Traverse City Record-Eagle

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May 2, 2009

Reflections: Ex-paper boys in good company

Writing this column is the second time in my life that I have worked with a newspaper.

The first time was in 1956 when I became a paper boy. That was when I turned 12 and had reached the minimum age for delivering papers. There was a long waiting list of boys who wanted their own route. Who else would hire a 12-year-old? Usually it helped if you knew a kid who had a route and decided to "retire" due to school obligations like playing on the football team.

In my hometown there was one local paper and it published two editions daily except on Saturday and Sunday when there was one. The morning paper was called the Herald and the evening paper was called the Review and just about everyone subscribed to one or the other. Some households actually took both deliveries. Boys who delivered the Herald had to get up early to get their route delivered before school started. Boys who delivered the Review delivered their route after school and got up as the sun rose on Saturday and Sunday to deliver their route before breakfast.

Delivering a paper route was often the first real job a boy ever had and it taught him, among other things, responsibility. Like the mail, the newspaper had to be delivered every day even if your mother or father had to do it. Not only were we responsible for delivering the papers, we also had to collect the weekly subscription fees from each customer. If a customer skipped out and didn't pay a bill, it came right out of the paper boy's wages. It's hard to imagine now, but it only cost 35 cents a week to get seven days of papers delivered to your door in 1956. How times have changed.

My paper route was close to home and was inherited from a good friend who wanted to join the basketball team. I always walked my route rather than riding my bike. I carried two heavy canvas bags crisscrossed over my shoulders and delivered to 70 customers daily, rain or shine. In those days, newspaper boys didn't use rubber bands. We rolled the papers by hand and had a way of tucking them inside themselves so that the paper stayed together when tossed on the porch. If the porch was wet or storms threatened, we always put the paper inside the screen door. A good paper boy worked at accuracy when throwing the paper from the sidewalk up onto the porch. If the paper missed the porch and landed in the bushes, I would take off my bags and retrieve the wild pitch.

My favorite time of the year, except for the ice and snow, was December. It was customary for paper boys to get a tip or a Christmas present from the customers on their route. This delightful event usually took place while collecting the subscription fees during the weeks prior to Christmas. On the evenings I collected, I always took an empty paper delivery bag with me just to carry the "loot." Sometimes the gift was a dollar or a 50-cent piece, which was always appreciated. Other folks gave me homemade cookies or a pair of hand-knitted mittens. A few of the grouchy ones didn't even come to their door, acting like they weren't at home. (And a Merry Christmas to them!)

I started thinking about all this during a recent visit to my old stomping grounds and I observed the current newspaper delivery system. We were staying with my parents who subscribe to the same paper that I delivered as a boy. A nameless person drives by the house and without stopping, flings a paper in the general direction of your property. It might land in the drive, the bushes, the yard, any place but on the porch.

So what happened to the paper boys? Where did they all go? In researching the subject I found a wide range of theories, most of which seemed to center around cost efficiency, larger routes and safety of the delivery boys. In reality, these motives might be justified. I don't think you would find too many young people today that would be willing to do that kind of work for the wages we earned. Likewise, I, too, would be concerned for my child's safety if he had to knock on a stranger's door to collect money. How times have changed! In any case, the elimination of the newsboy didn't result in better service for the subscriber and it eliminated a growth experience for the delivery boy.

I learned a lot about people and personal responsibility from my days as a paper boy and am glad I did it. I was among an elite group of boys who are well known to most of you: Tom Brokaw, Walt Disney, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Wayne, Warren Buffett, Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Hope and Harry S. Truman all delivered newspapers. Did I mention I made $7 a week and was glad to get it?

Ed Hungness and his wife owned their cottage on Fife Lake for six years before moving there after his retirement in 2005. He can be reached at edhungness@yahoo.com. For more of Ed's columns, log on to record-eagle.com/edhungness.

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