When I was your age, I had to walk 10 miles in deep snowdrifts to get to sch.....................oh wait - wrong story.
Beginning in 1961, my bundle of newspapers was dropped off - out in the open - by the railroad tracks in Teaneck, about two blocks north of Cedar Lane. My route was sort of a straight line down to River Rd that involved 5 or 6 streets. It was almost a half-mile uphill walk to get back home.
The subscription rate was 33 CENTS A WEEK (no Sunday paper) and you could (almost) count on getting a quarter and a dime (whoopee!) when collecting every Thursday. I remember one nice old lady who gave me two quarters every week and one not-so-nice one who just stood there waiting for her 2 cents change.
One aspect that I haven't heard mentioned here because the system probably changed was that we were pushed very hard to sign up new subscribers along our routes. On a couple of occasions, carriers had to go to The Record building in the evening and sit at desks and cold-call people from lists we were given to get them to subscribe. I don't know if I sold a single subscription that way.
But I WAS very good at getting people who lived along my route to sign up. The Record had a prize program based on the number of subscriptions you sold and I got some great trips out of that. The best one was a May 1962 bus trip with other carriers to Washington, DC. We met in The Record parking lot and the bus had a big banner from The Record on its side. Of course, my mother took pictures. The banner said, "Another Recreational Educational Trip - The Record Newspaperboys" (no gurls alowed!).
We stayed at a motel just across the Potomac River in Virginia. I remember walking down all the steps in the Washington Monument, visiting the Treasury, the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and Arlington National Cemetery for the Changing of the Guard. I have a picture of me wearing my Honor Carrier sweater in front of the White House. We got in the gate and got close to the building, but I don't think we went inside (JFK supposedly wasn't home that day).
But the thing I remember most was that I had a big transistor radio with me in the motel and could actually pick up powerful WABC-AM in NYC (Cousin Brucie!)................but only when the motel room's bathroom door was open. If one of my roommates needed to use the bathroom, the songs ended. Weird.
I also got to go an Army-Navy football game at the Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (later the JFK Stadium) and a NY Rangers game at the old Madison Square Garden on 8th Ave between 49th and 50th streets. I'm sure there were other prizes besides trips, but I don't recall them.
The Record carriers also had official rankings, based on subscription-selling ability. I don't remember what the lower tiers were, but the top two were Ace and Honor carrier. When you reached Ace, you got that trophy. When you hit Honor, you slid the Ace plate out out of the trophy and replaced it with an Honor one, as seen in my previous post. You also got the Honor Carrier sweater, which - for some reason - doesn't fit me so well anymore.
Of course, I still have my Bergen Record carrier bag (thanks, Mom).