A newspaper route was likely a boy's first taste of the working world when I was a lad. The pay was nowhere near that of a young person just starting out part-time today at say a MacDonald's but when combined with the small allowance earned from doing chores around the house, it provided some pocket money. I could indulge in my favourite hobby of building model air planes.
Being a newspaper carrier required two things: commitment and responsibility. Commitment to the job was necessary to deliver the newspapers on time and in good condition especially when the weather was bad. More than once, I had to deal with newspapers made soggy by rain or snow. Under those conditions it was easy to keep the newspapers in your sack from getting wet but not those dropped off by truck half-way along your route.
It was the carrier's responsibility to collect money from the subscribers each week and to take it downtown Saturday morning to the newspaper's main office. After paying your bill, the remaining balance was your pay. You learnt quickly that monies not collected came out of your pocket and not the newspaper's as did the cost of unsold newspapers or twenty-five cent fines imposed for legitimate complaints lodged against you.
My first route was with The Star Weekly, a newspaper originating in Toronto but sold across Canada. Recruiters came to the schools to sign up carriers. Each week the bundle of newspapers arrived at the house ready for delivery. This route was spread out over several city blocks and I used my bike to pull a wagon thus making the job easier. The Star Weekly was bulky and heavy to carry but it had the biggest and best comic section carried by any newspaper. The heaviest edition of the Star Weekly that I remember carrying was the edition covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1953. Extra copies were greatly in demand.
My second newspaper route was with The Edmonton Journal. These routes were hard to come by and I took one over from a friend who was no longer interested in delivering newspapers. Hazing of new carriers was allowed and experienced carriers routinely initiated the new ones by walloping them on their backside with a rolled up newspaper sack. Each carrier enthusiastically administered one blow on the hapless new comer while the adult supervisor pretended to look the other way. The time eventually came round when you were on the giving end instead of the receiving end.
I had some interesting subscribers. One gentleman smoked a pipe. When I delivered his newspaper, I had to place it on a table in a glass enclosed porch. Whenever I opened the door to the porch, the pungent, sweet smell of pipe tobacco filled my nostrils. I think that the reason I found the smell of the pipe tobacco so exhilarating was that my parents frowned on smoking.
Another subscriber was an elderly blind lady who had her grandson come and read the newspaper to her each day. I had to roll up the newspaper and place it in a special box so that she could find it. She always paid her subscription on time. To pay me, she would open her bedroom window near the porch and hand me her purse so I could take out the required amount. She trusted people and the previous carrier warned me to not take advantage of her blindness, something I would never think of doing. She often offered a tip or a foil wrapped chocolate medallion as a treat.
The 'subscriber from hell' best describes a person known to me only by a nickname, 'Alkie'. As the name implies, he had a problem with drink and when he was inebriated, he became mean. His place was filthy and his favourite garment was a pair of dirty gray long-johns that he never buttoned up properly. When he was sober, he was pleasant enough but those times were rare. I eventually refused to deliver a newspaper to him because I could never collect the money.
I delivered The Edmonton Journal for about three years. My family's moving to Edmonton's West End necessitated my giving up the route. I was in grade eight and had one more year to go before entering Senior High. Business were beginning to hire students part time and I found a job working in a dry cleaner's but that is another story.
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