The paper route

My first job was when I was 12 years old and came about from walking home from school from the bus stop. Someone stopped in a car and asked "Do either of you boys want a job throwing newspapers?" Our neighborhood was new and developing and the job was opening up. I said yes - I guess I ran it by my parents - and the next thing I knew, there was a stack of newspapers sitting at the end of our driveway with a print out of the address it was to go to.

As I recall, I was to be paid $1.00 per paper per month. There were 15 or so papers so I got a check for $15.00 every month. This was in 1977-78. I delivered the Houston Chronicle which at that time was the afternoon paper for Houston. The morning papers was the Houston Post.

I would get home from school about 4:00 p.m and the papers would be there and would wrap them up in a rubber band (plastic bag if it were damp) and stuff them into a canvas bag which I had rigged to the front of my Schwinn bike and ride around to throw the newspapers. The bag was a bucket style with a shoulder strap and

THE

HOUSTON

CHRONICLE

printed on the outside. The letters were kind of faint to see, so I blackened them in with a Magic Marker.

I was particular about how to fold them (always with the "above the fold" showing). Also you could fold then into three sections with the right side showing if the papers were not too big. Monday and Saturday were not as big.

On the weekend, the Chronicle was delivered in the morning. Of course, Sunday was the big paper. That would come in 2 sections that I put together. Sometimes I'd throw it in 2 parts as well. Coming home afterwards, I always liked to read the newspapers, starting with the comics and then the sports.

Occasionally, I would have to deliver the bill as well. And even seek payment. That was not nearly as fun, since no one was typically home and I didn't know every neighbor. I heard stories that paper boys didn't do the collection anymore since there was some liability involved.

I was proud that I did the job regularly, rain or shine. Sometimes when I got home from school, kind of tired, there was the stack of newspapers waiting for me. Needing to get done. Like many jobs I got better at it as time went by. When I couldn't do the job if we had to go out of town (I guess I went to summer camp then), then the supervisor would do the job. I think he did the surrounding areas. He had many more than 20 papers to throw.

It was nice to earn some money of my own. I would have my mother take me to the Briargrove Pharmacy where they would cash the $15.00 check for me. I used to buy a lot of comic books which by the 7th grade cost about 35 cents each. A candy bar was about 25 cents as was a Coke from a machine.

I was sorry to have to report to the supervisor that my family was to move to Austin from Houston in summer 1979. I had to give up my first job. I gave proper notice and he seems sorry to lose me, a loyal employee. There was no paper route for me in Austin, as the paper was thrown by some guy who would screech around our circle to toss the paper, always in the driveway, instead of the preferred front walk target location.

Houston as a 2 newspaper town went the way of the paper boy, the afternoon newspaper and the 35 cent comic book. The Chronicle took over the Post in 1986, and the Chronicle then became a morning paper