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What Newspapers Did You Deliver?

Back in the early 70's I delivered the Washington Post to a series of apartment complexes at 4 AM. It was my first real job, and one that taught me to get up early as our route manager was a stickler. I used to hate the Christmas and Thanksgiving periods as the papers got so thick and carrying a shoulder bag of them up thru those apartments was a real workout.

Later on I picked up an afternoon route of The Pennysaver coupon magazine that we delivered once a week to mailboxes. People hated those, as it was just early junk mail.

Our papers here are delivered by adults in cars, and collecting for subscriptions is done by the newspaper unlike back when I had to go door to door to see who was going to stiff me each month. Times have changed, but that was a great learning experience for a young lad.
 
maxsmart said:
The paper was the Cleveland Press that disappeared long ago....
Click to expand...

Hey I remember that paper! Iirc they tried color before finally calling it quits.

BTW I still have a Joe Walsh lp looking for a good home! :D

Pete
 
Palo Alto Times, in the mid-60's. I think I still have the prize wallet they gave for selling extra subscriptions or something -- I'm now too old to remember! I had the double bag, could throw either handed, pretty good shot too. Delivered in Los Altos/Mountain View area, long before it became Silicon Valley. Seems to me I used to collect monthly -- that was the worst part, trying to catch people at home. But all in all, a great part of my teen years.
 
Delivered the Chicago Daily News and the American (called "Chicago's American) in the south suburbs of Chicago around 1965 - 68.

It was an afternoon paper deilvery and I rode my purple schwinn sting ray bike. Both Chicago papers are long gone, out of business.

I used the money to buy my first "stereo" - a panasonic. Still have it.

Cheers, Snade
 
The Oregonian, and the Colombian newspapers. Before school in the morning, from age 12 till 17, even after I got a job running a small gas station after school. Walked, biked, took my dog... later, motorcycle and car. Rain, snow it didn't matter. Small town, lots of surrounding rural folks.
 
I delivered the Salisbury Evening Post in Salisbury, North Carolina for a year from 1976-77 when I was 15 years old. I got pretty good at throwing. I delivered the papers via bicycle after school. The Sunday edition was a morning paper...I had to get up at 4 a.m. to deliver that one. And since Sunday was always the biggest edition, they wouldn't all fit in my paper basket so I usually had to make two runs on the bike.

I hated the collection part, too.
 
Great Thread

I delivered the Buffalo Courior Express in 1976-79. It was in a small town outside of Buffalo, NY (Corfu).

What a great experience. It was a true priveledge to be tapped for this in our town. An honor to have that big box out in front of my house. I still tell stories of crazy old folks that I delivered to. I used to wake up at 5AM and ride a bike in the snow(in winter). I can remember stopping at one spot on snowy mornings, to look at the street lights. If it was snowing hard enough, there would be a white haze around the lights. I could predict if school would be closed by the size and brightness of the haze ring.

I look at that experience as being a huge influence on the work ethic I have today. I made next to nothing, less than $20 every two weeks. I think that may have been the most desposable income I ever had. 100%

Dan
 
Washington Post off and on from 1967 to 1977. Those were the days.... Papers were dropped off at 2am and were expected to be on doorsteps by 6.:smoke: :smoke: :smoke:
 
Chicago Daily News, ca. 1977, DeKalb, IL. Freshman in High School. That was about 6 months before the paper folded. My dad said, "Well, they just didn't bring you in early enough to save it!"
 
The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (RIP) ca. 1944 at 3 cents a pop x 6 days x 36 customers on my route. I obviously didn't need a Brinks truck when I collected on Saturdays.
 
The Shopping News in Long Beach California back in the very early '60s.
The paper was free, but they made you go to the door to try and collect a "donation".
I used to stutter real bad, so collecting was the worst part.
 
I delivered The Philadelphia Inquirer, in the suburbs of Wilmington, DE. It was the daily morning edition, including Sundays. I didn't like Sunday papers because the comic section and all the inserts came separately from the rest and I had to put them together. I couldn't ride my bike on Sundays or in lousy or freezing weather. I hated collecting, too. Some weeks I would make $6.00, pretty crummy, even for those times.
 
I delivered the Minneapolis Morning Tribune at about age 12.. It was a lonnnng route which I "inherited" from a kid who got a REAL job as a carryout boy at the supermarket. I stress LONG....we lived over a mile out of downtown on the lake, and I had to bike all the way into town to pick up my papers. Strictly Monday-Friday as another kid had the Saturday and Sunday deliveries. Fortunately, the pickup spot was right around the corner from the start of my route downtown. I had all the downtown businesses then wended my way out along the lake and ended up about 1/2 mile past my house. IIRC, the customers paid 50 cents a week for delivery, and I had about 75 customers total. Think I netted 5 bucks a week or so...the problem being I had to go by the DQ while collecting:). So the profit was a bit less.
 
I didn't have a route but a friend did and I'd go with him sometimes. I found out how hard it was to get some folks to pay, others had the money stashed someplace on the enclosed porch every time.
One guy's porch always smell strongly of onions. One elderly lady had a small garden she was usually in and she would get warm so she'd completely unbutton her blouse when it got too hot. She didn't wear a bra. Either she didn't care that the world could see how time and gravity did it's work or she just forgot about it. She was very kind.
 
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