I had same experience. I even had so many customers I had kids working for me.
I was a paperboy from around 7th grade to when I was a graduated from high school! The later years I was busy with sports and stuff I had a younger kid deliver when I couldn’t. But I still would do the collections and keep the tips! The collections took forever because the people knew me so well. I had accumulated other smaller routes along the way as those kids dropped off.
The last three years I also ran the paper drop. And I was the only one there! (So they paid me to deliver the papers to my house!!) They had wanted to move the drop to a place a half-mile away, and I told them I would quit if they did that -it wasn’t worth the hassle.
My fingers are the first thing to feel the cold now. Trying to fold papers in the dark at 10 below zero in Minnesota did a number on them.