Dog's Delivering Papers

Another day, another trip down the lane of memory.   
Hanging at a local water hole last week, enjoying a happier hour and somehow the topic of newspaper delivery arose.  The local newspaper delivery person seemed to have a holy muffler lately and was waking everyone up at 5 am when she drives around to toss the papers somewhere in the yard.   
When the Dog mentioned that he had a paper route when he was a pup (age 12-16), the proverbial hush fell over the pack.  
Q:  How many papers did you deliver?  
A:  My route was always around 106.  

Now the marvel there might be that the Dog remembered that number almost 50 years after-the-last-delivery, but stay tuned.  

Q:  How did you deliver them?   On your bike?
A:  Walked.  We all walked the routes in those days.   We were "required" to deliver the papers on the customers front porches, not just toss them in the yard.   Some of us were pretty good at tossing them on the porch from the sidewalks, but every now and then we'd have to go dig them out of a bush and put it on the porch.  
Stunned amazement.

Q:  How did you carry 106 papers?
A:  A thing we called a bag.  It had big pouches in the front and the back; with a hole for your head in the middle.   50 papers in the front, 50 papers in the back, most of the time.   Deliver the front 50 and swing the bag around for the next 50.   If the papers were really heavy, we'd delivery 25, then swing it, 25 more, and repeat the process.   .
By now the Dog is feeling like he was born a year before Neanderthal got published.  

Q:  How about when the papers were big, like Sundays, you couldn't fit them all in that bag, much less lift it.  
A:  On those days, carriers would take the bundles of papers from where they were dropped off, and distribute them around the routes to be picked up along the way.   Sometimes, I do remember having to load the bag and then sort of get on the ground and get my head through the hole and lift it up.   (Who in the h--- can remember this stuff??).   It was great for the upper body and leg strength, but not much for any sort of posture.  

Q: How did you get paid?   
A: The paperboys (yes, they were all boys back then...) were charged for all the papers they received, and then we had to go around door-to-door every month and collect from our customers.   
Some paid regularly, and some you had to basically stalk to catch them at home. Some even tipped pretty good ($3 Christmas tips were big time...). And, on my 16th birthday, right after I got my driver's license, I went to Grassi Motors in South Tacoma with my Dad and bought my first car.   1958 Ford hardtop, with a 352 Interceptor engine in it.   $450 in cash.   

Q:   You did this for 4 years??
A:   Yup, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.  And I was a "sub" for another guy (Bruce Dodge -- seriously... who remembers this much detail???)  before before getting my own route.   Every carrier had to have his own "sub", or there was no days off.   I had Larry Thompson; and paid him $2 to do my route for me when I couldn't.  If he missed someone and I got called on it, I deducted a dime for each miss from the pay.

Upon reflection, the Dog would suggest that he learned a lot of life's lessons from that experience.  On that evening he got a free refill on his water dish, and felt bad for all the kids today who don't have the same experiences because paper delivery has moved to adults who are doing it to make a living. 

Tip your delivery person more.