giselle wrote:I identified with this poem because of my days as a 'paperboy', back when we were called that, although I had an afternoon route so I only had to do one morning a week but I liked the mornings, well, sometimes --- I like the way the newsagents action, 'his little sacrifice', flows out into the world:

between his knees so he can bring his blade up through the twine,
and through his little sacrifice he frees the day's headlines:

Very nice image. I never had my own paper route, but tagged along with my best friend on hers. I loved getting up early on Sunday mornings with her, especially in the winter. To go out into the dark and cold of January seemed daring and secret. The very best part was jumping back into her bed afterward with cold nosed and our clothes still on.

Here is my contribution for today:

Philip Larkin - The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.


I love the first stanza of this poem - can't you just hear the almost words.

Really unusual subject for a poem, but very evocative.

I'm the only one in our family who didn't have a paper round. My husband lived on the outskirts of a large town and so there were plenty of houses. All three of my kids had paper rounds in this village and its outskirts. But where I grew up, there were about eight houses per mile. LOL. The postman also delivered the newspapers. I'm such a hillbilly.

Saffron wrote: Very nice image. I never had my own paper route, but tagged along with my best friend on hers. I loved getting up early on Sunday mornings with her, especially in the winter. To go out into the dark and cold of January seemed daring and secret. The very best part was jumping back into her bed afterward with cold nosed and our clothes still on.

That's a great story Saffron, thanks. I guess with boys it was a bit different - I had a friend who helped me with my route sometimes and on Saturday mornings we used to go to his place after and raid the fridge and then watch Saturday morning cartoons (his family had TV cable, we only had rabbit ears).

And Penny, there are many great things about living in a rural area but finding 'employment' (even delivering papers) may not be among them, at least in some areas. I'm afraid you would not have made much money delivering papers with 8 customers or less per mile .. we used to earn about 2 cents per paper so you would have done an awful lot of peddling (assuming you had a bike) to earn 2 cents!

Well, at least papers paid more than coat hangers .. we used to collect piles of coat hangers and sell them to the dry cleaners .. for half a cent a piece.

giselle:

And Penny, there are many great things about living in a rural area but finding 'employment' (even delivering papers) may not be among them, at least in some areas. I'm afraid you would not have made much money delivering papers with 8 customers or less per mile .. we used to earn about 2 cents per paper so you would have done an awful lot of peddling (assuming you had a bike) to earn 2 cents!

I didn't care about earning money. I did have a bike and I used to peddle as fast as I could singing 'The Man from Laramie' - and was about as far away from Laramie....metaphorically speaking, as you could get. It was a song broadcast on the radio in those days, and I liked the tune.

I was allowed to ride the horses, bareback. One horse in return for bathing the farmer's wife's twin sons and putting them to bed, and the other horse (Copper) for nothing, because the owner liked me. Gosh, giselle, you have brought back some memories, quite unexpectedly...thankyou. xx

And those twin sons - you would be surprised if you knew who they are now. LOL

Well Penny, you are tougher than me. I've ridden a bit with a saddle but bareback looks way too painful!

And I agree, it wasn't about the money so much, I used to ride my bike everywhere as well, although I didn't sing 'The Man from Laramie' while doing so ... the little money I earned brought me greater independence because I didn't get an 'allowance' so I would have been broke without it .. with my money I could get on the bus and go anywhere in the city, or go to a movie or hang out downtown or whatever, and I bought stuff that I wanted, like sports stuff and records and I saved up for a stereo .. that was a great thing because then I could play my records real LOUD and impress my friends, which was very important to me at the time.

Oooh let's tell each other what we bought with our very own money. What a lovely subject. I'll try and make it poetic.

I did get pocket money from my Mum. It was one shilling a week, the first I remember, but I mostly bought sweets.
I used to steal empty bottles from behind the pub...and take them back to the shop in the village, and get threepence for three.
With which threepence I bought black and white mints. They were layered liquorice and white fondant cream cut into squares and I called them intermittent mints, because I liked words and I had asked my Mum what 'intermittent showers' meant whilst listening to the weather forecast on the radio.

When I grew older I got five shillings a week. I mostly bought nylon stockings with seams up the back from the market. My Mum bought my clothes, but nylon stockings were so prone to laddering, that I had to subsidise my supplies by buying my own. They cost three shillings and ninepence and were called 'London Bronze'. With the remainder of the money I bought makeup because I was one of those girls who was quite a plain child but suddenly became very pretty in my early teens. So I was really very vain.

