gomango

Great story!

Schwinn Tornado with racks on the front and rear for me. I delivered the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

I had up to four routes at a time.

Winter delivery was not for the faint heart. Especially the Sunday editions.

Used wagons with runners and I really don't know how I managed.

qcpmsame 

This thread really touched me, I threw the NJ for 5 years, got married in the final year to my long time girlfriend, I grew up with, and she lived on the route, bought several motocrossers and 2 nice bicycles and left the route to join the Marines.

My father was helping me deliver what was the largest paper in the NJ history on an April Sunday when he said he felt sick, could I throw the route myself. Took him home, folding those monsters was the hard part, and threw the route. I was reading the paper when my mom screamed and I ran to their bedroom, I found my dad had had a simultaneous heart attack and stroke and died quietly while I was throwing the route. Many of my customers came to our home, the services or to my pick up station to speak with me.

Thanks for the thread, it was good memories and sad memories together. I actually enjoyed talking with everyone about the paper route.

GrandBob

My first job at 12 years old (1947) was delivering afternoon papers for the Hollywood Citizen News. I worked between Santa Monica Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. near Fairfax Avenue. This was in the glory days of Hollywood. Several famous people were on my route, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassity) and Pinky Lee among them. Had to collect every week. Some were slow pay including Pinky. I rode a red Sears J C Higgens bike which I modified with a Stormey Archer 3 speed gear. This helped on the hills. Later I switched to the Los Angeles Examiner in the mornings, and solicited subscriptions for them on weekends. Won a trip to Las Vegas doing this with other newspaper boys. Of course we were chaperoned, and we didn't spend any time in the casinos. It was the first time I had been away from home without my parents. Part of that trip included boating on Lake Meade and visiting Bolder Dam. We actually went down into the dam, saw the giant generators, etc. Don't think you could do that today. I remember buying quarts of chocolate milk in bottles from the milkman who was on his route in the wee hours of the morning. I could drink a whole quart in those days. Thanks to others who have shared their stories on this thread. We've had some great experiences, haven't we.

nevermore1701

i used to deliver the Honolulu Advertiser in the morning on my supergoose in the early eighties. had about 60-70 on my route. always had the walkman on headbanging along the way. weekdays were ok but sundays i would have to come home and load up again. used to spend all my money on records.. was good times

bigbossman 

I like to think that I had a small hand in making that happen.

RobbieTunes

Great question. Fall of Saigon. I followed the Vietnam war constantly, as my home town had a tradition of sending young men to be Marines, and by this time, some of them had come home, a few hadn't made it, and a couple were changed forever. Being relatively close to Canada, we had some young men there, too, so you can imagine observing the competing philosophies as a young teen.

I often read a lot of the national news each day (not hard, the Milwaukee Journal was amazingly thin). (People may not remember, but the "wire services" supplied most of the international news, and only major newspapers had reporters all over the globe.) This, in turn, got me hooked on Time and Newsweek in the HS library, which I read cover-cover during boring HS study halls. My history teacher decided we were current-event deprived, so he began giving some canned current events quizzes each Monday. The first time, I got 100 on it, and he accused me of cheating. He demanded a re-take, and I took it, with the principal monitoring, got 100 again; he apologized. Seems the quizzes were supplied to the school by Time magazine. To this day, I still read the international, national, and state news pretty much cover-cover, and I consider him one of the finest teachers I ever had.

And on a side note: NOTHING has ever impacted my town like the JFK assassination. Time stopped, period. MLK, RFK, Reagan, 911; they made a difference on the day of and after, and are significant, but time literally stopped in my hometown on that day, and for several days afterwards. Everything closed but bars and cafe's, and they only sold coffee.

3speedslow

I delivered the Stars and Stripes for many years( 73-77 ) while living on Okinawa in the Kishaba housing area. Great job, little money. Rode the route with the paperbag slung over the shoulder on my yellow Bridgestone 10 speed. Walked the bike when the war news got hot and the paper bigger.

