Were YOU a paper boy? Did YOU have to help scrub floors and clean the toilet?

[graciegirl]

Sweetie did. I did.

[Cisco Kid]

You had Toilets ?

We had the corn field next to us.

The rich in town had outhouses.

[graciegirl]

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608047703208822806&pid=1.7

Sweetie says he used a wagon for Sunday papers because they were heavy.

This was the time in history before allowances and before children were abducted off their bikes. This information for YOUNGER villagers....;)

[Bay Kid]

I lived in rural Virginia and I sold/delivered Grit newspaper when I was around 8 years old. At 14 I was cleaning pots and pans, scrubbing floors and cleaning the toilets at the Yorktown Navy base. Mom & Dad believed in working so I never knew any difference. Great training for life.

[DonH57]

Only in the boys' sheriff ranch.

[vinricci]

Delivered the Long Island Press when I was 12, seven days a week for 4 years. Great learning experience about life and human nature.

[Madelaine Amee]

I was sent to spend the summer with my Nana and Gramps and I firmly believe she was a close relative of Attila the Hun and my Gramps was deaf as a post (which worked in his favor with her) and was the sweetest old man that ever lived. She taught me to cook and clean and he taught me to garden, all of which I still enjoy today. Loved that old couple .................

[missypie]

Didn't deliver papers but did scrub toilets, wash and wax floors, shoveled snow, picked weeds, folded towels and other normal things that one does as they are growing up in a household. It was normal then and is normal now for my children and their families. I knew of only two wealthy families growing up that had cleaning ladies. Only after the age of 75 did my parents have a cleaning person come to the home and they felt guilty!

[SALYBOW]

I did it all and lived to tell about it. LOL

[bagboy]

I used the wagon on my early morning paper route until I saved enough money to buy the saddle bags for my ten speed bike that held 100 or so papers. 4 am could be scary in my neighborhood, but I survived.

[TheVillageChicken]

Delivered papers on my bicycle and when I got older, my Cushman Eagle. Caddied at the Country Club, and ......hated this one....picked cotton on my Grandfather's farm.

[Wandatime]

Mom had a surefire way to keep us out of trouble between the time we got home from school and she got home from work: us four girls were in charge of sweeping and mopping the kitchen, vacuuming the rest of the house, cleaning both bathrooms, dusting, and doing the laundry. We had this same list of chores EVERY DAY. There was barely enough time to watch Gilligan's Island. Boy, her house wasn't nearly as clean once all her servants left for college.

[JerryP]

Delivered the Long Island Press when I was 12, seven days a week for 4 years. Great learning experience about life and human nature.

I also delivered the LI press, (ENY). And yes, you learned a lot about human nature.

[Villages PL]

My aunt was a paper girl, my uncle was a paper man and my brother was a paper boy. Then I became a paper boy. Being a "paper person" means being careful around fire.

[pivo]

I use to peddle the scranton morning papers up at 4 in the morning done by six thirty

The I sold the scranton blue streak a late night paper, at the time their were no night
baseball, so all mlb games was played during the day, and we had all the baseball scores that night before next days papers

[BobandMary]

We both delivered the Bulletin. Bob was in Phila. I was in the suburbs. It was 8 cents a copy. He still has his original wooden Bulletin wagon. I scrubbed toilets and cleaned Penn State dorm rooms during summer break one year.

[jimmemac]

Cost me 7 cents for the paper and I sold it for 10 cents!

[rubicon]

Yea I delivered papers and would use a red wagon for the Sunday Edition
Also had to clean house , wash han clothes for my Mom because she worked. I begged her not to let the guys see me hang clothes and often she comply.
i worked in a theater as an usher. when i went into the servie the transition was easy because I had become so self reliant and well versed in cooking and cleaning....it all paid off

[Tennisnut]

Got up at 4 am delivered papers, cleaned the house and also did the cooking. There wasn't no father, my mother was bed ridden with MS and my brother was two years younger. There were also some bed pans or other nursing issues. I also helped negotiate the $135 a month welfare payment with the social worker. Unfortunately, there were not as many social safety nets back then. I was 8 years old.

[OldManTime]

Sweetie did. I did.



I was a paperboy at 15, and at 16 I scrubbed toilets, and then onto a successful career

[Barefoot]

Got up at 4 am delivered papers, cleaned the house and also did the cooking. There wasn't no father, my mother was bed ridden with MS and my brother was two years younger. There were also some bed pans or other nursing issues. I also helped negotiate the $135 a month welfare payment with the social worker. Unfortunately, there were not as many social safety nets back then. I was 8 years old.

Bless your heart, you had a hard introduction to life.
Your mother was lucky to have such an enterprising son, and only eight years old.

[graciegirl]

Things when we were younger were sometimes not easy..I sometimes wonder how we made it through.

[Tennisnut]

Things when we were younger were sometimes not easy..I sometimes wonder how we made it through.

I was fortunate to to have a loving mother who taught me that adversity is challenge to be met and overcome. She was the strongest person I have ever met.

[graciegirl]

I was fortunate to to have a loving mother who taught me that adversity is challenge to be met and overcome. She was the strongest person I have ever met.


