Paper Doll

My first job ever was a paper route bestowed on me at 12 years old by Matt Hammett because he had outgrown it (that is what happens when you get your drivers license). For the millenials reading this - a paper route was something back in the day when papers were PRINTED and not online, and you had to actually deliver them daily to people who paid for subscriptions. This was before the interwebs and cell phones. I delivered the Macomb Daily to 55 customers through rain, sleet, snow and wind. In the winter I'd load up the plastic sled with my papers, and walk the 55 customer route, delivering the papers to the inside of my customer's storm doors around Charter Oaks and Fox Chase. It usually took about an hour after school. On Sunday's, I would come to "collect". One of my customers nicknamed me the Paper Doll. This would later become my CB handle on trips down to Athens to visit Nana - the truckers LOVED it! In the winter, I would look like the Michelin Man in my down coat, hood, scarf and gloves - all bundled up with only my eyes showing, knocking on the doors and saying "collect" and asking for the weekly fee. In the summer, I would load up the saddlebags on my mom's Schwinn, and ride the route. One particularly windy day, my bike blew over and I lost roughly 30 papers in the wind. I freaked out and went back to Matt in tears. He proceeded to put me in his car, drive me up to the Perry Drugs on the corner, put a quarter in the paper machine, and took out the 30 papers I needed. I was like "you CAN'T do that?!?!?!" But we did and I delivered those papers that day. What hit me hardest with this first job was the responsibility to always follow through, no matter what. You don't give up just because a puff of wind blows your bike over.