Looking back, I know major events happened and the headlines were there for me to read but I can't say I paid any attention to them. I was on my own island time and world.

Giacomo 1 

I love this thread. It brings back some great memories!

My first route was an afternoon route delivering the now long defunct Long Island Press. About 70 papers. I used my Iverson Charger, a stingray bike, sissy bar, banana seat and chrome fenders. Man, I loved that heavy bike!

I soon graduated to the NY Daily News, again using my Iverson, but then I got crazy and picked up a Sunday NY Times route, and there was no way the old Iverson could handle a load of Sunday Times. Heck, no bike could handle those papers! So I stole, I mean borrowed, a shopping cart from the local Bohacks Supermarket (wow, that name brings back memories to!). It was the norm back then, all the cool delivery boys had a Bohacks cart! Well one day while delivering my load of Times, a supermarket manager saw the cart and demanded it back right then and there, so I had to unload all the papers on the sidewalk and he took the cart back. So I had to run up and down the streets delivering the papers from the pile that was left on the sidewalk. Quite a few got stolen before I could deliver them all, but hey, I guess I deserved it for stealing that cart in the first place.

Wow, what great memories I have of that great lost tradition in America....

RubberLegs

LaCrosse Tribune, evening route weekdays, Sat-Sun AM delivery. 60-70 customers, started out on my Red Schwinn Typhoon with side baskets, then bought my FIRST 10-speed, a white, Coast-to-Coast, $90 wonder. Lugged frame, Suntour running gear. Beat that poor bike into submission. Learned a LOT about bike maintenance the HARD way, few tools, just Get her RUNNING again! It was a tank! Did my first 50 miler on it and did a one week tour as well through SW Wisconsin. Climbed Wildcat Mt with a loaded bike weighing close to 100 pounds!

RobbieTunes

Oki is like that, but if I could do it over, I'd have taken a 3-year hitch there. The Stars and Stripes were part of my daily routine when I wasn't deployed, especially the crossword puzzle.

I also served with a Marine from Mayodan NC.

Burtel

Best job ever I rode a mongoose with redline forks

sloar

Hutch Trickstar.

repechage

There was a neighbor a year older who threw the local evening paper, I was a year too young. I would help him collect the monthly payments, what a modern serfdom it was. People moved, would not answer the door, claim they cancelled the paper… he delivered from 40-70 papers daily over time. His earnings were meager.
When I was old enough I did not seek out a route.
He was expected to help Sell new subscriptions too! Every so often extra copies would be bundled with a note to hand them out in expectation that he could find new subscribers.
Oh yeah, the papers had to be folded and banded before running the route.
Sunday had to be done in two rounds sometimes, just too much bulk to fit in the canvas bags.

no wonder the Evening Outlook of Santa Monica went away, before the internet wiped out supporting advertising.
today the LA Times is about the bulk of the late 60’s Outlook. So it goes.

the Cool route was the Rafu Shimpo, small paper, polite Japanese reading audience, they paid promptly, generous holiday tips.

thinktubes 

Delivered The Chicago Tribune 1973-1979. I remember getting up at 5am and getting home by 6:30.

I had a late 1940s Schwinn with the skip-tooth “hearts” crank. My mom got it for $1 at a garage sale. It was a tank and the grease would freeze up in the Chicago winters. I was making $3 a week for working Monday-Saturday. I enjoyed having the cash and it built one heck of a work ethic.

The bike was very similar to this (web pic)

Bianchi84

I used ro deliver The Pennysaver news which was a weekly "newspaper" and various circulars.
I used my Dad's white Ross Eurotour 3 speed. This was on Long Island NY in the '70s.

