With Every Paper I Delivered....
Yes, there was a time when I delivered newspapers. A friend had built up a serious newspaper delivery route, and on Sundays, he needed extra help. I signed on when I was 16.
The first part of the job was stuffing the special Sunday Section (comics, ads, etc) into the regular parts (news, etc). This was back in the olden days when Sunday Comics where delivered on Sunday. So 3 of us would be brought to a warehouse and stuff the 2 together for an hour for delivery to doorsteps. And I mean "doorsteps". None of that "out by the mailbox stuff" then.
Then there were the papers for the newstands (definition: "newstands" Places that sold multiple newspapers and people went and bought them there every morning and afternoon). Sort of like 7-11s without food. I would get dropped in a hallway next to the newstand with bundles of comics and separate bundles of "Section As", so to speak, and a wire clipper (they came wired in bundles).
I spent 3 hours each Sunday night stuffing the 2 together for newstand sale. I was lucky. I had a transistor radio that could get WBZ talk AM from Boston On REALLY good nights, I could get a Chicago AM station that played Beach Boys music.
Just about the time I could stuff the sections together as fast as possible, the friend would come by from part on his delivery route and we would take half my stuffed newspapers for further delivery. I had been doing the Baltimore Sun. The 3rd guy had been doing the other Baltimore newspaper (the News American?). But I was faster to deliver stuffed papers so I got more work hours.
So I would be in the back of the van putting rubber bands around the papers of both types as we went to the final delivery routes. My friend had the deliveries memorized. He would say on one street "double, Sun, Sun, skip, Sun, American" (or whatever the street requiered) and I would have to scoop up the right combinations and run along the street putting them on the doorsteps as he drove along..
Except where people had specific requests like in their milkbox or between their door and storm door.
The worst time was when there was 2 feet of snow on the ground AND I had a horrible cold. You'ld think that would have killed me. But at 16, nothing kills you, you think. I broke a bad fever running in and out of a van tramping through heavy snow, in the cold temps. I felt just fine the next morning when everyone at home was sick as dogs!
So I know about delivering newspapers.
I never read them (except for the sunday comics). So I didn't know (or care) "when the music died". I was delivering the newspapers uncaring about the contents. I didn't care then.
I do now.
Buddy Holly died February 3rd, 1959. I'm sorry I was 2 days late remembering it.
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2 comments:
Oh my goodness, that makes me cold just hearing about it!
My mother delivered those little ad bags that used to hang on the door when we were kids, and she had us help her. I remember dressing so warm we could hardly move, then being so hot because we were moving so much! My biggest fear was dogs, but my mom took those houses. She did get bit once, which made me even more afraid! Wow, I haven't thought about those days in ages! Thanks for the memories!
PS. my mother says she liked my dad because he looked like Buddy Holly!
My birthday is Feb. 4, 1960 and every now & then I get asked if that was the day the music died.
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