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Was Anyone Else a Paperboy?

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Was Anyone Else a Paperboy?

Old 03-22-19, 11:54 AM
  #126  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
Good grief, the ridiculous amount of loose money available for a canvas bag with a logo. Just like high fashion.
This is from my closet a Philadelphia Bulletin paperboy bag like I used in the late 50's and early 60's. This one was used by my late cousin who used it in the mid 50's.
If it ever becomes high fashion or trendy, like messenger bags seemed to have been, it will be a sad day.

I had a booth at the Ann Arbor Classic Bicycle Show & Swap Meet a few years ago. The show is held at the fairgrounds just south of Ann Arbor, MI and the booths are essentially pens in the animal buildings.
I saw a guy sitting on a Sting Ray while walking it in the wide aisle between parallel rows of booths. He had an old Ann Arbor News bag draped over his shoulder.
So I called out to him real friendly, "Hey man, did you deliver the Ann Arbor News back in the day?"
I expected "Yes!", but I heard "No." I could feel my neck hairs bristle, but kept a smile on my face.
"So why are you carrying the paperboy bag?"
He replied "It seems to fit in with the show and it's useful for carrying the stuff I buy." His bag looked empty.
My neck hairs bristled more. I felt less friendly.
I enquired "Were you a paperboy anywhere ever?"
He said in a sheepish weasel-like way "Yeah.... in Detroit..... in the 80s.
"Then why the Ann Arbor News bag?"
"It was the only one I could find."
Hmmm... I guess that's shows pride if not perseverance or integrity..but I still think he lied to save face.
I toned it down, but still gave him the stink-eye. "OK" I said, "I guess that's good enough."
My implied point was made -- only people who were paperboys or papergirls are allowed to carry delivery bags.
He didn't buy anything from me.
I think he realized he was not going to get the Friends & Family price now.
He would have been right.
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Old 03-27-19, 04:46 AM
  #127  
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At various times as a kid growing up in Long Island NY, I was a Long Island Press or Newsday paper boy in Freeport NY. My bike was a monstrosity my father and I built from parts of bikes people threw away by putting out on the curb for the Wednesday "big trash" pickup. The frame and front wheel was from a 26" 5 speed bike with a trashed derailleur, so we put a single speed rear wheel on and got rid of the shifters. I put "butterfly handlebars" on to hold the newspaper bag and some huge seat from another bike, and the knobbiest tires I could find because of biking in the winter snow. It was not a chick magnet!

First I delivered the LI Press as a morning paper but switched to Newsday as an afternoon paper that I could delivery after school. Newsday also had no Sunday edition at the time, which gave me a day off. My friend and I took 2 routes each, about 100 papers each at 30 cents per week per customer. If I remember right, I got to keep 6 cents per customer and the distributor got 24 cents, so 100 papers was $6/week from him and about $10/week in tips from customers, all in quarters and dimes! You had to pay the distributor guy in bills, so we would have to go to a local store and exchange coins for cash - I don't remember any bank branches anywhere near where I lived.

Collecting from the customers, starting on Thursday, was always annoying but I think was a great lesson in running any business! Halloween was great if it fell on Thurs/Fri or Saturday - lots of candy. The tips around Christmas time were a bonanza as well and enabled me to buy my first "real" bike, a Schwinn Varsity.

I rode that bike throughout high school (no more paper route) before I got my driver's license, until one night at a beer drinking session in South Freeport near one of the canals, a friend did an Evel Kneivel on it, riding off a pier into the canal at night. I guess the water was deeper than we thought (if we had been thinking...) - we never found the bike, it may still be down there...


Originally Posted by c.miller64
Does this answer your question?


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Old 03-27-19, 04:17 PM
  #128  
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Delivered the Long Island Press and Star Journal in 1960 and 1961. Press covered south part of Queens and Star Journal the north. Used to load papers in the paper bag with one paper upside down and the other right side up. People wanted their correct paper. Didn’t use rubber bands, but folded paper and slapped a crease. Was good for throwing.

Delivery was in the afternoon, but on Sunday everybody got the Press in the morning. I would pick up the papers between 6 and 6:30 AM. There was a bakery right by the paper office and the Sunday morning bread and roll baking smell was great.

I think my bike was an old three speed English racer made by Columbia. The paper bag would be tied and wrapped around the handlebars ---except on Sunday morning. On Sundays the papers were too heavy and you had to ride with the heavy bag around your neck.
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Old 04-05-19, 08:42 PM
  #129  
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Oh, yes! It was one of the few ways for a kid in a poor coal-mining town to have a regular source of spending money. Rode my 26-inch Huffy with the newspaper bag slung over one shoulder.