SpeedofLite 

I averaged 63 daily customers of the Battle Creek Enquirer & News, 1968-1970 (365 days/year)
I destroyed two bikes never designed to deliver papers with a big Wald front basket -- a Columbia Sports III (3-spd "English racer") and a Sears "The Rail" (5-spd elongated muscle bike).
I walked the route during winter days when roads were filled with snow, ice, or slush except Sunday mornings when my dad would drive me around if the roads weren't clear.
Here's a similar thread worth reading if you were a paperboy: Was Anyone Else a Paperboy?

cinelliguy 

I delivered two newspapers, the San Jose Mercury in the morning, and the Palo Alto Times after school for a couple of years. Mercury was about seventy-five papers per day and the PA Times was about thirty-five (no Sunday). Sundays were tough but at least no snow! Delivered in a mixed neighborhood, apartments and free standing homes. I had a Schwinn Hornet. I stopped delivering because the customers who lived in the apartments regularly skipped out of town and didn't pay their bill which I had to collect for each customer every month. That came out of my pocket. I concluded it was a racket, so I quit.

Robvolz 

It was the Bremerton Sun, an afternoon paper.

now renamed the kitsap sun.

I started out with a traditional Schwinn and a poncho-like bag that held papers on both the front and the back.

you got to learn which days were going to be light and heavy. We paperboys all hated thanksgiving week with all the inserts.

I saved my money for a decent BMX bike I would race on the weekends, a PK Ripper made by Race Incorporated. (Family discount from Uncle’s Aberdeen Wa bike shop)

best part of the job; the young lady who would greet me at the door in lingerie and have a quick word or two.

worst part; collecting $$ once a month. I felt like that kid in the movie “Better Off Dead”

zookster 

Had a morning route before school throwing the Daily Press on Ft Eustis in Newport News, VA. Rode a black and white Columbia Newsboy Special with an enormous front basket and a sling bag to throw the papers, used my red Huffy 10 speed for collections.

SoCaled 

I had a paper route in 4th-6th grade. Rode my 700 pound Ross BMX, through rain, sleet and snow. Got real good at throwing the papers from street to porch (after mastering the art of the tightly rolled paper with a rubber band). It was a different time where kids roamed free, but there was something extra about being out on my bike at 4:30am when the rest of the world asleep/oblivious.

obrentharris 

I delivered the San Francisco News Call Bulletin on my English Monarch 10 speed. In 1964 I inherited the route from a friend. My daily round trip was about 3 miles on hilly terrain. Even with the multi gear bike I had to walk a couple of the hills. It was an afternoon paper with no Sunday edition.

In 1965 the paper merged with the San Francisco Examiner, a much larger paper with a huge Sunday morning edition. My route suddenly increased from 35 papers to 75. Sunday mornings were brutal. The money was good but the work was too much. I found an after-school job processing new books at the central county library and left the paper route behind. The library paid a magnificent $2.15 an hour allowing me to buy a newer Peugeot UO8 which I soon fitted with sew up tires... but that's a different story.
Brent

Kabuki12

I delivered the Oxnard Press Courier on my cobbled together Sting Ray . The butterfly handlebars made it easy but honestly I don't know how I did it with that bike.

roadcrankr

Awesome thread resurrection from eleven years ago!
Another San Jose Mercury-News paperboy here from the early-seventies.
First year on a 3sp Sting Ray, which could not take the abuse. The saddlebags made the bike pop wheelies sometimes.
Got a proper Schwinn 26" beater cruiser with the beefy rack installed.
Did my daily evening route and Sunday mornings. Hilly terrain with around forty or so homes.
Humongous Sunday paper, so I usually delivered the funnies/ads/inserts section along with the thin Saturday edition.
Not a single customer ever complained, but imagine it took away some of their fun.
Stayed friends all these years with the kid who gave me the route, as well as the one who took it from me.

RustyJames 

Great thread resurrection!

I occasionally filled in for a friend, usually Sunday mornings, delivering on the worst paper boy bike imaginable. A BMX Mongoose. It was the very early 80s and I was a pre-teen so I didn’t know better.

I had one of my first bike epiphanies riding across a busy intersection at 5:00am, sun was rising and not a car in sight. Loaded, the bike was a nightmare but the route was basically flat and it was in Hawaii so not horrible.

repechage

learning micro econ fast paper routes will do.