In fifth grade I got my first paper route. It was a Detroit Free Press route, so the paper was delivered in the morning, and the route was pretty spread out because most people got the Ann Arbor News. I can't remember the kid I took it over from, but I think he was the older brother of a friend of mine. Being a morning route, I had to get up in time to have all the papers delivered by 7 am. This eventually meant that I had to get up at 4:30 am to get them there on time.
In the summer time, the paper route wasn't bad because I could ride my bike. I had baskets on the back and one on the handlebars. For most days, I could fit a lot of papers in each basket, so I didn't need to restock as often, but Thursday and Sundays were brutal. On Thursday you had the additional ads that needed to be inserted in the paper, and on Sunday the paper was thicker in general, plus you had to insert the comics and ads in each paper. The Sunday paper was too thick to take on my bike, so my dad and I built a large wagon to carry the papers in.
In the winter time, I would ride my bike if the roads were clear of snow, but it was often pretty treacherous. The rest of the time I would have to walk the entire route which was several miles long. When the sidewalks were covered with snow, it was extremely difficult to deliver papers. If the weather was particularly nasty, my dad would usually help me with my route.
By the time I was in junior high, I had expanded to five routes and was delivering papers everywhere north of Plymouth road and west of Green road. It took me hours every morning to get the papers delivered, and I was always tired. Delivering the papers was half the battle, the other half was collecting from the customers.
Being a paper boy really meant that you owned your own business. Basically the paper company was providing you franchise services. Customers could sign up for the paper and pay a set price via the company, but then everything else fell to the delivery boy. I would deliver the papers, bill the customer, collect the money, and then pay for the papers. Whatever was left was mine. One of the problems was that if a customer didn't pay, it came out of my money. It was a lot of work to keep track of who had and hadn't paid. There were bonus's if you sold new subscriptions though. I actually earned an Atari video game system by selling enough new subscriptions.
By the time I started high school, I had another job at Herb Davids, and I also worked at Scamp pets for a while, and even a telemarketing job for a couple of weeks. I was ready to be done with delivering papers. My dad had been helping me more and more as the routes grew, and he ended up taking over the paper routes when I stopped doing it. I never quite understood why, but he said it was a nice way to make some tax free cash, so he continued delivering the papers for several years after I quit.
Looking back on it now, delivering papers was one of the hardest jobs I have done in my life. Considering I was only ten years old when I started, that was a ton of responsibility to take on at that age. Considering I was still swimming until seventh grade, my days were packed with the paper route, school, swimming, and almost no free time at all. I definitely learned a lot from the experience. Understanding how a business runs in elementary school is not something most kids have any idea about. Forrest got this same kind of experience because we bought a restaurant when he was ten, so that is probably why we are so alike when it comes to working.
These days there really aren't any newspapers, and if there is home delivery, it is not done by children anymore. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. I think having elementary school age children getting up at four in the morning is probably detrimental to their education and social development, but on the other hand it builds a strong work ethic and an appreciation for what it takes to make a dollar. I would say the paper route was really significant in defining my work and business sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment