have those when I delivered papers.

[Rougarou]

Yep, paper delivery boy I was once.  Collecting on Saturdays put me working six days a week at 'bout 10-14.  Get off of skool, deliver papers, oh it's raining,....deliver papers, oh you're sick, .....deliver papers.  Collecting at Christmas was the best, I needed all four of those baskets on my bike.

 

 

[MikeB60]

I humped papers for a couple of years as well.  Delivered the Nashville Banner in the afternoon six days a week and the Sunday paper.  Sundays sucked, the paper came in two bundles that you had to roll into one paper. Just about everyone got the Sunday paper thats why we had to help the morning route person. It did get me out of going to church and prepped me for carrying a heavy ruck sack as well!

[TEWKS]

The Sunday Boston Globe was a monster!  I actually rigged up a tow hitch on my bicycle and pulled a wagon. The job sucked, they ripped you off big time as I recall. I went back to metal scrapping at the local landfill after a summer.   

[Skywagon]

Paper boy in the 7th grade.  Fort Worth Star Telegram.  Had to deliver the morning paper by 7am, the evening paper as soon as I got home from school, Saturday was evening only, and the Sunday paper was morning only and a real killer.  We were required to get the paper on the porch, required to walk except Sunday I could ride my bike, and yes we had to do collections.  The paper was $2.10/month.  Some low life's beat me out of it so it came out of my pocket.  The route manager would drop bundles of papers every 25 houses or so.  You put them in your bag, rolled them as you walk, put a rubber band around them and chunked them.  The Sunday paper was so big you got a new bundle every 10 houses.  My route had about 150 houses if I remember correctly.

 

Rubber bands took a chunk out of my pay.  I learned how to use kite string which cost a dime and would last me at least a week.  Job sucked

 

My dad was a big fellow.  He was 6'4", about 250, and strong as an ox.  Picking cotton on a farm will do that to you.  One time a family kept putting me off for getting paid.  They kept saying come back tomorrow.  My dad decided to go with me to collect from them.  He stayed in the car until the arse hole said no again.  He got out, went to the screen door, ripped the door open, pulled the guy out, and said pay him now or I'm going to extract it from your arse.  Got paid.  My dad thought only a low life would beat a kid out of paper money.  I think he was right.

 

As bad as that job was, it was better than my prior job as a shoeshine boy in the barbershop.  Twenty cents a shine and $2.00 a week for sweeping up....plus a free flat top every two weeks.  We lived in La at the time so just road my horse to work and tied him up outside in a field.  Third grade through 5th.  I took my 6th grade year off from child labor.

 

[Rinkydink]

I had a paper route. 3 1/2 years on my trusty stingray bicycle. My neighbor friend had the route right beside me, same paper drop.
 

3 am, every morning, I’m sitting on the storm drain rolling my daily papers at the paper drop and my buddy rolls up with his mom driving him…every day. That hurt. My mom took me two times a year, my birthday and Christmas Day. Collecting was always fun. Good times. 

[Hosstage]

I did my brother's route a few times when he was off for some event or camp. Suuuuuuucked! Not for me. I always appreciated the kids that stuck thru it to get them delivered.

 

[wbw6cos]

Obligatory:

 

[TEWKS]

I’m not sure which was worse, the paper route or shoveling driveways for three bucks a pop.  
Seemed like a good deal at the time, I can take this free shovel, and make money with it?   Remember doing five or six in a row one year, then seriously reconsidering a new career path. 

[Rougarou]

On weekends, I'd help this old man cut his yard, prolly an acre+.  Anyway, I did all the pushin' on the mower, he did all the supervising.  Once the grass was cut, it was time to weed the garden, when the fall came round, it was time to cut the banana trees down.

 

My pay, a bowl of ice cream and $3.  Ya,....$3 for most of my Saturday after I had already did my collecting route for the paper delivery escapade.

[TEWKS]

11 minutes ago, Rougarou said:

Ya,....$3 for most of my Saturday

Guess I shouldn’t be bitchin’ then. 

[Rougarou]

9 minutes ago, TEWKS said:

Guess I shouldn’t be bitchin’ then. 

 

But the ice cream 

[TEDZ]

Had about 100 houses on my route.  Got hit by a Pontiac Bonneville, a low speed hit, so only bruises the big bag of papers cushioned the fall.  I really learned to hate Iowa winters, they don't seem so bad now.

[John Ranalletta]

4 hours ago, wbw6cos said:

Obligatory:

 

Carried the Chicago Sun-TImes in Springfield, IL.  What I remember?  Poorest customers always paid on time.  Richer customers often "didn't have change" or "not enough for a tip", etc.  The further behind in their bill the farther away from the porch would their paper be found.  

[Rougarou]

8 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

Carried the Chicago Sun-TImes in Springfield, IL.  What I remember?  Poorest customers always paid on time.  Richer customers often "didn't have change" or "not enough for a tip", etc.  The further behind in their bill the farther away from the porch would their paper be found.  

 

I always liked those folks that would call and say that I hadn't delivered their paper,....I'd have to ride back over and show them 'zactly where it was.  Usually, in their carport and they parked their car over it while driving in (carport empty when I threw the rag).

[ADulay]

Wow.  What a flashback.

 

Delivered the Cleveland Press back in the 60’s.

