The Missus and me were discussing whether a paperboy would deliver a Saturday newspaper to our caravan.
We concluded that they don't exist anymore. Paperboys. At least here in Yorkshire. They're all playing Minecraft.
I was never a Paperboy or an Altar boy or any kind of boy as a kid but back in the Sixties lots of my fellow nippers were paperboys, zooming round the early morning streets on Choppers with a Satchel full of folded papers.
I don't think they were paid much. Do you?
We're you a paperboy readers?
Did you you do any other work as a kid for pocket money? Stable hand? Wash cars?
I got Look In like this in the early Seventies, every week, my name scrAwled on the top corner and the house number, Woods 24! Always a great thrill when my Look In comic landed on the mat.
As a reader of American comics back then I'd stare at the back page where calls for GRIT deliverers were advertised along with a whole bonanza of gifts they could earn.
I had no idea what GRIT was. I thought maybe it was just that, grit, with kids lugging round sacks of it on their bikes, gritting the streets!
I realised it was some sort of newspaper but what I'm not sure. You?
I could only gawp at those amazing gifts they could earn.id never seen so much cool stuff on one page! Things like typewriters, baseball sets, bullworkers, radios and TVs. Can you imagine, your own TV in your bedroom in the Sixties!
Did you have one as a kid readers? A TV in your room?
Did you deliver GRIT as a young 'un in America?
I was never a paperboy. When I was a bit older but still at school I had a Saturday job as a librarian.
ReplyDeleteI did have a tv in my bedroom, I loved it!
Wow, a librarian! Did you get to stamp the books Kev? And a TV in your room! I'm so jealous!
DeleteI did, stamp the books, issue and collect fines and even order books, it was great. We finished at 1 o'clock too!
DeleteMy dream job as a kid. You lucky librarian you!
DeleteMy first job was in a camera store. I got it through school. Next, with my father's hand-me-down car, I had a paper route delivering to apartments in luxury high-rises. Then in college I worked in the library, as well as in an ice cream shop.
ReplyDeleteYou were very industrious Baron! Did you always have your own money?
DeleteI spent what I made, and when I moved out on my own my father supplemented my income.
DeleteA good Dad by the sounds of it.
DeleteI was never a paperboy either Woodsy. My friend across the street was, and I can remember him getting beat up delivering papers and would think, "That's NOT the job for me." I did chores at the house for allowance until I got my first job at the Towne Theater in downtown Milwaukee at age 17.
ReplyDeleteBeat up? Why would they beat him up Ed?
Deletemost likely to rob him of the money he collected - it was that kind of neighborhood Woodsy!
DeleteThat's terrible.
DeleteWell Woodsy, in the '80s, Jeffrey Dahmer lived just nine blocks from my house (even shorter as the crow flies). Our former downstairs tenant was killed by a serial killer just two blocks away on the grounds of the Catholic Church (her brother found her body behind the bushes). And by the time I joined the Air Force I had seen more house and structure fires than I can remember - most intentionally set.
DeleteScroll down a little bit on this page and it says "MJ's Batman" and I thought it said "Mrs Batman." Who gets your vote for Mrs Batman? I vote for Catwoman (meow)!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Halle Berry's Catwoman movie Baron despite it being universally panned. My favourite Catwoman has to be Michelle Pfeiffer's performance.
DeleteWhile Pfeiffer is one of my favorite actors, Julie Newmar remains my ultimate fantasy. I just saw her in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Had I known she was in it I would've watched it sooner!
DeleteYes, I remember her Baron. Just read her Wiki page. What an interesting life!
DeleteMy older brother was a paperboy, but not me.
ReplyDeleteI was, however, a petrol pump attendant, in my late teens, in Shipley Woodsy.
It's a car wash place now, I think, not a petrol station.
I think I know it Mish. There's an Aldi near it and McDonald's were we occasionally enjoy a big breakfast. I'll think of you filling up Bentleys next time I'm there!
DeleteI had a saturday job at a small bakery, £2 for the day. Once I hit 16, I moved on to saturday-ing at the town center British home stores restaurant (£7.50 a day, rising to £11.50 when I turned 18).
ReplyDeleteBHS restaurant? I think I remember them Anon. What a great job. Did you get fed as well? Pity BHS bit the dust.
DeleteI worked as a paperboy for a small local weekly newspaper that my own father published back in the mid to late 70's. I didn't have any bad experiences, but I didn't have any good ones either, at least not when the weather was poor.
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh Captain! A completely neutral experience! Which paper did your Dad publish?
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