The Paper Route - A Defunct Youth Passage

Delivering newspapers used to be a rite of passage for neighborhood youths. Growing up, almost all my friends had a paper route at some stage of their young lives. Earning our own "paycheck" gave us a sense of pride and introduced us to the "workforce". It also taught us a bit about responsibility. After all, we had people who looked forward to reading their daily newspapers and it was our job to deliver the goods.

Back in the day, Baltimore had two rival newspapers, The Sun and The News American. Additionally, at the time, The Sun had both, a morning and a evening edition. The three combined editions of the two newspapers presented plenty of opportunities for kids to land their own paper route.

Personally, I delivered the The Evening Sun. After getting home from school each day, the first thing that I did (after woofing down a Tasty-Klair, of course) was to prepare my 40 or so newspapers. They were dropped off earlier in the day and bundled up and waiting for me on my doorstep. I would have to fold them up and put rubber bands around them. After they were all folded, they would go into my canvas Baltimore Sun bag. I always thought it was crazy that I had to buy this bag. You would have thought that the newspaper company would throw a kid a bone or in this case, a free carrying bag. They also charged us for rubber bands and plastic bags.

Loaded up with newspapers, I would throw the canvas strap around my shoulder and jump onto my bike. I would peddle down the neighborhood street tossing a banded edition of The Sun onto the doorstep of each of my customers. As crazy as it sounds, it was quite satisfying and gave a me a feeling of accomplishment.

Probably the worst part of the job came on Sunday mornings. I would have to get up at 5:30 am to prepare the Sunday editions of The Sun. Each newspaper weighed about ten pounds due to all of the sales circulars that were stuffed inside. My cargo was much too heavy for my carry-bag, so I had to incorporate the use of a shopping cart. I can remember some mornings, pushing this shopping cart around in the pouring rain. It was miserable but I had a job to do.

At the end of the month, I would have to go around the neighborhood and collect money from my customers. The good news was that I often received tips. For a 13-year-old back in the 70's, a dollar was a respectable amount of money. By the time I finished collecting, I might have $200 or more in my pocket. Now, keep in mind, it was a different time back then. We didn't really have to worry about getting robbed. We pretty much knew all of the kids in the neighborhood, so if someone decoded to jack any us us up, it wouldn't take long to figure out who did it. Plus, even at those early ages, we all had a degree of respect for one another. Today, that seems to be lost among most youngsters...

When my "boss" eventually came around to pick up my collections, I was usually left with about $50-60. This was for a whole month of delivery newspapers. No, it certainly doesn't sound like much money today but like I said, it was a different time back then. A kid could do quite a bit with fifty bucks.

Now, my paper route days came to an abrupt close when, one particular month, several of my customers moved out without paying me. Unexpectedly, the bossman told me that this money would be deducted from my "paycheck". I explained to him that it wasn't my fault that these people moved out. It didn't matter, they were still taking it out of my check, he told me. It was at this time, that I told him that I was quitting. I may have been 13-years-old but I certainly was a complete idiot. I wasn't going to work for free, especially for a rag like The Baltimore Sun (I just had to work that dig in there.)

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Today, kids no longer deliver newspapers. For all of my adult life, my newspaper has been delivered by another adult. There are plenty of excuses why kids don't perform this task anymore. Some would say that it's too dangerous. I guess there's some truth to that. But, in reality, I don't see many 13-year-olds today wanting to earn their own money. Why would they want to work for $25 a week when they can get it for free from Mom & Dad. Plus, delivering newspapers would require sacrificing valuable time away from the X-box.

When I had my paper route, I got to know most of my customers, who were also my neighbors. I enjoyed the trivial banter with these folks. Not only did I learn things, but it also ingrained a sense of community for me. Since I've been a homeowner (and newspaper customer), I have never even met my mail "person". I have seen the various paper carriers from time to time. It's usually a middle aged person in an old station wagon who has no time nor interest in trivial banter. My newspaper is tossed out of the window and left abandoned at the far end of my driveway. And when it rains, I can almost guarantee that I'll retrieve a soppy wet, unreadable edition of the MD Gazette. That would have never happened back in the day. Even as young teens, we knew that a wet newspaper was totally unacceptable. Yep, things were sure different back then..........

kw