It was a weekly newspaper. Sales were cash, not subscription. There was nothing better on a hot summer afternoon than using some of my cut of the take to buy a milkshake while on the ride back home. Good times!
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Old 04-06-19, 10:53 AM
  #130  
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I had the perfect 2x4 block route ending at my house. On an easy day I could throw it in 15 minutes. Thurs & Fri made for the best throwing papers, I could usually hit every porch first try. I had the largest bike route in my small town with 160-175 subscribers. Mon-Fri afternoon delivery with a Sunday morning edition. I started on a Sting Ray and later bought a Schwinn Typhoon with a Bendix hub, front basket and rear rack. Only needed the rear rack for Wed & Sun spam editions. A Sears poncho and waterproof canvas bags kept me and papers dry. I eventually bought a motorcycle with my earnings. I spent more time collecting than I did throwing papers each month so I devised the never heard of plan by putting an addressed envelope into each paper on the 1st of month. Each subscriber could send me payment at their convenience. Too many complained and the circulation mgr chewed me out for using my head. I went on to greener pastures shortly after.


I remember a dog that acted as if he owned the street. Every day that SOB would come barking and trying to bite. One day I rode up with a starters pistol. He morphed into a good and smart puppy after that.
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Old 04-06-19, 11:37 AM
  #131  
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I had a politically connected customer that hadn't paid and was never home. Boy, did I catch hell when I stopped his service. I think mom was more upset than me when I was abmonished by the DA.
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Old 04-06-19, 02:09 PM
  #132  
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My paperboy experience was short lived, since I had to get up way too early for what I was accustomed to at the time, plus even I knew that is was way too much work for what the local paper was willing to pay for.
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Old 04-06-19, 02:36 PM
  #133  
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I sold Grit newspaper and delivered on my bike
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Old 04-09-19, 06:07 AM
  #134  
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It was a good job for a kid growing up. I think you could be below the legal working age, and still do it, or maybe no one checked back then. Got me up and out early, and learned how to collect money from neighbors. Downsides where that it rained a lot and you still had to deliver. I think I graduated to an "inside job", when I hit 14. Kind of funny now, being a 14 year old dishwasher was my first "promotion"!
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Old 04-09-19, 04:57 PM
  #135  
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Yep. I threw papers in the weekday evenings and the weekend mornings for the Houston Chronicle back in the late 1970s. The Chronicle supplied a wood and canvas paper carrier that was bolted to my then new Huffy Sante Fe 10-speed.

I was lucky to make a few bucks a month from my collections versus expenses. I don't miss it a bit.
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Old 04-10-19, 08:48 PM
  #136  
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I was a substitute paper boy. It was a better deal for me than having an actual route. I found out how much the routes paid per paper, and that's what I charged. The person whose route I was subbing, would usually drop off their customer list and saddle bags, the day before. There were some periods when I made a lot of money because kids would get tired of their routes and take more and more days off, until they eventually quit. The best routes were in apartment complexes. You just went in one end with an armload of papers and were done in a jiffy.
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Old 04-10-19, 10:26 PM
  #137  
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Yes, my buddy had 6 large 3 story apartments.in a row. He could walk down the driveway and throw the whole building from there. Bad part was they would move and not stop the paper.
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Old 04-11-19, 08:45 AM
  #138  
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San Antonio Express, around 1973-74. Spent a lot of time collecting. Rode an orange Sears 10 speed. I loved that bike. I had about 50-60 subscribers. Spent way too much time after school collecting. Pretty sure I lost money. A few months later we moved to Irving, I got a job as a busboy, and my bike got stolen. Sundays were a bear, you used to have to throw one from the front, one from the back, because if one side got too empty, it would choke you out.
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Old 04-11-19, 10:12 PM
  #139  
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Originally Posted by frogbiscuit
Sundays were a bear, you used to have to throw one from the front, one from the back, because if one side got too empty, it would choke you out.
That was my best laugh of the day!
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Old 04-17-19, 08:53 PM
  #140  
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1969, I was ten years old.

A local neighborhood rag called "The Shopping News".
I had to deliver to a hundred and fifty houses. In a hilly part of Seattle,
where not only was it hilly, but there was a flight or two of steps to get to the front door.
For sevenry-five cents. An inflation calculator says that's about six bucks today.

We had those canvas bags with the pockets in front and back,
They were so ******* heavy.
To avoid having to carry them we draped them over the banana seat of our Sting Rays.

We learned real fast that we were being exploited.
We also learned real fast, that 99 % of the people on the route, didn't know or care if they got
what was essentially junk mail.

We would dump the papers in the vacant houses in the neighborhood.
Then this group of bad white suburban newsboys would free roam the city on our Stingrays,
because we couldn't go home, until we finished our deliveries.

I survived free range parenting.
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Old 04-17-19, 09:05 PM
  #141  
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The shopping news, was that the green once a week paper?
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Old 04-18-19, 09:08 AM
  #142  
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Originally Posted by curbtender
The shopping news, was that the green once a week paper?
No, it was just a regular colored newspaper.
It focused on the kind of stuff we get on neighborhood blogs now.
You know, Mom's Diner has new management. His name is Joe.
Come to the Easter egg hunt at ... That kind of stuff.
It was once a week, but the other days we would deliver sales flyers for businesses.
The stuff you find in your mailbox or stuffed in the daily paper now.

