Media; Then and Now.. Hey, if it's in the paper it must be true.

A small side note; 3 days ago my dad would have been 95. He died in 1986 after a life of smoking. I figured a long time ago, when his mother lay dying that she was 90, he was 60, and I was 30; exact numerical generations apart.

 My first memory of a newspaper that mattered was when I became a paperboy for the now defunct Grand Rapids Herald; a daily morning paper delivered in Western Michigan up until 1963. When I was 11 I stood in the middle of Main Street in Lowell, Michigan, the small farm town I grew up in, and shouted out, while waving a paper in my hand, "Extra, Extra, Ike Wins by a Landslide." It wasn't Times Square, but it was big news and our small group of newpaper boys sold lots of papers that day. This was Nov., 1956.

It was a great paper to work for and my friends and I made the hard work seem like play on warm summer mornings. In  the bitter cold Winter days we met at Mrs. Fuller's house where we would fold our papers around the heater in her living room. We were all bundled up in our mittens, scarfs, and heavy winter coats to ward off the cold of the dark mornings.
The paper did much to support and encourage our efforts, both to provide good service to our customers, and to expand circulation of the paper in the area. Some of us were taken by car to solicit in other small towns; signing up new customers with the promise of good service and prompt delivery. I don't know about the other boys (no girls had routes, but my sister Jane helped sometimes on Sundays when the paper was it's biggest), but I was a pretty good salesman even at 11 or 12 years of age. We would be dropped off in rural towns and told to knock  on doors and get people to sign up for the paper and insurance that was offered as well. I would cajol and compliment people about their nice lawns, and well trimmed hedges. I also assured them that the boy delivering the papers would do a great job, (even though I didn't have any idea who he was or how hard he worked,)
The Herald offered us a chancd to buy things either my making mayments or cashing in points we earned through sales. This is how I bought a new Schwinn bicycle and also bought gifts for my family at Christmastime.  The paper also held contests for the best sellers and I won several trips because of mt sales skills. I won a trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and took the Milwaukee Clipper ferry across Lake Michigan to stay in a YMCA, and go either to see the Milwaukee Braves play or go to a local amusement park. I chose the park. I later won a trip to Silver Beach Amusement Park in southwest Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan. The best trip I got was when I finished 2nd in a state-wide competition for new customers and won a trip to Jacksonville, Florida, as the age of 11. I traveled Ted R. a Dutch boy who had recently emigrated to the States and finished 3rd in the State. We had done very well for two boys from a small farm town against those boys from bigger cities. Our local paper, the Lowell Ledger posted a photo of us and a short story. To my dismay they reported wrongly that Ted had placed 2nd and I had placed 3rd., But, we had a fantastic time taking a train from Detroit to Florida, walking the beach at Daytona, and drinking from the Fountain of Youth in Saint Augustine.  I wonder if he is "forever young" too,.

Much more to come about writing for a campus newspaper in San Diego, and moving on to Humboldt State in Northern California where my journalism program put in the dark room late at night, and down on the local nude beach during the day; not all on the same day thought.