Any Former Paperboys On the Forum?

[MTI]

I didn't have a route, but I often helped my friend with his. Saturday nights, getting the Sunday edition put together was a chore, interrupted by some outrageous rubber band fights.

Carroll, Iowa: Where The Childhood Paper Route Is Alive And Well : NPR

This kid is right out of central casting . . .




Jaxson Kulhmann says he gets a check every two weeks for about $45. "I'm saving up for a trip to Washington, D.C. — it's a class trip," he says. "And, like, the church group [LCMS] — we're saving up to go to the National Youth Gathering in 2016 in Louisiana."

[aklim]

I did some running around with the Excursion on my down time. Not sure you would call it a "paper boy" thing since I would not deliver door to door. It was a weekly paper that we put in establishments so we would drop off 50 and count out last week's and change next week's schedule. Also did flower delivery on big flower days since I could pick up a buttload of stuff each time without having to keep going back and forth. Once the Excursion was paid off, I stopped it a few years ago.

[TMAllison]

Delivered a rural 19 paper route from 5th through 7th grade as a kid in Michigan. Winter time wasn't so fun except for ice storms when I could ice skate my route. School might get cancelled due to snow storms but those darn papers always got dropped off.

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by TMAllison

Delivered a rural 19 paper route from 5th through 7th grade as a kid in Michigan. Winter time wasn't so fun except for ice storms when I could ice skate my route. School might get cancelled due to snow storms but those darn papers always got dropped off.

Delivered three years-- Detroit Times then the Detroit News.
Bike stolen once.

[Idle]

I threw the Fort Worth Press for a few years. It was the first business I ever ran and it taught me how to make sales, collect on those sales and to never trust a sales manager.

[aklim]

Originally Posted by Idle

I threw the Fort Worth Press for a few years. It was the first business I ever ran and it taught me how to make sales, collect on those sales and to never trust a sales manager.

Doesn't have to be a sales manager. Could be anything else. All they need is the right reason and they will knife you in the back.

[INSIDIOUS]

Does former rule out current ???

[kerry]

Rochester Times Union for me. Around here newspaper delivery is a joke. I get the NYT and Denver Post. Very lucky if they arrive 3 out of 5 days. They're morning papers. Arriving the past week or so around 830am. Calls to the district manager are a joke. They go right to India. I've considered walking the mile and a half to the newspaper building to complain but there's probably a direct line to Delhi in the lobby. I'm pretty sure that nowadays the Denver Post consists of two guys in a basement somewhere. CU journalism school closed down. A disaster for democracy.

[cmac2012]

I delivered the Roswell Daily Record in '66 and '67. Was about 14-15. Had approx. 80 houses on my route. At first we charged $1.75 and kept $.50 of that. $40 a month wasn't much but hey, something, and I just checked an inflation calculator which states that would be equivalent to $283 in 2013 (!?).

I received a harsh lesson in what can happen in the private sector toward the end of my days with them (we left Roswell in '67) when the Record decreed that we were still to charge $1.75 but that we had to remit $1.35 per paper per month, and keep, of course, 40 cents a customer. A pay cut basically. They couldn't raise it to $1.85 apparently.

Sometime in the 90s I saw a picture of Joseph Stalin holding up a copy of the Roswell Daily Record with the word ALIENS! in 'second coming' font blazoned across the top, this in some politburo type meeting in Moscow. This about 8 years before we moved to Roswell and 19 years before I delivered the paper. Degrees of separation - me and Joe Stalin.

[cornemuse]

San Diego Evening Tribune, from Athena to 'B'.

[dynalow]

The Evening Star (Washington D.C.) Before it's demise, THE paper of record in Washington. circa 57-58.

A fiercely independent voice in Washington

From its earliest years, the Star was a contrarian powerhouse, not afraid to buck Washington’s prevailing political winds. Prior to the Civil War, as abolitionists decried slavery in their own publications, the Star presented both sides of the debate. During the War itself, the Star’s excellent reporting increased its popularity; even today Civil War historians frequently cite Star articles at length. By the mid-20th century—a period marked by McCarthyism, landmark Civil Rights legislation and the beginning of the space race—the Star reached its zenith in local circulation and national influence. Between 1944 and 1981, Star writers, reporters and cartoonists accumulated 10 Pulitzer Prizes.

Washington Evening Star (1852-1981) | Readex

After that, I delivered the Washington Post (59-60). Both routes from 7th grade through 10th. Both routes were in Bethesda MD.

[Idle]

Originally Posted by aklim

Doesn't have to be a sales manager. Could be anything else. All they need is the right reason and they will knife you in the back.

I couldn't agree with you more. I was only using the term sales manager since he was the first person I had ever run into that would take advantage of me. I was somewhat shocked that an adult would try to cheat a ten year old, but I figured out my age had nothing to do with it. That type of person cheats everyone.

[Idle]

I mentioned this to a guy today at the Coffee Shop and he said he was also once a paperboy. I told him I could still remember my route to some degree and he said he could not only remember his route but who wanted the paper delivered to their porch, those who whined if the paper was late during a snowstorm, those who paid by check..... Who writes a check for less than two dollars? Well, besides The Dude, that is.

And for both of us this was over fifty-five years ago.

But being a paperboy is a good way to be introduced to business. The guy I was talking to today is a respected public official. Another guy I know who was a paperboy is a multi-million dollar real estate investor and rancher. I make a pretty good living scamming people by telling them I can write.....

You just never know where that first job will take you.

[aklim]

Originally Posted by Idle

I couldn't agree with you more. I was only using the term sales manager since he was the first person I had ever run into that would take advantage of me. I was somewhat shocked that an adult would try to cheat a ten year old, but I figured out my age had nothing to do with it. That type of person cheats everyone.

I disagree. Think about this. It is less profitable PER cheating session but less risk. I might sue him or send over the "good old boys" over for a chat with him but a 10 yo is more likely to allow him to escape. If he were any good, he'd go for higher stakes but he wasn't hence you.

[Jim B.]

When I was a young boy growing up in Marin County, a neighborhood boy delivered the Marin County "Independent Journal" to homes in our neighborhood.

Well, sometimes he did, (on a bicycle).

But mostly, his mother drove him around in a brand spanking new gold 1958 Chevy Impala coupe and he tossed the papers out the window in the direction of the driveways.

I had mixed feelings about that...