I Never had a Bike

This is not in way of a complaint. I just never had a Bike. You have to remember
I was a Depression Baby and those kinds of things were just not in the budget of
the ordinary home. Ralph was a bit inventive. He found the frame of a cast off bike.
He went about finding the additional parts and put a bike together so he could get
a Paper Route to earn his own money. He never updated that awful looking thing
he made. He would rather spend his money on other things that he wanted, after
all he: "had a bike". Now Ronald was a different person all together. He sat about
getting a Paper Route and he and Ralph used one bike to do both Routes and split
the money evenly. Ron had to ride on the handle bars and both the boys carried
their Paper Bags over their shoulders, which made it a bit akward when they first
started out every morning. By the time they finished they were managing better.
Ron saved his money and when he had reached the price, he bought a beautiful
red Bike with a rack on the back. Now one would think the rack would hold his
paper bags so he could ride and deliver his papers more comfortably. You thought
wrong if that was what you came up with. By then I was big enough to have a
Paper Route as well. So the Smith Kids now had three Paper Routes. Ralph did
his and Ron put me on the rack and he and I did a double route. What a site.
Each morning we would go down to the Signal, pick up our papers and set in the
cold and fold them and stuff them in the Paper Bags. Then we would put the bags
on the bikes and away we would go. Of course the best paying was to the houses
where you "porched" the paper. Many a time I would climb down off the bike and
run pick up the paper that hadn't made it to the porch and put it where it should
have gone. When we went collecting for the Papers we had delivered, there was
usually a tip that went with the price of the Papers. If we missed a house for some
reason we would have to go back and hand deliver a paper. That didn't happen very
often, we were very dependable "Carriers". I think my biggest part of the job was
folding and stuffing. I don't think I got a full share of the money earned, but then I
really didn't need that much, it was just great being with the boys and doing the
job with them. When we would get back home, we would go back to bed for a
short time just to get warmed up. That was my first economic experience, and I
enjoyed it, cold, wet sometimes and all.
Written this 2nd day of February 2009