Kids don’t have paper routes anymore. For some reason newspaper companies decided to have adults deliver papers from cars. Kind of a shame, really. Kids learned responsibility and discipline from delivering every paper every day. They learned how to keep on keeping on through all kinds of vile weather. They earned a few dollars they could spend, and maybe even use to help out at home. Parents who had paper routes also acquired a life time’s worth of stories. These stories are very handy for boring their kids, and can be brought out during “discussions” about how easy things are for kids these days: “It was 47 below, and all my customers were uphill.”
Picture the scene: a kid delivering the Hartford Courant in the winter darkness. He/she slogs though four inches of slush in freezing rain for two cents a paper. How thrilled do you imagine that young person was at that moment? The answer of course is that they are not enjoying it. Not one little bit! But they keep on, putting one foot in front of the other until they can get home, get changed, and get to school.
Doesn’t sound like a fun walk, and it wasn’t. But that was then and this is now. Today is sunny, and for the first time in quite a while the temperature will be average for this time of year. It is May! It will be warm all day. You know that many places are closed; options are limited. But everyone can get outside. Why not go for a walk, or eat your lunch outside? Crank up the grill? Sit in the sun? I guarantee it will lift your spirits and make your heart glad.
It won’t pay as well as delivering the Courant, but you can’t have everything.