I first began my newspaper career when I was just eight years old.
Mind you, I wasn’t some outstanding young writing prodigy who was picked up by a publication due to my ingenious insights and observations at the time.
I was, in fact, a paperboy who subcontracted work with a morning newspaper from one of my older brothers who had a paper route in our neighbourhood, and delivery vans would drop several bundles of papers at our house every weekday morning at about 4:30 a.m.
There were always more newspapers delivered then there were houses on the paper route, and the distribution managers would encourage my brother, and all their other carriers, to find ways to sell the rest of them and make some extra money for themselves, including standing up on the side of the road with papers in hand to interest passing’s motorists with the news of the day.
Those papers were sold for 15 cents each (needless to say it was a different time), and the seller would receive five cents of that, but my brother wasn’t interested in doing anything other than his paper deliveries so I, sensing an opportunity, stepped in to deal with the extra papers for him.
In those days, five cents a paper was enough of a profit margin to interest me, and I would stumble out of bed before dawn each morning, grab a bunch of papers and head to the busy roadway near my house that was full of morning traffic.
I could never sleep in because the younger brother of another paper carrier in an adjacent neighbourhood who was also trying to sell excess newspapers would always try to run to the road ahead of me and get the best side of it.
That best side was, of course, the one that was coming into town as people were heading to work which was always busy at that time of the day, while the other side, the one heading out of town, had barely a fraction of the traffic.
I remember standing in front of my house in the dark and cold before the sun started to appear each day waiting for the delivery van so I could get moving as fast as I could in an effort to beat my rival to the prime location, which was successful only some of the time as he was obviously in as much need of the spending money as I was.
Half asleep and freezing much of the time, I would wave papers at the passing motorists and more than a few would stop to buy a newspaper so they could get on top of what was happening locally and around the world that day.
For those younger readers who are reading this column, it should be said that there was a time before computers and smartphones when a lot of people relied on newspapers to keep them informed of what was happening around them.
On many occasions, the motorists would invite me to sit in their vehicles to warm up while I scrambled through my pockets to give them their change from the purchase of the newspapers.
In retrospect, and considering that I was just a small youngster, I think it was very trusting of me to get in those cars with strangers in the wee hours of the morning, but I never felt any threat from the motorists and I don’t recall any responsible adults telling me that this wasn’t a good idea.
As mentioned, it was different time and child abductions were not very common then, or at least we didn’t hear much about them.
Some successful days, which would be those that I sold papers from the good side of the road, I would make anywhere from $1 to $2 in profits from selling the newspapers, while on some other days I would walk away with just 25 cents.
And after spending several hours at it each morning, I would catch a bus and head to school for the rest of the day.
When I think back on it now, it seems there was a lot of hard work and loss of sleep (and even potential danger) in my earliest job at a newspaper.
But I always had some money in my pocket to pay for the little pleasures that all kids enjoy and, for me, that made it all worthwhile.