Editor’s note: This is another column in Bill Boyd’s new series, “The Way It Was,” about growing up in Marysville. Bill continues to work with the Union County Historical Society to obtain information for his stories.
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During the mid-1940s, like a lot of other boys my age, my only source of income was my paper route. I delivered the Columbus Dispatch. I had 52 customers, which produced enough money to finance my basic needs, you know, milkshakes and things like that. I wanted to boost my income, but I couldn’t get an after school job because the Dispatch was an afternoon paper in those days. But there were other ways to make money with that newspaper.
I sold a lot of papers on Saturday nights. All of the Marysville merchants were open on Saturday night, so the streets in the center of town were crowded with people, and I sold papers to them. There were some spots that were better for selling papers than others. Among my favorite spots was in front of any of the grocery stores. People came out carrying bags of groceries on their way home. Many of them stopped to buy a paper to read when they got home.
Then there were a few bars in town. I stood in front of those bars and sold papers to customers going in and out. The customers coming out were usually better tippers than the ones going in.
The next morning, with two or three other boys, I sold the Sunday morning paper in the same areas. We stood at the corners, where there was a traffic light. A lot of drivers were on their way to and from church. When they stopped for a red light, I would walk to the car and sell them a paper.
But the best place to sell my papers was on a passenger train that stopped in Marysville on a regular basis. It was on its way to Columbus. When the train stopped, they unloaded a lot of things including mailbags and things like that. Then they loaded outgoing mail and other shipments. The whole thing took maybe 10 minutes, just enough time for a kid to get on board and sell papers to the travelers. I had to work fast, of course, to make sure I could get off before the train pulled out, or I would find myself in Columbus with no way to get back.
Of all the places where I sold papers, those trains were the best. I mean, travelers were really good tippers, even better than the people coming out of the bars on Saturday night.
Those wishing to contact Bill Boyd can e-mail him at williamboyd514@gmail.com