 

Paid $.37 for the papers and collected $.50 weekly.  13 cents profit per house!

 

Thursdays were the worst as all of the advertising came out that day which basically doubled the size of the paper.

 

Luckily the Press didn’t run a Sunday edition, so I got that day off. 😃

 

Thanks for bringing the subject up.

 

AD

[lkraus]

I had several routes from 11 to 16, filled in for my brothers on their routes for a few more.

 

Typically 100-120 dailies, another couple dozen Sunday-only customers. Papers usually went inside the storm door.  Bundles delivered to my house, counted twice to be sure I had not been shorted, and also so any leftovers would indicate I'd missed somebody.  Sunday "shoves" (comics and ads) delivered Saturday afternoon so I could assemble the Sunday  edition in the morning. Usually used a canvas bag, and baskets on my bike resupplied the bag when needed.  Wagon replaced the bike on Sundays and in snow. 

Collecting every week was a pain.  Started on Thursday evening because it took three days to cover the route.  I learned which customers would not have any money until they got paid on Friday. Some were never home until Saturday or even Saturday evening.  Never had more than one or two at time that were "office pays",  just a handful that would pay monthly. These were considered middle class neighborhoods and it was amazing how many people would have to search for pennies to pay 67¢ each week, or a quarter for the Sunday paper. 

 

We moved a couple of times to different neighborhoods and it took a while to get a new route, the morning paper shut down, the evening paper became a morning paper - somehow I was never established on a route near the end of December, so seldom collected any Christmas tips.  

 

I  learned a lot. Learned to work in all kinds of weather, seven days a week. Had to be on time. Learned to deal with angry and lying adults. Learned bookkeeping. I probably worked too hard for what I earned, but had money in my pocket, and a growing savings account, and knew what a dollar was worth. When I turned 16 and could get a "real" job, that made it a lot easier to buy my first motorcycle. 

 

I wanted our kids to have the same opportunity, but by then the carriers had to be adults. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TEWKS]

Little admission here. My roughly two month stint as a paperboy went to my neighbor buddy (still is). It was the same route and he kept it for several years. To this day, he still works harder than me. 

[donbmw]

Delivered papers in high school. Thanksgiving day was the worst one to deliver. Where I live know stopped delivering the Saturday paper and now takes holidays off to. 

[The Fabricator]

Bought my first motorcycle with paper route money.  Stepped up from a bicycle to a used Honda 90 Dream.  C200 model.  $200.

Then delivered off the motorcycle.

Davis, California.  

California weather made it easy.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

1 hour ago, The Fabricator said:

California weather made it easy.

 

Minnesota weather made it hard for me.  Three years as a teenager delivering Saturday/Sunday editions of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  This was in the mid/late '80s, and I guess the paper had evolved enough to where I wasn't responsible for collections, so at least I didn't have that hassle.  But man, it sucked getting up at 4:30AM on the weekends and spending a good 90 minutes schlepping papers around when it was somewhere close to 0F outside.  I definitely don't miss it.  

[Hosstage]

3 hours ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

 

Minnesota weather made it hard for me.  Three years as a teenager delivering Saturday/Sunday editions of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  This was in the mid/late '80s, and I guess the paper had evolved enough to where I wasn't responsible for collections, so at least I didn't have that hassle.  But man, it sucked getting up at 4:30AM on the weekends and spending a good 90 minutes schlepping papers around when it was somewhere close to 0F outside.  I definitely don't miss it.  

Winter in Minnesota sucks. Delivering papers in the morning during winter in Minnesota absolutely sucks.

[Sonor]

I delivered the Scranton Tribune for four years. It was a morning paper and I really grew to appreciate the sunrise, the smells, and sounds of early day. That is to say, they all did not occure during the same season. The only one that did was "Day's Bakery." I remember rounding the corner on my bike or even walking in the snow and getting hit with the smells from fresh bakery goods. What an incredible sense memory. My father also used my paper route to teach me about how to obtain my wants. I remember different items for purchase that he walked me through how to get them and keep a savings balance. It was an every Saturday collection and some people were not available every Saturday. So sometimes as the end of the month when I had to pay the paper bill, it was tight. But the pay off came when you caught up to those people and at the end of that month, you felt rich (well, as rich as a 14 yo could in those days).

Still, it was one of the best learning experiences I have had in my life.

[Rougarou]

4 minutes ago, Sonor said:

 getting hit with the smells from fresh bakery goods. What an incredible sense memory.

 

I ride by Mother Murphy's every morning on my way to work, and those fresh baked and candy smells are just plain awesome.

 

The smell of fresh baked bread is why I like to make bread for the holidays,....not so much to eat it, just to have that aroma fill the house.......and no, I don't use a "bread maker", I roll and pound the dough myself.

[taylor1]

I delivered a bi-weekly paper for about a year as a pre-teen. Hated it. Absolutely hated it. Turned 13 and got a part time job as a gas jockey at the local station. Did that until my last year of high school. Musta been the smell of gas and oil that kept me there.

[Skywagon]

49 minutes ago, taylor1 said:

Musta been the smell of gas and oil that kept me there.

Now that’s classic

[Rougarou]

3 hours ago, taylor1 said:

 Musta been the smell of gas and oil that kept me there.

 

Kinda like walking by the tire section on the way out of Sams club smelling the new rubber,  ugh, ugh, ugh!!!