Posted on 05/16/2015 4:03:41 PM PDT by SamAdams76
But at the time, these were seen as jobs for young teens and people were expected to move on when they became full-fledged adults. Never intended to be a career but just a stepping stone to something better.
So true...another lost childhood business venture...the lemonade stand...
I delivered newspapers from age 10 to 16 when I got my D/L. Afternoon paper weekdays, mornings Saturday & Sunday. Customer wanted the paper in the milk box, or in the mailbox rack, or behind the storm door, no problem. Collecting was fun, if you missed me on Friday, you were fair game for the knock any day. And having your own money was the best thing. I piddle around on a mountain bike now, I wonder how I did that in the winter on a skinny-tired Raleigh 3-speed and never fell over. Thinking about it now makes me nervous, har!
Well, I certainly mowed my share of lawns. Got a quarter to fifty-cents per yard. But another way I’d raise some nickels and dimes was to hunt around the local bayou and park, where people often left soda-pop bottles. So often I’d find myself sifting out into the murky, swampy water to retrieve bottles, often encased in mud and slime.
I’d haul many such bottles several blocks back to my home, and then put them in a washtub and scrub them like mad, to get them clean enough to take to the supermarket for their 5-cent deposit. I’d get enough money hopefully for a couple of comics, a pack of gum cards, and an RC Cola. Then do it all over again the following week.
But yeah, $20.00 seemed an almost unimagineable amount of money. I don’t recall ANY kind of toy or model-kit or picture-puzzle or anything a kid would conceivably want costing anything near such an amount. Almost everything geared for a kid was easily under $5 back then, usually considerably less.
Get a Kindle Fire and continue to read the paper in the 'powder room'. The tablet is probably less than a 3 month subscription to the paper. If your paper is behind a paywall, (they charge you to look at their ads) the economics won't work out quite as well.
I delivered the Washington Post for a Summer and Winter back then. Then graduated to full service gas stations. Lots more chicks visited there than my paper route :-)
Too many were kidnapped, raped and murdered.
That was the end of that.
I ran a paper route all through the 60’s. It taught me how to run a business.
Do we need paper boys now that there are no more newspapers?
The owner wanted to know why a guy my age wanted to work there.
I was going to be going to the community college, and needed a job that was flexible with hours.
I was a full time student, working between 30 and 40 hours a week.
During breaks I was working 40-50 hours (maybe 60 hours) there.
One summer, while working full time at the dog stand, I also worked for a log home company, 20 miles away, skinning logs.
Never had a problem working 50-60 hours as a young guy.
3 years out of HS, I was taking my last welding course at the Jr Coll..
The instructor heard from the head of the program about how good I was. He'd have me give other students a hand, when needed.
As the class wound down, he offered me a job welding, in the factory he worked at as the welding foreman. (Him, not me)
He wasn't sure I'd be willing to drive 30 miles for the job.
I did, to pay to go to school.
I sure could to actually get paid.
Started right out working 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
That prepared me for today, as sometimes I have to travel 70 or 80 miles, one way, to get to the job.
Often times working 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, for months on end.
Sometimes working 14-16 hours a day for a week straight. Or working 56 hours between Friday and Sunday. (16+16 and 24)
Whatever it takes to get the job done.
I have no respect for those who want to make a career out of JUST flipping burgers, and then scream about "a living wage".
One more thing I don't tolerate well.
People who say these two words...
I CAN'T!!!!
Reminds me of the Beverly Cleary series of books, and specifically "Henry and the Paper Route." I read those books a million times. Henry went through all those stages exactly as described. Interesting.
“I had 2 lawn mowing jobs because of my paper route.”
My son started his lawn mowing business at 13. Also cleaned out people’s garages, sold their items on eBay and took a piece of the action. He then learned that if he reffed a sport, he could make more money per hour than other jobs.
He is now 19. Refs college hockey for 300 a weekend, and teaches kids hockey at 40 per hour per kid. During the summer he goes around the country coaching with a hockey camp.
This one’s over seventy and living happily in south Jersey - a good week brought in five dollars for a dozen hours of work - talk about your minimum wage......
What happens (and changes) in big urban locations often can’t be generalized to small towns and rural areas.
Early AM newspaper delivery here pretty much the same as ever — young boys (or girls) deliver the newspaper, placing it on the welcome mat, tube, or elsewhere if customer requests.
Most 50+ residents still subscribe (and tip the carrier).
Only real change I see is they have a little harder time finding carriers now. Sometimes an adult in a car will have to deliver in a pinch.
I want my 2 dollars.
I had a route in the early sixties. The Hartford Courant in Connecticut. Over 100 customers stretchig over 4 miles! They used to give ou5 prizes for signing up new subscribers. In the winter, I sometimes had to walk it in snowstorms! You are right. It was a great training for future life. So great to read your post!
1969-70 I delivered Long Island’s Newsday in the afternoon.
Had a canvas bad on the handlebars and about 45 customers. Made about $7-$10 week depending on the tips. We had to knock on the doors on Fri and Sat to ‘collect’ the fee. 5 cents a day for the paper. A few customers would never tip and any tip 25 cents and above was a great customer.
Great recollection about a time in our lives where our paths were set with positive experiences about work and personal relationships. My time was a little before yours and started as a substitute on a local afternoon paper in 1967. It was a mile bicycle ride from junior high to the newspaper office. We’d roll/fold the papers, stuff them in the canvas bags and put them on the handlebars to ride the mile-long route to deliver before supper.
I got my own early morning route of the Wichita Eagle, 60 papers on weekdays and 100 on Sundays, in the 8th grade, keeping it through my junior year of high school when we moved out-of-state. This included collection responsibilities where I got great tips, especially at Christmas. I only ever had one customer stiff me for what was owed.
There was another series too, The Great Brain. Fun books about boys growing up in Utah in the late 1800’s
My sons all had paper routes.
Some funny,and not so funny stories come back to me.
All in all it was a positive experience.
.
Is the 5 pounds of ads or the frustration of delivering to every 17th house?
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