Goal #754: Have a Paper Route

Every Saturday I had to walk the entire route to collect the 20 cent paper fee from my customers. I don’t know how many miles I walked to visit each one of my customers but it was a lot. Whenever I had something go in on that I wanted to do I ran most of my route. I’m convinced that all that walking and running is what got me in such great shape for when I ran track and cross country in high school. Even into my 50s, doctors always told me that I was in great shape. I attribute that to all the exercise I got doing that paper route.What kid hasn’t had a paper route at some time in his life? 

My paper route was the Pioneer Press, one of those huge bulky Sunday morning papers that came out only on Sundays. My route covered the entire town of Luverne, Minnesota. We used to go out to the state park and sell papers to the campers, but my brother had to drive me there since it was out in the country. I hated it because my brother smoked and every Sunday morning I would come home sick to my stomach. I'd lay down in my bed with a waste basket next to my bed for me to throw up into. When I think about this paper route, I always remember an incident that involved my brother Dan. He rarely helped me on my paper route because he had his own route. He gave it up after a year and I ended up with his customers in addition to mine. My first year, just before Christmas Dan came to me and told me that for his Christmas present to me he was going to do my Saturday collection route and not charge me anything for doing it. What a great Christmas present!

This was the first time ever having a paper route during the Christmas season. Dan had experienced it twice before so he knew what to expect. I thought I was getting a great deal with his “gift.”  But when he came home from collecting he had several boxes of chocolate covered cherries (my favorite), a pocket FULL of money and several other gifts. They were supposed to for me. Dan knew that the week before Christmas all my customers would be leaving Christmas gifts in the paper box for me, their paper boy. His offer to do my route was nothing more than his attempt to cheat me of all my paper route gifts. I was so mad. I never let him help me again.