I remember as a kid seeing an N-Scale Amtrak Metroliner at our local auto parts store. That must've been the tail-end of the era when auto parts stores sold toy trains at Christmas. Anyway, shortly after Christmas, I spotted that Metroliner and wanted it in the worst way and was willing to work for it. I wanted to shovel snow in our neighborhood to earn the money to buy it, but my mother wouldn't let me, saying that would be taking advantage of people. I never forgot that!!
John
I delivered the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1961 to 1968, age 11 to 17, seven days a week, 5:30 am, rain, snow, sleet, carrying papers in my canvas sack, 40 dailies and 98 Sundays.
Yup! I delivered the San Fernando Valley Daily News and Green Sheet in a section of Woodland Hills for about three years to raise money for my then-crack habit (HO trains).
I’ve been reading this thread with great interest. My family was in the newspaper delivery business for many years. My great grandfather bought the business in 1908. I have been told that the transaction involved some cash, a mule, a mule cart and a number of chickens.
I started at age 11. When I was serving papers during the 60s, 70s and 80s, we delivered the Philadelphia Inquirer, Evening and Sunday Bulletin, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Barons, Racing Form, Il Progresso, and some others I can’t think of. We delivered in the Philadelphia Area (Chestnut Hill, Mt Airy, Germantown, East and West Oak Lane, Wyndmoor, Erdenheim). Customers included a few senators, Fitz Dixon (and Widener before him). We had a few walking routes, but I worked mostly on station wagons, carry-alls and step vans. The carry-alls had running boards so someone would stand on it and throw the papers. I have some good memories of going out at 4:30 on spring mornings when only the birds were awake. Also, some not so great memories of sitting on the tailgate when the temperature was in the teens and there was a foot of snow on the ground. The only thing that ever stopped us from delivery was freezing rain.
I can’t say that my earnings from papers when to buy trains. More likely it went to slot cars. But my grandfather, my uncles and my father did. Here is a shot of some trains my grandfather bought for his sons to enjoy.
Delivered the Staten Island Advance. Back in those days it was only 6 days per week (no Sunday Advance then). "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stayed my delivery from my appointed rounds."
I had a daily bicycle route in Kenilworth, IL back in 1967-1969 while in grade school- the Chicago Daily News. It was an afternoon paper on weekdays plus a Satuday morning edition. Had to door-to-door collect for payment, also. The weekday deliveries in the summertime really cut into my watching Cubs games on WGN with Jack Brickhouse! My take went for baseball cards in those days. I traded all my Cubs and White Sox for Mets and Yankees as we were temporarily relocated from New Jersey. My best card- Jerry Koosman’s rookie card!
Loved those CNW double-deckers! Dad was a daily commuter and always complained that they ran on the wrong side of the tracks. My buddies and I used to ride our bicyles to a spot under a bridge to watch the passenger and freight trains on their way north/south. Wish I could remember where that was!
Trains and model planes. San Francisco News-Call Bulletin. Don
I really didn't get a chance to comment other than a yup, cause I was on turkey duty yesterday, …….I delivered the Philadelphia Enquirer from age 12 till 15. Tuesdays and Saturdays were trash pick up days, those were the days where trash men threw cans. this whole love affair with O gauge began about 4 months into the job when I caught the glimpse of an orange baby ruth boxcar through the carry slot of a box under a bag of god knows what sitting out in front of a house on my route...in the box was the entire train set, lionel postwar 2016 prarie engine, half dozen cars, track, switches, and transformer....all my very own!!...this would not be the only trains in the trash find....one day, I seen a 4 X 8 plywood board with the proverbial green grass paper and a loop of lionel track screwed to it....and bingo!...another box of trains, 2328 geep, and 1615 switcher....a host of cars, accessories and a type VW (remember those?) my paper route money was used to buy trains at yard sales. cause they were every where back then....and I was hooked forever!...I still have all the trains I bought with my paper route money, and the ones I found trash picking....but the best moment came when at Christmas time when one of my customers who also played with Lionels and knew I did too, gave me a 623 for my Christmas tip.....at age 14, you'd thought I had won the lottery!....good days picking through trash in south Jersey!....all thanks to the Philadelphia Inquirer.... …………...Pat
Delivered the Akron Beacon Journal except I was an adult carrier to fund many train purchases among other things. I even managed a warehouse for the adult carriers, separating bundles and singles, 365 days a year during the worst weather.
