The Paper Boy

I started delivering papers in Grade 6.

First the Toronto Star. Then the Orillia Packet & Times.

I had the perfect route. One road. No turns, no curves. Brant street. West to East. Never went East to West. Thirty homes. Twenty decent tippers. Four amazing tippers. One insane tipper. Five never tippers. Plus one dog, a real canine, who bit me. Twice.

Behind every mailbox, every screen door, every paper slot, and every front porch was a neighbour, a worker, a teacher, a preacher. Behind every door was a family, a widower, a factory worker, and an unemployed truck driver. Behind every door was someone who only bought the paper for the comics, the crossword, the Ann Landers letters, the sports pages, the employment ads.

Thirty little fortresses, yet all had much in common. They were Orillians. They lived on Brant Street. They were my customers.

I am pretty sure being their paper boy was where it started for me. You might call it people watching. Others may call it anthropology. I didn’t have a formal name for it. But it is a science.

It’s a study of what binds people. They weren’t just physical neighbours. They were neighbours. They watched each other’s kids. They watched each other’s backs. They cleared snow so their kids could walk to school. They cleared junk so they could rebuild. They found stray cats, stray dogs, and too often stray husbands.

They were a community.

I didn’t live on their street. But I was part of the street. I was the paper boy. But I didn’t know I mattered. Until one Christmas. Stupidly I lost a $5.00 tip from one family. Tearily I confessed my mistake to another customer.

As mad as I was, and my parents probably were, the neighbours were even more upset. They looked harder than I did for that fiver. Not because I lost it. Because they wanted to give it. They were proud someone in their community could give a $ 5.00 tip.

The meaning of this story may seem to have some loose connections, yet I tell it for one reason. A community is full of connections. There is nothing more powerful in the world.

A long time ago I helped build community by delivering the paper. Today I still build community for a living.