Life as a Pre-teen Newsboy

It was the late 50s, a tad over 60 years ago. I was entering 8th grade as a 12 year old. 

I loved the idea of boating and skiing. My late father allowed that, if I paid half the cost in regular payments, he would buy me a boat.

I obtained my first job. I was a newsboy delivering afternoon papers for the Miami Daily News. 

The paper was established in 1896 (No contrary to popular belief, I was not alive at the time.) It became the Miami Daily News in 1925.

The job did not teach me the value of a dollar, the intention of my dad. No one was concerned in a city that had a very high crime rate in 20 years that, I might be in danger collecting bills at night, once a month. Apparently, a 12 year old on a bike with pocket change was not a worthy victim. 

Nevertheless, I think it was good to start on the workforce as a pre-teen. Buying that boat to a 12 year old was the equivalent, for me, of buying our first home when I was 35.

Too, Too Trite

If I hear the term new normal again, I may get ill. The same would be true for… I guess I have been reading too many good books.

You pen that first draft when you write. You return to edit the draft. If you see a word like icon, you cringe as though your arthritic toe has faced off with the tire of a Buick.

There is a trite, sports term that, thankfully, may have died. The commentators used to say in the game of American football, it’s a game of inches. That was valid once in fifteen thousand plays, BUT, it was the new normal.