Last edited by Rocky Gravol; 04-18-19 at 09:12 AM.
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Old 04-20-19, 10:46 PM
  #143  
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Originally Posted by Rocky Gravol
1969, I was ten years old.

A local neighborhood rag called "The Shopping News".
I had to deliver to a hundred and fifty houses. In a hilly part of Seattle,
where not only was it hilly, but there was a flight or two of steps to get to the front door.
For sevenry-five cents. An inflation calculator says that's about six bucks today.

We had those canvas bags with the pockets in front and back,
They were so ******* heavy.
To avoid having to carry them we draped them over the banana seat of our Sting Rays.

We learned real fast that we were being exploited.
We also learned real fast, that 99 % of the people on the route, didn't know or care if they got
what was essentially junk mail.

We would dump the papers in the vacant houses in the neighborhood.
Then this group of bad white suburban newsboys would free roam the city on our Stingrays,
because we couldn't go home, until we finished our deliveries.

I survived free range parenting.
I was born and raised up there. A friend had a Shopping News route about the same time. I used to sub for him.

I was delivering the Renton Record Chonicle, it wasn't much better.
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Old 04-21-19, 12:45 AM
  #144  
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Wow what leaps in time on this thread.
Originally Posted by stardognine
Wasn't there a law, that said you had to deliver newspapers, before you could get into junior high? I inherited a route from my older brother, delivering the New Castle News, but didn't do it very long, because we moved. I didn't suffer too much though, grass cutting jobs seemed to find me, whether I wanted them or not.
Funny, I did all that and more all on my own. I was consummate entrepreneur ever since I was recruited to delver. the Miami News.

I was riding around on my banana seat 3-speed bike replete with light, horn, bar streamers and my front basket when newspaper delivery van lady asked me if I wanted a route. I accepted but it didn't last long.

I hated when it came time to collect because half my customer either weren't home or told me to come back later. Keeping track of who owed what was a pain in the neck.

After that, I started a lawn maintenance service. Next came meals on wheel (yes, I invented it). And after that I created the car detailing long before it was a thing. Although, that was due to my OCD -- long before it was called that -- that caused me to be so meticulous. Not expanding on being my own boss is my life's biggest regret. I suffered hugely from low self-esteem as a child.


Originally Posted by Darth Lefty
Good for all of you... by the time of my childhood papers were delivered by sad adults in cars
Sounds like the Golden Era of newspaper middle 70s to mid 80s just before expanding TV news coverage and the eventual death of the newspapers. It was big business during that period (which attracted adults) and delivery could no longer be relied upon by kids.

I ended up working in the service department of that same newspaper just after high school graduation.
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Old 04-21-19, 02:43 AM
  #145  
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Paper boy, lawn cutter, street address curb painter, whatever it took to earn money for comic books, candy, and movie tickets.
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Old 04-21-19, 03:33 PM
  #146  
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Deliver news papers? YES! Two routes in the morning, one was The San Bernardino County Sun, and the other was the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Delivered one, then picked up the papers for the second one right after. Had to fold them, and put a rubber band on, before loading my bags. Had an old single speed bike with balloon tires on 26 inch rims, and a coaster brake. I forget the make, probably either Schwinn, or Western Flyer. I actually miss those days. Mid 60's.
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Old 04-21-19, 05:10 PM
  #147  
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The LA Harold Examiner

Mid 60s I lived in North Hollywood and delivered the. Examiner, me and a friend shared the route. Weekday evenings and Sunday morning. One memorable episode Lady In a little mobile home was a drunk, we toss the paper one day and she opens the door in her panties and bra and yells something at us. For two little kids, she seamed like she must have been a hundred years old. Ouch,
I had a Schwinn Stingray, great little bike. I babied that thing
and road it everywhere. I see they are bringing it back.
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Old 04-21-19, 05:24 PM
  #148  
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Funny stories! I delivered the Omaha World Herald, mornings. I remember I enjoyed it, most of the time. Sundays though, were sometimes near impossible.
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Old 04-21-19, 06:41 PM
  #149  
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I was a TV Guide boy in the late '50s.
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Old 08-05-20, 03:41 PM
  #150  
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Originally Posted by FiftySix
Yep. I threw papers in the weekday evenings and the weekend mornings for the Houston Chronicle back in the late 1970s. The Chronicle supplied a wood and canvas paper carrier that was bolted to my then new Huffy Sante Fe 10-speed.

I was lucky to make a few bucks a month from my collections versus expenses. I don't miss it a bit.
I still have my canvas Houston Chronicle saddle bags, got them in late 1980. At the end I had 5 routes in my neighborhood, bcuz my distributor couldn't find anyone else to run them. 5 long years and I admit I was getting burnt out at that point and in highschool. Marching band made it hard to do both, you know even with all the money we made... lol
also don't miss it, but glad I did it. My mom even got a Houston Post route, big one (under my name) we ran that together also at the same time. Good tiimes!
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