I delivered papers for The Indianapolis Star as a kid to save up and buy a PW 2046 Lionel Hudson in Gd/Exc condition as advertised in Model Railroader from Train World. I still have it and it runs great!
scale rail posted:Trains and model planes. San Francisco News-Call Bulletin. Don
I also delivered the News Call Bulletin and later the San Francisco Examiner...at that time...mainly for model planes and cars. Matt
never did the paper route, but I did have a job a lot worse in my teen years...……. I worked part time at the local hobby shop
I sold the Richmond Afro American from 1961 to 1968. In 1966 I purchased the 229 Minn & St. L Alco from Toy Craft in Norfolk, Virginia for $25.00. Toy Craft was Norfolk's best Lionel shop at that time. I was not permitted to order from Madison by my mother where I could have bought the Boston and Maine Gp-9 for a little more. The other affordable engine in Toy Craft at the was the 216 Burlington Alco. Trains were becoming scarce about that time in Norfolk hobby shops. Slot race cars were the new thing. Also trains were sold at full retail in Norfolk hobby shops.
I delivered the Chicago Trib and Sun Times in the morning. In the afternoon the Chicago Daily News before they went out of business. Did that for 6 years.
Then I worked under aged at a gas station. Just in time for the 1973 oil embargo. Had lines of cars down the street waiting for their allotment. Except our regular customers had a tag on the inside of their license plate. They got a full tank.
Finally got a job at the Great Lakes Navy Base where I worked through high school.
I’m a saver but MPC trains got a decent portion of my earnings 👍
YES anyone here from Cleveland??? Cleveland Press after school. I was 11 years old. $14.00/wk. Took 2 weeks to buy a box car.Lionel has never been cheap! Nick
gandydancer1950 posted:I delivered the Cleveland Plain Dealer from 1961 to 1968, age 11 to 17, seven days a week, 5:30 am, rain, snow, sleet, carrying papers in my canvas sack, 40 dailies and 98 Sundays.
Yes Sir....I had a Cleveland plain Dealer Route. Sunday was a nightmare. I think a single Sunday paper weighed 5 LBS. My route was not for the light hearted. Although I think by then I had discovered "Girls" Nick
Lenny the Lion posted:Delivered the Akron Beacon Journal except I was an adult carrier to fund many train purchases among other things. I even managed a warehouse for the adult carriers, separating bundles and singles, 365 days a year during the worst weather.
We always got the Akron Beacon Journal on Sundays. Dad said that paper had the best comics in it, of any paper we could get at the local news stand/bookstore, down in Marietta.
The Decatur Daily , Decatur Al. 6 days a week. Subscriber cost 35 cents per week. Ate my profits.
age 9-13 . 1953-1957
Brent
I delivered the Newark nj Star-ledger in 1950 . 52 dailys 60 Sundays for $6 a week gave $3 to the family as things were tight . I didn't have a bike so i carried the dailys in the sack and used a wagon for the Sundays. Used any money I had left to buy Marx cars in the 5 and ten Lionels were too expensive. Marx were only 59 cents. Later in high school I bought 2 beat up bikes for 1$ and put them together to make a rideable one and got a job delivering groceries for a small store. Some orders were so heavy I had to swing my leg over and sit on the seat before putting them in the basket so the back wheel would stay on the ground. I once broke a front hub in half and had to learn how to respoke a wheel.
For me it was mowing, raking, and shoveling. That along with money saved from birthday and Christmas.
WRGMILW posted:I had a Milwaukee Journal route . It included my Parents house as well ! My take home pay was $18 per week for sure , plus tips . I was a tight paper boy ! If some one did not pay ! No Paper ! Period ! I learned a lot about people ! two weeks pay got me a MPC era box car in the 70's ! or I bought track & turnouts ! I had the route for 6 years starting at age 11 ! I was 10 when I got my first Lionel Train set for Christmas from my parents !
One August afternoon in 1950, I was mowing my dad’s lawn when the Branch Manager for the Milwaukee Journal newspaper drove up and asked me how much dad paid me. I told him 75¢. He told me I could earn $2 a Sunday delivering the MJ. Man, I grabbed 25¢, hopped on my bike (peddling as fast as I could) across town to get my work permit before they closed for the week. Thereafter – got a daily MJ route, and will never forget the Thanksgiving Day edition – it was nearly as thick as a Sears catalog – BUT, had many full page ads for trains.
With my MJ experience, I was able to land what turned out to be a “dream paper route” with the local paper – covering ¼ of Main St. in a city of 30,000+. It began at the Carmel Corn Shop (man he made the best taffy), next a bridal shop where a nice elderly seamstress would grab the paper to read the “obituaries” before I could deliver it to the mangers office, next a local theater to catch part of the matinee, followed by the hobby shop, then the Kroger Supermarket, then a donut shop that usually cost me 7¢, followed by a stop at a bike shop where the owner‘s (very cute and my age) granddaughter would be (sometimes took fifteen minutes to deliver that one paper), and at the end of my route was a Zesto (think Dairy Queen) Drive-in.
