Inky Fingers

When I was growing up, my family subscribed to two newspapers:
(1) Vista's The Vista Press
(2) Oceanside's The Blade-Tribune

As a traditional, printed newspaper, The Vista Press stopped its presses in 1995. However, since 2012 Kathy and Terry Woods have run a theVistaPress.com Web site that brings the original publication into the modern era.

The Blade-Tribune's recent history is more complicated. In 1989 The Blade-Tribune was merged with The Citizen to form The Blade-Citizen. In 2005 The Blade-Citizen was merged with Escondido's The Times-Advocate to form The North County Times. In 2012 The North County Times was taken over by U-T San Diego. As of this writing, U-T San Diego is the only daily newspaper serving San Diego's North County.

My first job

For a little over a year - from June 1977 to July 1978 - I was a Blade-Tribune paperboy. My district manager supervisor was one Barbara H. Ramsey, a hard-working, hustling woman who often seemed on the verge of physical collapse. I think I got along with Barbara reasonably well even if she was a bit unhappy with me because I never did any soliciting.

Most of my paper route lied in Vista's Buena neighborhood. I did my paper route on a chestnut Schwinn Varsity 10-speed, I bike I still have; a paper route bike should be sturdy enough to handle city streets, which are (ahem) not always in the best of shape, and a low-end Schwinn bike is ideal in this respect.

At the time I started my route, a monthly Blade-Tribune subscription cost $3.25; it was up to $3.75 at the time I quit. I initially had about 60 subscribers - almost twice the normal route size, I was told - the 60 number crept up to 80 or so after a few months. At some point I handed over half of my route to another carrier; I had 41 subscribers on my final day (yes, I still have my final carrier billing invoice). I earned $50-$70 a month, depending on the number of subscribers.

All in all I did not like being a paperboy, for the following reasons:

• I disliked the tedium of folding and rubber-banding all those papers before hitting the road. Fortunately, my grandmother, who lived next door, often helped me with these tasks.

• Collecting at the end of the month was a hassle more often than not. I don't have any money, can you come back later? was a common refrain. Some subscribers weren't home at the time I made my rounds, or were home but wouldn't answer the door when I knocked (maybe they just didn't hear me).

• I intensely hated getting up at 5 AM Sunday morning for the paper's Sunday edition. I had some familial help here too: my father was charitably willing to take half of the Sunday papers to a midway point on the route as they wouldn't all fit in my carrying bag.

However, on a normal delivery day when I was out riding around on my bike, being a paperboy wasn't so bad. There are definitely worse jobs out there.

From means to end

I have a spotty history as a newspaper reader: at times I have read newspapers at least once a week or even daily but at other times I haven't read them at all. As for many people, my newspaper reading, such as it was, took a major hit with the advent of the Web.

I frequently read a newspaper in a coffeehouse - primarily Starbucks, to a much lesser extent CC's - when I lived in New Orleans. I would amble in during the 11-12 AM hour and parts or all of the day's The Times-Picayune would be sitting in a little paper holder or strewn about the furniture/tables. With a large dark roast in hand, I went after the sections that held the comics and the op-eds. Many of the other patrons were staring into their laptops; I was there in part to get away from my computer. I have fond memories of reading the full-color comics on Sunday morning at the Maple Street Starbucks after making a recycling run.