I guess all those boys doing paper routes and mowing lawns were breaking the law as well.
Kids should be learning to make money when they are old enough to ride their tricycles down the street. When I was 5 I used to go door to door collecting empty bottles from my neighbors with my little red wagon and I took them down to the neighborhood store to cash them in. I could make as much as $1.50 on a Saturday.
I also used to get money from my grandmother when I was 6 or 7 for walking down to the neighborhood store to buy her a pack of Lucky Strikes. I’d get to keep the change.
Times have changed.
I delivered advertising circulars for a local 5& dime starting at about 11 or 12. I forget exactly what we received. I think it was less than a nickle per circular, so we would get as much as 40 bucks for a thousand houses to split between my brother and I. Twenty bucks in the early 60’s was a lot of money to a kid.
And it was a great deal for the store owner, too, in terms of cost compared to other advertising or delivery methods.
We put them directly in the screen doors where they couldn’t be missed by the homeowners.