Memories of The Paper Boy

The old movies would show the kid on the corner saying, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it", or the boy riding his bike down the street tossing newspapers.

Those were some of my earliest memories of the paper boy.

The old movies would show the kid on the corner saying, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it", or the boy riding his bike down the street tossing newspapers onto porches and into the bushes of residential neighborhoods. Those were some of my earliest memories of the paper boy.

The newspaper has been part of America's daily routine for so many years. Do you remember coming down in the morning and seeing your parents sitting at the table, with their face buried in the latest headlines?

I was a paper boy back in the 1970's when Binghamton had two daily papers, the Sun Bulletin, and the Evening Press. Then in 1985, the two papers were combined into one daily morning edition called the Press and Sun-Bulletin.

I delivered the original Sun-Bulletin and had to get up around 5 am to get the papers delivered before school. The drop off point was the Fairview Old Folks Home (now Good Shepard).

I remember it was the last drop off point for the paper truck and often the papers came late. A few times I even had to go to school and then deliver them on my lunch hour!

I also remember we had to fold and tuck them together to make them easier to toss.

The paper boy was also responsible for collecting the money. So once a week we had to go to the houses we delivered and get the payments. We had a coupon book with these little tabs in them and we would give the costumer a tab marking them paid for that week.

Today, with the majority of news is delivered via the internet. Physical newspapers are becoming obsolete, and experts say within the next decade, they may all be gone and with it, the paper boy.

Check out some footage of an old school paper boy below: