Rant #1,480: Delivering the Newspaper

During Craig Biggio's eloquent Baseball Hall of Fame speech on Sunday, he mentioned that he delivered the daily newspaper as a kid growing up in Kings Park on Long Island.

So many people have delivered the newspaper while they were growing up.

It is almost the All-American thing to do.

Doctors, lawyers, politicians ... you name the occupation, and at one time or another as kids, they delivered the newspaper.

I did too.

I started my newspaper delivering career as a backup deliverer for the old Long Island Press.

I did it exactly one time, one time only, and I was terrible.

I was sick the Sunday morning that I did it, the papers were late, and I think that after that experience, I was crossed off the list as someone who could be trusted to deliver the newspaper on a Sunday morning.

I also helped a friend deliver the newspaper, but I am sure he probably would have been happier if I was not there "helping" him. He could move faster and get the job done quicker alone.

He is now a doctor. I am sure he doesn't need my assistance doing that job.

Anyway, when I did this newspaper delivering, I was probably 12 or 13 years old.

Flash forward nearly 30 years later, and due to economic problems--my divorce nearly killed me--I took up my second newspaper job, as an adult deliverer.

I delivered the New York Times overnight in a neighboring town to where I live, and it was the hardest, easiest job I ever had.

The hard part was the hours. I would go to bed at 7 p.m., wake up at about 11 p.m., take a shower and get my butt down to the depot before 12 midnight.

It would take me about two or two and a half hours to deliver the newspaper during the week and on Saturday, but on Sunday, it took probably about three or three and a half hours to do this.

It wasn't difficult, and once you got the hang of it, it was pretty easy.

You were like a robot, going from house to house on your route.

And you delivered the papers from your own car, so it made you comfortable.

But driving around at that time of night was interesting.

I did get stopped by the police a few times, but once the police got to know me and the car I drove in, they actually used me as sort of a night watchman.

They would stop me from time to time and ask if I had seen anybody or anything strange, or if I had seen someone that they were pursuing.

Once, I actually saw some kids who were not doing nice things to some cars. This was pre-cell phone days in the mid 1990s, and I just couldn't phone in what I saw like I would today.

I told them that the police were looking for them, and that they had better stop what they were doing.

Who knows what happened after that; I had newspapers to deliver.

I ran over a dog once while doing this, I never saw the thing and the dog never saw me.

I would have preferred to have run over some of my customers, a few of which were impossible to please.

They asked for their paper to be put in special places, like in the mailbox, on the side of the house, or inside the door. I obliged everyone's request, of course, but some people you simply could not please.

If, let's say, the newspaper was put behind the door, and perhaps it fell and the door door didn't close all the way, which meant the paper was half sticking out the door, you just know that I would hear about it the very next day.

Other times, people would steal the paper I delivered, so some people did not get their newspapers.

And then, there were others who said I delivered the newspaper too early for them.

Whatever the case, I did these deliveries while my wife was pregnant with our son, and I did this while I lost my job when he was a baby.

There were some nights that I did this that I simply did not go to sleep at all due to things that I did during the day. There was simply no time for sleep, and I just went to the depot sometimes not having slept for a day or two.

When my son was born, I would come home, and he often needed a feeding at about 3:30 a.m., and with one eye open, I would feed him, put him back in his crib, and maybe sleep for an hour or two.

When I still had my regular job, I went to that job at about 5 a.m., often shaved in the bathroom there, and everything was hunky dory. I had to drive into Queens back then for my job, but it was a relatively easy drive during that time of morning. At night, it was a horror show.

During the portion of time that I delivered the paper while I was out of work, I simply began my job hunting very early in the day after getting a few hours sleep.

This went on until my 39th birthday, on April 28, 1996.

I was hired at my new job--the job I am still at to this day--the previous month, and one morning, for the first and only time, I conked out at work for about 20 minutes. Luckily, no one saw me, but I simply passed out.

At that time, I decided that the marriage between the newspapers and me was over, and after having done this for slightly over a year, I left my newspaper delivery position. The people liked me there, and said that if I ever needed a route, they would find one for me.

Happily, that has not happened, and my last day was my birthday, making the whole thing that much better.

I don't know how I did this job, but there were people in all walks of life who delivered the paper. There were moms, dads, blue collar, white collar ... everyone.

Some people actually had several routes, and did this for a living.

I have no idea how they did this, but they did. And they made decent money doing it.

My route paid $150 a week, plus tips, of which I received little if anything. I knew one guy who had four routes, all large, so he made at least $600 a week, with tips, and he worked some wealthy areas, and during the holiday season, he would often get tips of $1,000 or more.

Whatever the case, newspaper delivery is something that I did, and I have no regrets.

It did not lead to a Hall of Fame baseball career like what happened to Craig Biggio, but it teaches you discipline and responsibility, traits that you can use on your actual daily job, and in life.

And there's nothing wrong with that, is there?