This week I read a couple of articles about newspaper carriers in a newspaper industry publication. One carrier in Canada was recently attacked, not once, but twice in one month by a deer. The first time, Brock James sustained a black eye and cuts. The second time a deer head-butted him in the chin. Delivering newspapers can be hazardous work.
The other story involved two incidents in which carriers provided law enforcement with assistance. In Fargo, N.D. a carrier provided police with descriptions that helped them bust a car theft ring. On St. Simons Island, Ga. a carrier contacted police when an elderly couple stopped picking up their papers. Unfortunately, the couple had been trapped between floors in their home elevator and succumbed to heat exhaustion before officers broke in. Historically, newspaper carriers have been the first to report many house and business fires, as well as break-ins and other crimes.
I never had an experience like these as a paperboy, but the first day I delivered newspapers is still frozen in my memory bank, literally. I was 9 years old and it was my brother”s first day on his Wichita Eagle route. He wanted my help because it was a Sunday morning and the papers were heavy. It was 10 below zero and the Kansas wind was howling like a banshee, as it so often does. I thought I was going to freeze into a Popsicle before we could finish the 125 or so deliveries.
Three years later, when I turned 12, I took the route over from my brother. He moved up to a grocery store carryout job. To this day I credit being a newspaper carrier as being one of the most positive experiences in my entire life. With the profit I earned from my route I was able to buy my first set of golf clubs, my first camera, a slide projector and lots of my own clothes, before the age of 13. I also put money in a savings account on a regular basis. As I progressed with my route, I also got to win prizes and nice trips by going around with Frank Stanley, my district manager, to sell subscriptions.
In addition to the money, the prizes and trips, there was another benefit I derived from being a paperboy. I got faster and stronger. Eagle carriers were not allowed to ride a bike on their route. We had to walk and carry a double-yoke bag over our shoulders, filled with papers. Carrying those heavy loads of papers helped build my leg and back strength. My new-found speed and strength helped me excel at sports.
I view the fact that youth paper routes have all but disappeared as a monumental loss to society. Delivering newspapers for an hour a day provided business training, discipline, social interaction, financial opportunity and physical exercise. There was no other activity for youth under 16 that offered so many benefits.
Youth paper routes started to disappear in the 1970s. With morning newspapers, safety of the youngsters became a huge problem. There was a growing number of child abductions. The other factor was that in both two-parent working families and single-parent households, parents were so busy they didn”t want to deal with any additional headaches. They chose to give the children an allowance, instead of hustling them out of bed at 4 a.m. to deliver papers.
Today, the majority of newspapers depend on adults who drive their route and use the pay to supplement their family income. The system works fine and was developed out of necessity, but I”m glad that I got to be a paperboy in what I think was the golden era of the newspaper carrier.
If you delivered newspapers as a child and have an interesting story to share with our readers about your paper route experience, please e-mail or mail it to me.
Gary Dickson is the editor and publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com. Mailing address: 2150 S. Main St., Lakeport, CA 95453.
