Oh wow Corwin, I had friends who delivered--and called it--the "Evening Outrage!"
Were you in Santa Monica? Where was your route? On Sep 9, 2021, at 9:39 PM, Corwin <ernf...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Patrick - > > Great thread! I was a paper boy. I don't think this contributed to me being a > "bikey" - but it definitely required some growing on my part. I was about 12 > (circa 1971) when we started. The route was originally my brother's (13 > months younger). I took over the route when he decided he no longer wanted it. > > The paper was the Santa Monica Evening Outlook. It was a six-day-a-week, > evening paper. The weekend edition came out on Saturday. In my neighborhood, > the papers were dropped off about 3:30pm behnd the elementary school. Since > we got out of [junior high] school at 1:30pm, this was not a problem. We had > to fold, rubber band and load the papers into a "bag" - issued by the paper - > for delivery. It has always amused me that after a week or two, you could > grab a handful of rubber bands and have exactly the right number for your > load of papers. The bag was actually two canvas bags connected via fabric in > the middle which allowed you to drape it over a rear rack, and had a hole in > the middle which allowed you to carry it on your shoulders with one bag in > front, and the other on your back. My route varied from 40 to about 85 > papers. When the papers were heavy (as on Saturdays), the bag could easily > weigh more than fifty pounds. Since draping the bag over the rack caused the > bike to fishtail constantly, I always carried the bag on my shoulders. > > My paper was $2.25/month. Given I pay about $20/month for the San Francisco > Chronicle (hardcopy on Sundays only) and $10/month for the NY Times (online > edition only) today - this seems like it was an incredible deal. Especially > since many of my customers got the paper for free. We were charged for the > number of papers we were given each month. It was up to me to collect in > order to make any money. This is probably why my brother pawned the route off > on me. Frequently, you would knock on someone's door; you could hear people > inside laughing and talking. But they never answered the door. In reality - > this probably only happened 15 or 20% of the time. But it was always > frustrating. Especially after daylight savings time ended and you were > delivering papers in the dark. > > It never got cold in Los Angeles, but it did rain occasionally. We got > plastic bags to put the papers in on those days. The bike we started out with > was supposedly a paper boy's bike. It had a stout (read HEAVY) steel frame, > and an equally stout steel rack. The rack was further fortified with plywood > on the top and sides to hold the "bag". This bike had one gear and a coaster > brake. Since I never used the rack, I quickly switched to my Dad's Royce > Union which was a litte bit lighter and also had a coaster brake. I only > recall a couple of occasions where the bike got a flat and we had to get help > from Mom to deliver the papers. Luckily, there were a copule family friends > (one was our little league coach), and we could call for help. > > One of the critical aspects of my route was knowing which customers wanted > their paper delivered on the porch. We referred to this phenomenon as > customers wanting their paper "porched". I never considered throwing any > papers on a roof, since customers always called The Outlook and complained if > they didn't get their paper. The Outlook would call the local distribution > manager (my boss) and he would call me and tell me to get a paper to them. > Many times, I would head to their house with another paper (we always got > extras for such occasions) to discover the paper I delivered where I had > thrown it on their yard or (worse) dropped it on their porch. > > In addition to the Saturday paper, there was usually one day when the paper > was particularly full of news (read HEAVY). As I recall, Tuesday was the > heavy newsday. I was not terribly big at 12 years of age - and the bag hung > down about eight or nine inches below my shoulders. Each time I got close to > a customer's house, I would draw a paper from the front bag, and throw it on > the yard or driveway (or drop it on the porch) of the customer's house. After > removing about twenty or so papers from the bag, the bag would be choking me, > since there were far more papers in the bag on my back than the bag on the > front. I don't recall my paper route being physically demanding - but on > those days when the papers were particularly heavy or when my route swelled > beyond seventy customers - I slung the bag over my shoulders and looked > forward to the point in the route where I had delivered a significant portion > of the papers. And at the point where I had unloaded about twenty or so > papers, and the bag was choking me, I would attempt to reach around behind my > back with one arm, and pull the bag on my back around to my chest. I did this > while in motion on the bike on the way to the next customer. I never > [completely] lost control of the bike, but I frequently initiated a good > wobble. I also rarely accomplished my goal of swapping the front and back > bags, and had to stop in order to use both hands. In hindsight, if I had the > coordination and confidence to ride no-hands, and use both hands to swap the > bags - I probably would have had an easier time. > > I never made more than about $50 in a given month. Since I had to work so > hard, collecting from people who were either not home or pretended not to be, > I came to dread collecting. I never dreaded delivering the papers. That was > more of a challenge. Even when it was raining. Collecting was a drag. And > tips were rare for me. Even from customers who demanded I "porch" their > paper. I think one of the objectives of The Outlook (and likely many other > papers then and now), was to develop their paper boys/girls into young > businesspeople - what we refer to as entrepreneurs today. We were encouraged > to canvas our route and try to sign up new subscribers. I was never very good > at this and did not attempt it very often. Most of the time, I got new > subscribers when my boss gave me a new address, and told me they had taken > out a subscription. The Outlook had a sweet deal where you could get a > month's (or two) subscription for free in an effort to expand their > subscriber base. One of the main lessons I learned from my paper route was > that I did not want to be in business for myself. I did eventually stumble > onto a couple businesses, and did OK in each - but they never were my primary > source of income. I did well selling women's shoes in college - but the > customers came to me and handed over their money before I parted with the > product(s). > > Namaste, > > > Corwin > On Monday, September 6, 2021 at 9:11:33 AM UTC-7 Patrick Moore wrote: > Dave Moulton has an interesting little post on his blog today about > the disappearance of the paper boy. I don't recall ever having seen > one except (always!) in movies, but then we lived when I was a boy in > the US in what was still a semi rural area, and the rest of the time > overseas. All the newspaper deliverers I've seen have been middle aged > people in cars. > > http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2021/9/6/the-newspaper-boy.html > > I do recall working followup for the 1990 census on a bike! (I did > similar work for the 1980 census in my car in a very rural part of NW > Georgia; now that was interesting -- like Deliverance except that the > people were very nice, even though I was -- to them -- a Yankee > Oriental who was asking way too many personal questions.) > > > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/916f3e29-7908-4520-9690-5fd190785bb2n%40googlegroups.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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