In the 50’s, Polio was a threat with no vaccine or cure, and my parents concluded it spread via the carnival people at the County Fair which resulted in me being escorted by them for one day. Now the hobby shop newspaper customer became a real blessing. He would have a Lionel demo layout in the Merchant’s Building - he worked the spotlights for the evening grandstand show - needed someone to watch and run the trains 7 to 10 PM and that “be me”. After 10, I was free to enjoy the midway with my friends until closing. My folks had to back off the “Polio and curfew kick” as their little boy had a job at the fair. It was, also, how I was able to afford my AF Geep freight/passenger trains.
Kroger had built a new state of the art supermarket, and Carl, from my newspaper route, was manager. He put me in the Produce Dept. M-F 5 to 9 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 9 PM. I was 16, solo, did what was expected, made the decisions on customer price adjustments, etc. – it was kinda my own little 5 to 10 world with minimal supervision (fun). At the end of the week, it was here, you fill out your timecard – just make sure those Child Labor people don’t visit me. Needed transportation to and from the job – WoW, got to drive dad’s new ‘55 Olds 88 solo. I once asked Carl why he hired me and he replied – because when you were the paperboy at the old store I would jokingly throw s--- at you and you’d throw it right back. Four years later, when I was attending the U of W, Kroger had a distribution center in the city - guess who got a job to handle college expenses - paper route paid off again.
As for the Zesto Drive-In, it paid off too; I delivered the owners newspaper in the afternoon and then went back the next morning to set it up the store for opening. Couple of hours later, the owner would come in bringing cash from the previous day’s business in a canvas bag. I’d wrap the bag’s cord around the handlebar on my bike and ride a mile or so down Main St. and deposit the money at the bank. Can you imagine a 14 year old kid doing that stunt in today’s world?
Ah, the wonderful 50’s. Yea, there was fear the Ruskies might drop an atom on us, and we were somewhat deprived - as in a shortage of drugs, gangs, and “nut cases” shooting up places. Those newspaper routes were a great introduction to business, made us responsible, exposed us to a variety of situations, and yes, we could make change without a computer telling us the amount (as in - ya been to Taco Bell lately?).
Sorry for being long winded here, but once I got going the fingers would not stop.
I delivered the local town paper in South Jersey, during high school, about 120 customers - between 1980 and 1984. Most of my earnings went into the bank for college, but I was into collecting McCoy circus cars back then, and I was able to buy one or two a year.
I had a morning route In Jacksonville, Fla. for the Florida Times Union in the early 60's. The bike was a Sears and Roebuck monster, of the size that folks now call a beach bike. Huge basket on the front, saddlebag baskets on the back. I rode once to downtown Jax, crossing the river on the Acosta Bridge to get to a hobby shop that carried Athearn. I bought one of the first models that had gear drive, not rubber bands, a red and white Burlington Northern GP30, still running today. On the way home, going back over the bridge, a rough expansion joint in the sidewalk that I hit as I coasted down at a high rate of speed, my $9.95 purchase, that was wrapped in plastic as it was raining a bit, bounced out and slid down the concrete right towards the edge under the railing where there was nothing to stop it from falling into the river. Well, it did stop, just short of going over. Tied things down after that.
I was going to my local hobby store and buying what they had. Owner told me Lionel was out of business. I could have my pick at his cost and spent a LOT of time in the back room looking at his stock. I moved yards (5 yards) each Sat. to earn my train $$
By the time I went looking for a paper route, I was told kids weren't allowed to deliver, had to be an adult in a car. But, my neighbor had a side job with Boston Globe so he got me a job as a hawker selling the Sunday Globe and eventually the Sunday Herald outside a local church. The money was good and I got to build a relationship with certain customers. I learned how certain customers liked their change handed to them a certain way and others liked the paper in a plastic shopping bag. I recall getting Christmas cards with tips in them.
After about two and a half years I got some insider information that the kid with the spot at a local Dunkin Donuts was leaving, so I mentioned it to my manager and ended up with the spot a couple weeks later. Less customer relations, but more foot traffic and the store owner was nice so I got a free muffin and hot chocolate each week and he would let me move inside when the weather got bad.
About three years later when it was time for me to leave for college, I passed the spot on to a kid I knew from the Boy Scouts, but the market pretty much tanked after that with the paper price going up and readership going down.
I was always smart with my money so I made out pretty well. I paid $2900 cash for my first car in my Junior year of High School. I was active in the train hobby but spent most of my time finding ways to add another foot here and there to my 4x8 layout without my parents noticing. I do recall saving up to get a Lionel postwar Santa Fe F3 and some beat up 2500 series cars of ebay when I was in high school. It turned out to be the single motor version, but that was my dream engine for as long as I had been in O gauge, so it was worth every penny.
I delivered the paper to buy records. 45s. You know, the round vinyl things that only played two songs?
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