Then I fell in love with Tommy Steele, and Elvis Presley and all of my money went on gramophone records, 78rpm bakelite. So I fluttered my eyelashes and gave a seductive smile, and was given the job of helping the man on the market to pack up his records after I finished school, and I even used to go with him in his van to other markets at the weekends and sell records. So I used to get a special discount on any I wanted to buy. That's when I bought all the records of Gerry Lee Lewis at the same time as I was buying records of the London Philharmonic orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, and Beethoven. Opera by Owen Brannigan, and Mario Lanza. Jazz by Chris Barber and Acker Bilk. I thought I was a beatnik - much more left bank of Paris, than hippy flower child.

When I started work and earned a wage - I had already met Norman (we met when I was fourteen and still at grammar school). So then, with my wages, I gave one third to my Mum for my keep, I saved one third for my wedding, and I had the last third as pocket money and I bought books mainly (Dennis Wheatley) and 'things' for my bottom drawer. Plates and pots and pans.......

And now, I still buy books mainly, but I work with them so get them at discount prices, as I did the Elvis records.

Manipulative...moi?

I always received a small allowance when I was young which I probably spent on penny candy. When I turned 12, I was given a $25 a week clothing allowance which I also supplemented with babysitting money. I was a careful shopper and saved up until the sales were on to get more for my money. I did not spend my money on records, but just listened to the ones my older sisters bought, or the radio, as I preferred to save my money. I did not buy books either as I had a great public library just a block from my house that I visited regularly. The only thing that I did spend (waste) my money on was cigarettes for the few years that I picked up that terrible habit (epidemic in my neighbourhood at that time). Glad I was able to kick that habit before it became too ingrained...smoke free for 34 years!

realiz said:

Glad I was able to kick that habit before it became too ingrained...smoke free for 34 years!

Oh, good for you. I didn't start to smoke until I was 21! How stupid is that??

I stopped whilst I was having babies, then started again....Even more stupid.

But I haven't smoked for three years now. I sometimes dream that I am smoking and am so upset with myself, then, when I wake up I'm so happy that it is only a dream.

Penelope wrote: Oooh let's tell each other what we bought with our very own money.

When I was kid I attended a summer program at the local YMCA, there was swimming and gym and arts .. most of us boys were keen on swimming and gym but would slip away when it was time for arts. Next door to the Y was a shop, Tom Munro Sports, which carried mostly hockey gear and skis. It was an old fashioned sports store, the kind that have largely disappeared, packed from floor to ceiling with hockey gear, and it was dark and cool and smelled of new gear. I was lucky to have a quarter in my pocket at the time, so there was nothing I could afford in Tom Munro Sports. But I loved going in there, ducking off the hot sidewalk and wandering about in the store, bumping up against the gear and joking with my friends.

Later, in my early teens, when I had a paper route and I was still doing the Y program (only the swimming part because I was doing my lifeguard certification), I recall wandering into Tom Munro’s while I was waiting for mom to pick me up. I knew that there were cheaper places to buy hockey gear and that I shouldn’t spend money here but I wanted, just this once, to buy something at Tom Munro’s .. I had only $10 in my pocket so I couldn’t buy much but I picked out a couple of small items and went to the counter. The guy was friendly, he knew me from all those summers of hanging out in his store, maybe he was Tom Munro? I don’t know, but he was a nice guy .. he rang me through and gave me a free hockey puck!

I think Tom Munro’s went out of business, its not there anymore and everybody shops at the big box sports stores anyhow, but I did go back before it closed and bought my first pair of skis. I had a part time job by then and had saved up for this big purchase (over $100!). I drove myself to Tom Munro’s that day, in my mom’s car.

giselle, you always were a very sporty type, weren't you? I know you are still a runner.

I liked horse riding but other than that I wasn't ever interested in competitive sport. They say we British only like 'sitting down' sports, like horse riding, cycling, rifle shooting, canoeing and toboganning.

What a lovely story about Tom Munro's. Of course, I would never have been found in such a place, but it is lovely to visualise.

But I loved going in there, ducking off the hot sidewalk

We don't have many days of 'hot sidewalk'. We have wet, tepid pavements. LOL We would go into shops to get out of the rain.

he rang me through and gave me a free hockey puck!

and even the most sporting of schoolboys wouldn't have known what to do with a hockey puck. I did play hockey for my school team for a little while, as goal-keeper, but we used a ball.....and, hockey is a GIRL'S game here. LOL....