MY FIRST JOB

At about 11 years of age, I got my first job delivering daily newspapers in our home town. I would deliver about 80 morning papers each day. The first week, I earned sixty-five cents. I was very proud of this and could not wait to give this large sum to my mother.

My older brother, Wren, also had a paper route larger than mine. Once each year the local newspaper published an "oil edition". This was a large publication inserted into each of the Sunday papers (which was already large). Before Wren had delivered his papers this particular morning, he came back home in tears. The load of papers was simply too heavy for him to carry as he walked on his paper route.

Our mother saw his problem and immediately got dressed and shared the load with him on foot until all his 100 papers were delivered. My route had fewer customers so I didn't need any help.