The Herald-Press

Newspapers had to be delivered seven days a week (well, five days and two nights.)  We would home school in the morning from 9 a.m. to noon, eat lunch, and head to the Herald-Press.  In the beginning there were the four of us, but it wasn't long before friends began to drop by and help roll papers.  We had a wonderful time!

Once the papers were rolled (300?), Larry and Jamie would load up their bicycles and throw the in-town routes. Christopher and I would load up the car and throw the houses farthest from town.  Rain, sleet, snow, dark of night - nothing stopped the delivery of newspapers.

Once, when my car broke down, I called pretty much the one person in town we had gotten to know:  John Watts.  I knew it was destined to become something more when he said that we could borrow his brand new Ford Tempo - the first brand new car he had ever owned.  On the phone he asked if I knew how to drive a standard transmission and, even though I assured him that I did, when he brought the car to me he made me drive him back to work just to prove I did.  Thinking back, his allowing us to load his brand new back seat with newspapers and drive around town in pouring rain with windows down...  He was either totally insane or in love - or both!

On Fridays we would throw newspapers in the afternoon, then go to Mrs. Baird's Thrift Store, and the boys could pick out what came to be known as Midnight Madness:  honey buns, powdered sugar donuts, cupcakes, whatever they wanted.  It was my way of saying thank you to them for being newspaper boys and a way to encourage them to get up at midnight to role papers and throw the routes.

Even at midnight friends would occasionally come by and help roll the papers.  Winter, summer, spring, and fall for three years?  four?  Toward the end things began to lose the "fun," but Larry, Jamie, and Christopher were always faithful.