Andre98
04-25-2004, 09:37 PM
I was watching The Honeymooners and Ralph brought home the evening paper. That reminded me of the old days in Philly when we had afternoon deliveries of the Philadelphia Bulletin. When I was in Jr High, I spent a few weeks delivering the paper for my cousin when he went away to camp. I guess that was my first job. His Grandfather and I covered an outlying neighborhood of West Philly that bordered Fairmount Park...quiet tree lined streets. People left their kid's wagons and bikes out on the lawns for supper. The last part of the day was spent delivering in an apartment building. This was the summer of '73, and the apartments were called "The Watergate", coincidentally, right when the whole scandal w/ Nixon was in full swing in D.C.
We took the elevators to the top, dropping bundles at interim floors. Then floor by floor we each did one side of each floor. You dropped the paper flat and slid it under the door for most customers, except those tenants that had dogs that would tear it up, then you left the paper rolled up at the door and gave a knock...hardly necessary since Fido would be steady barking. Maybe it was wearing the bag with THE BULLETIN printed on it, or knowing that many would be sitting down after a hard day's work at dinner with the paper that I made sure they got, I loved that job, short as it was. The different smells of what people were cooking stirred the imagination of the variety of lives going on behind the doors. Rick's grandpop was swift for a old man. I knew he was ahead of me if the bundle we refilled our bags with at the interim floors had been cut into. That was incentive to pick up the pace and try to beat him to the next refill point. We always had extra papers, so if you met anybody along the way that wants to buy one, that dime was yours! a 50 cent day was good!
The Bulletin was one of two afternoon papers, with the Daily News, but the Bulletin was printed right in West Philly. It felt like our working class paper. I swear, sometimes the bundled papers were as warm as a shirt from a dryer. They retained the heat of the printing run. I guess the term "hot off the presses" came from that. You could read about something that had just happened that morning. The closing of the The Bulletin was one of the many signals of the passing of an era, as afternoon newspaper operations in many cities ceased.
Funny what memories a simple reference like that on a TV show can stir up.
We took the elevators to the top, dropping bundles at interim floors. Then floor by floor we each did one side of each floor. You dropped the paper flat and slid it under the door for most customers, except those tenants that had dogs that would tear it up, then you left the paper rolled up at the door and gave a knock...hardly necessary since Fido would be steady barking. Maybe it was wearing the bag with THE BULLETIN printed on it, or knowing that many would be sitting down after a hard day's work at dinner with the paper that I made sure they got, I loved that job, short as it was. The different smells of what people were cooking stirred the imagination of the variety of lives going on behind the doors. Rick's grandpop was swift for a old man. I knew he was ahead of me if the bundle we refilled our bags with at the interim floors had been cut into. That was incentive to pick up the pace and try to beat him to the next refill point. We always had extra papers, so if you met anybody along the way that wants to buy one, that dime was yours! a 50 cent day was good!
The Bulletin was one of two afternoon papers, with the Daily News, but the Bulletin was printed right in West Philly. It felt like our working class paper. I swear, sometimes the bundled papers were as warm as a shirt from a dryer. They retained the heat of the printing run. I guess the term "hot off the presses" came from that. You could read about something that had just happened that morning. The closing of the The Bulletin was one of the many signals of the passing of an era, as afternoon newspaper operations in many cities ceased.
Funny what memories a simple reference like that on a TV show can stir up.