In the early 60's, I'd guess 1962-1964, I had a paper route...delivering the morning Gannett Democrat&Chronicle paper in the Chestnut Heights neighborhood. (In those days there was an evening paper, The Times Union, also published by Gannett Monday-Saturday.)
What a different thing a newspaper was in those days. It really delivered the NEWS and it was so full of ads that the weekly delivery rate was 60 cents. Think about that! They got an elementary school kid to get up every morning at 5:30 or 6:00 and deliver roughly 35 weekday/50 Sunday papers in the rain, or snow or freezing cold, by foot, before anyone went to work, and then go around weekly to those 50 houses on Friday afternoon and Saturday to collect the 60 cents...all for maybe $5.00 a week.
But there were some benefits :)
You got to read the headlines before anyone else and get the sports results. There were some absolutely beautiful mornings which would otherwise have been missed. You got to be the first one to walk through new fallen and sometimes crusty snow. You got to know every family in the neighborhood...at least to say hi and to visit houses you might never had had a chance to otherwise (with real, live teenage girls!!).
There were some grumps of course.....a few men who were waiting impatiently at the door if you were 10 minutes later than usual. There were those who never seemed to be home during collection which necessitated several visits back and sometimes paying up front for their paper.
But there were also some great folks who showed real kindness. It's funny. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but kindness to a kid doing a job for you is remembered for a long time and creates in that kid a positive sense about the world. So thanks to all those neighbors who were nice.
