Today is International Newspaper Carrier Day, a day to honor the folks who get up early in all kinds of weather to bring this newspaper to you.
The Messenger-Inquirer is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. And here is a look at the memories of four former carriers out of the hundreds who have delivered this newspaper through the years, through rain, snow, bad dogs and customers who didn’t want to pay.
Barry Carden, circulation director and production manager at the Messenger-InquirerCarden delivered newspapers from 1972 to 1978
“I guess I’ve never outgrown my newspaper days,” he said. “My older brothers, Dale and Dwight, were carriers, so it was just a rite of passage. I believe we carried the same area and route, just off Legion Boulevard near Legion Park.”
Carden said, “I was 12 when I started delivering. I got up at 4:15 a.m. and most days I was back home by 5:30-5:45 a.m. I even had time to get some more sleep before school.”
He said, “I learned a lot of life skills at an early age from my route days that have served me well throughout all of my newspaper days. They have just continued on. I learned the importance of customer service, dependability, reliability, time management and money management.”
Carden said, “When I started collecting from customers each week, this was a time of interacting and meeting and learning customer expectations. Collecting was how you earned your money. Good service made collections much easier. My route allowed me to save money to afford to buy a new car when I started driving. I often say I never had more spendable money than when I had a route.”
He said, “Big weather events always create strong memories. The winters of ’77 and ’78 were big, especially ’78. I remember walking through more than a foot of snow for six weeks with temperatures during part of that time below zero. I remember the first day of that winter storm my papers didn’t arrive at my house until after noon. I remember going out when they arrived to deliver them.”
Carden said, “I met with then Gov. Julian Carroll when he met with carriers from across the state and he issued a proclamation honoring carriers on International Newspaper Carrier Day.
After high school graduation, he said, “I had the opportunity to become district manager in the circulation department as I started classes at Kentucky Wesleyan. I worked full-time and attended school full-time. My schedule was full.”
Carden said, “I had opportunities to take on new roles as I continued at Kentucky Wesleyan. My degree in accounting and management were beneficial as I moved into management positions. I was department manager shortly after graduation. Opportunities have continued throughout my career as the company added more publications to our group.”
He said, “My role expanded with my involvement into production management. While I have never been involved on the news or advertising sides, I have participated in most areas of the newspaper. When I started, my focus was the Messenger-Inquirer. Now my involvement reaches across Kentucky and into Indiana, Illinois and now Missouri. With 60-plus publications, we have expanded our reach. The lessons learned on my paper route continue.”
Ron Rhodes, meteorologist at Channel 25 WEHT-TV.Rhodes said he started delivering the Messenger-Inquirer in 1980 when he was a high school freshman and continued delivering it until 1983 when he graduated.
“I delivered in the Fieldcrest area and Griffith Avenue,” he said. “It was a coveted area. I delivered to Lawrence Hager Sr., John Hager and Sen. Wendell Ford. I made sure their paper was delivered on time.”
The Hager family owned the Messenger-Inquirer back then.
“The yards on Griffith Avenue were so big I had to ride up the drives,” Rhodes said. “Sometimes, I would ride across the yards. One time when I was riding across yards, this big St. Bernard came out of the dark. He was as big as a bear.”
He said with a laugh, “I put quite a few papers on the roof.”
Rhodes said, “I could usually do my route in 25 to 30 minutes — unless it was snowing. If it rained, I had to take time to bag the papers and that took more time.
He said, “It was the first time I had ever earned money. But I hated collection days. Some people wouldn’t answer their doors on collection day.”
Rhodes remembered practical jokes he and David Weaver, a friend, played on each other.
“David had the route next to mine,” he said. “We would have big bundles of Sunday papers strapped together. Whoever got up first would go to the other’s house, put one of their bundles in a tree and cut the strap. It was hard to get them down without them coming apart. It was a prank that we kept going.”
Of course, advertising flyers would slide out of the papers and have to be restuffed.
Judson Cook, store director at Academy SportsCook said, “I started when I was 13. I guess that would have been 1985 and I continued until I graduated from Apollo in 1991.”
He said, “I had 85 houses on my route in Town & Country. We had to be done by 6 or 6:30 a.m.”
Cook said, “I’ve been in retail since 1995. In any interview, when they would ask the most rewarding job I’ve had, I would say my paper route. It taught us work ethic and time management.”
He said, “Throwing papers on the roof or breaking windows was bad. I learned to avoid doing that.”
Cook said his dog did the route with him every morning.
“Most times, I just walked,” he said.
Cook said, “The worst days were Derby Sundays. Those papers were so big you couldn’t fold them. Fridays were the best. You could fold those papers and walk down the street throwing to both sides. It was a great job for a kid.”
Jody Porter, Social Security AdministrationShe said, “I delivered the Messenger-Inquirer for almost 20 years, until four or five years ago.”
Porter said, “I started with a walking route along Griffith Avenue and McCreary. Then, I delivered bundles to carriers, then I filled racks. My last job was a motor route along Pleasant Valley Road, that area.”
She said, “When I started, I had to collect myself. Now, they pay in advance. You had to threaten to stop delivery for some people to get them to pay. Some would say, ‘I left a check for you. Didn’t you get it?’ Well, obviously not. But you got to know people and they watched out for you. My happiest day was when carriers no longer had to collect.”
Delivering newspapers in the early morning darkness presented problems.
“One day a dog came running around the corner of a house and I screamed so loud I scared the dog,” Porter said. “I could write a book. We delivered after the tornado and during the ice storm. Once, I saw somebody casing houses. And there was somebody dressed as the Grim Reaper and it wasn’t even close to Halloween.”
Once downtown when she was putting newspapers in racks, a woman wearing only a sheet chased a man past her.
And there was a time when she saw an owl perched on a mailbox.
“I didn’t realize owls got that big,” Porter said. “It was huge.”
Watching the sun come up over a snowy landscape “was so peaceful,” she said. “I enjoyed that.”