And I had grandparents who loved me very much. and expected me to scrub floors and clean the toilet and iron...just like all the other kids on the block.

[ugotme]

YEP - Delivered Newsday and LI Press (both Long Island papers), mowed lawns and worked at the supermarket.

WHEW! LOL

[KayakerNC]

Yep, was a paper boy....also had an exciting time working as a pin setter at a local bowling alley, those pin setting machines put a lot of kids out of work.
Basic Training was a real eye opener in clean-up work.

[kcrazorbackfan]

Living on the farm, I never was a paperboy. From about 7 y/o through my years in college, I worked on a cotton/soybean farm, a cotton gin, grain elevator, fertilizer warehouse - everything that had to do with a farm. After college, my career started as a LEO.

[elizabeth52]

I am the oldest of six and we all had jobs to do. No allowance in our house, just an expectation that you have to pitch in. My weekly job every Saturday was to clean our one bathroom from top to bottom. My daily task was to do the dishes, which was a huge job given the size of our family. If I dared to complain and ask why I had to do these things my mother would say, because I said so. I was 9 years old.
BTW....my dishes are done and my bathroom sparkles! Thanks, Mom!

[jebartle]

You are amazing...!



Got up at 4 am delivered papers, cleaned the house and also did the cooking. There wasn't no father, my mother was bed ridden with MS and my brother was two years younger. There were also some bed pans or other nursing issues. I also helped negotiate the $135 a month welfare payment with the social worker. Unfortunately, there were not as many social safety nets back then. I was 8 years old.

[karostay]

Delivered Grit weekly paper any Boy Scouts out here remember ?

[tomwed]

Got up at 4 am delivered papers, cleaned the house and also did the cooking. There wasn't no father, my mother was bed ridden with MS and my brother was two years younger. There were also some bed pans or other nursing issues. I also helped negotiate the $135 a month welfare payment with the social worker. Unfortunately, there were not as many social safety nets back then. I was 8 years old.
I always look forward to hearing your opinion. I could see you negotiating at 8, looking at all sides of the situation.

I think we are who we are from genes, environment and upbringing. I never met anyone that had so much adversity to overcome at such a young age. It sounds like a Dicken's story. I suspect a background like that could make you bitter and hateful or just the opposite too. You must have had a good mom and other loved ones around.

When I was 8 I did homework, went bowling on saturdays, played with my friends and swam in a little pool in the summers that my dad kept clean. It was 4 years before I had a route and I could keep all the money. My dad bought me a Schwinn Sting Ray so I could hang the canvas sack on the handlebars.

I never had to clean toilets or do the dishes. I do remember one time cleaning all the pots and pans with SOS when my parents went out when I was older. I wanted to surprise them. I didn't know what teflon was and that I ruined them. I found out years later.

I had it pretty good.

[kcrazorbackfan]

Things when we were younger were sometimes not easy..I sometimes wonder how we made it through.

I often hear from people "over 55" :laugh: about the good old days; I remember days from back then and I like things (well, most things - POTUS is less than desirable) the way they are - more disposable income, more things to do, the technology is incredible and most important, The Villages wasn't here during the good old days.

[applesoffh]

Delivered the Long Island Press when I was 12, seven days a week for 4 years. Great learning experience about life and human nature.

My husband delivered the Long Island Press, also, and remembers going on some great trips because of his sales. Said it was a great experience, and allowed him to buy himself comic books, much to his mother's dismay!

[golf2140]

Gracie,

Wow, does this bring back memories. Did all of them

[2BNTV]

I managed to escape. :smiley:

But then GOD must have considered me a long range project as he stuck me with a best friend, (aka - Felix Unger).

I use to be Oscar Madison and it took my best friend 35 years, to finally wear me down, to become, a desciple, of Felix Ungar. :D

My best friend's house is one where one can eat off the floor, and not get sick.

I am still under the 20 second rule. :smiley:

A big thank you to "Bobby", for converting me, to his cleaning habits, (Saturday is cleaning day, whether it needs it or not).

[caseycasebeer]

We lived on Cherry Point MCAS (North Carolina), and I delivered the "Navy Times" when it would come out once a week. Making the deliveries wasn't bad but I hated having to go out once each month to "collect." Most customer's were very good, and some would even pay 'ahead. Others...would try to stiff me for the $1.25/month cost and I really disliked having to confront them.

In 1957 my family was transferred to MCAAS Yuma (AZ). I was very active in Scouting, and got a job "bucking bales" of alfalfa for my scoutmaster at the princely hourly wage of $0.75/hour. The bales weighed more than I did!

Thinking back on it I think my Dad (Sergeant Major Casebeer...) actually got me the job with George Ogram (my scoutmaster). I'm sure Dad's rational was to "motivate" me to finish school and go to college. Smart Man; it worked.

After bucking bales in the Yuma sun, I learned that I would earn $1.25/hour if I got a lifeguard certificate from the Red Cross. Yahoo! Sitting by the pool, and making that much money ... and there were Girls! ...life was Good!

Fond memories.

Best,
Casey