Early Conditioning

I wish I could say that when I had started being a paper carrier over 2 years ago, that it was a brand new experience for me. The fact is, about 28 years ago, I found myself sitting at my local McDonald's with some strange man who I was scheduled to meet there. Sounds weird I know, going by today’s standard if some old guy was meeting some young kid at a McDonald's…I think it would only be a matter of seconds before a swarm of police officers would take the guy down. Seems everyone nowadays is a potential pedophile/child predator. Anyway…this was a legit meeting. A meeting to sign papers and go over procedures, other misc documents, blah, blah, blah. This was a meeting that a kid, who did not know any better, who would be recruited to become a paper carrier for “The Rocky Mountain News”, a Colorado newspaper.

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I don’t remember why I was there. What prompted me to want to do that? Maybe I was getting to the age where I wanted lots of “stuff” and my parents were financially stretched to thin. Perhaps my parents just thought I needed to learn a little responsibility. I do not know if it was either. I do remember how my father frowned at me wanting to deliver papers as he knew it was going to have to be a commitment from him as well.

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Back in the days we use to deliver newspapers via bicycle. I remember my yellow Schwinn 10 speed with some metal baskets attached to the rear wheel. I remember be responsible for collecting payment from the customers each month…and how painful that was. No one ever home or I’d get the “check is in the mail”. My income was based on whether or not the customer paid or not. When the weather was undesirable, my father would drive me on my route in the Chevy Citation. I remember once he ran over my foot. Some might call this one of those bonding moments between father and son. I vaguely remember the Blizzard of 82 in the Denver area; snow was as high as the roof. I think that is when my father decided I was done delivering newspapers…or he was.

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If I did not I have this experience when I was young, I do not think I would have even thought about doing it as an adult. I might be out delivering pizzas instead...Yes; I even worked at a Pizza Hut one summer… I was conditioned as a young boy for what I am doing today…