Spent some time and dedication in newspaper delivery

It passed without notice by most of the readers of this newspaper. But once it was a special day for myself and others who grew up doing what I did for spending money.

Yes, National Newspaper Carrier Day on Sept. 4 probably slipped right past you last week. Indeed, if I hadn’t been alerted to it by a television news anchor it would have gotten by me too. One of the news anchors seemed stupefied by the fact that newspaper carriers had their own day and even a hall of fame. The other anchor seemed to just play it cool since he was so young he didn’t know what a newspaper carrier was.

I was a newspaper carrier beginning at the tender age of 11 — about six months shy of the age the “Little Merchant” rules said I needed to be before getting a route. Rules were made to be broken and I was sure glad Circulation Manager Lewis Toland placed his faith in me. I was glad until I had to ride Route 27 in the first wet windstorm.

We did paper routes on bicycles back in the olden days. It helped limit greenhouse gases and we were very socially responsible in the early 1970s.

I learned all about credit operating a paper route, but I learned it from the lender side unlike the way most people learn by borrowing. Each month I extended credit to my subscribers and collected from them for the papers I delivered and was billed for by the newspaper. Route 27 had lots of deadbeats and since many were students or faculty at Eastern New Mexico University you needed to be on your toes in May as many graduated or changed jobs. I was beginning to understand why an 11-year-old would do on this route.

I prospered, but not greatly, on Route 27 and eventually Route 9, closer to home, came open and I got it too. I was waiting for Route 6, where we lived, to come open and eventually it did and I got it and finally got shed of ol’ 27.

Route 6 had lots of yearly pays through the office and residents that owned their homes and didn’t leave in the middle of the night, stiffing the paperboy.

I got to be so good as a paperboy that I won the Portales News-Tribune Carrier of the Year. When I had enough carbon credits from running my routes on a bike I was able to purchase my first car, a 1968 Ford Fairlane Fastback.

I went to work in circulation at the newspaper and ran more routes, even motor routes where you could drive at top speed from paper tube to paper tube, sometimes weaving all over the road and darting in and out of driveways and such.

I trained kids to run routes, eventually I hired and fired carriers at several different papers. My wife’s grandfather got a huge kick out of running the motor route in Logan with me. Mack and I got along great after that day.

I was hands-on delivering newspapers well up into my 20s and often pitched in even after I was a weekly publisher. All that dedication and I’m not in the Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]