The topic of newspapers comes up here from time to time — as well it might. After all, newspapers would seem to be a subject of universal interest among people reading a newspaper, whether in print or online.
Last year’s columns on the subject resulted in some commentary that didn’t get used, so let me take care of that as part of my January desk-clearing ritual.
This all started after I introduced myself to my new audience in The Press-Enterprise and some of you shared, and even boasted, about how many decades you’ve been paying for home delivery of our fishwrap. Our thanks to you.
As a refresher, my columns, which have been a staple of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin for a couple of decades, expanded to The Sun in mid-2019 and the P-E in mid-2020. By and large you’ve all been understanding about the expansive territory.
“Thank you for enlightening those of us in Riverside who are enjoying reading about other parts of the I.E. with the stories that abound,” wrote Nancy L. Cox after my column on hiking Mount Rubidoux. “And we especially love it when you write about ‘Our Town’!”
More to come, Nancy, and you’re welcome.
In a note last August, Laura Roughton of Jurupa Valley told me she was enjoying reading about diverse topics and cities in this space. (I hope she hasn’t changed her mind.)
“You are uniting us by sharing stories from all over this huge area that we call home, the Inland Empire,” Roughton wrote in part. “Our name sounds grandiose but sadly we are underestimated and ignored by many who rarely venture past the 57 Freeway… It makes me sad when we are discounted or sometimes even looked down on by folks who have no idea who we are…Your articles are serving to unite our area that so needs uniting.”
Wasn’t that nice? Thank you, Laura. You know, it seems to me someone was giving a speech just the other day on the theme of unity and uniting. Who was that again? I’ve forgotten, but maybe it will set a precedent.
My column on long-tenured newspaper readers resulted in long reminiscences by two former delivery boys for the Sun-Telegram.
Ernie Garcia delivered the paper starting in 1943, when he was in eighth grade.
“My route was quite spread out, but I was lucky to have the use of my brother’s bike, which was in excellent condition and even had extra tubes and wires — a rarity when rationing started,” Garcia says, referring to World War II homefront conditions. After six months with few complaints, he got a better route.
“The new route was compact with sidewalks throughout,” Garcia says, “so I decided to deliver on roller skates.”
With an unneeded bike on his hands, the entrepreneurial Garcia rented it out to other boys, thereby earning money to go to the movies. Clever.
He came from a newspaper-loving family. His immigrant parents set an example by sitting on the porch reading stories aloud from La Opinion. That helped foster an interest in news among their four kids.
In 1951, when Garcia was stationed in Japan with the U.S. Air Force, his sister, Eva, mailed him copies of The Sun. “My buddies were appreciative that they could read about happenings in Berdoo,” he says. Once home in 1952, he and his wife subscribed.
That was nearly 70 years ago, and the San Bernardino couple is still taking the paper. Read us in good health, Mr. and Mrs. Garcia.
Joe McIntyre, meanwhile, delivered The Sun in the early 1970s after getting toughened up by mowing lawns and trying to collect payment. (One customer reneged on an agreed-upon $15 after he mowed her overgrown lawn, instead paying him with a pack of Wrigley’s gum before chasing him off her property.)
When he was approached about becoming a paperboy, he was ready.
“Do you think you can handle the biggest route in San Bernardino?” asked the departing carrier, a dead ringer for movie nerd Napoleon Dynamite, before bequeathing McIntyre the route.
McIntyre delivered the afternoon edition. He waited on a Base Line Road sidewalk in San Bernardino after school until the distributor dropped off bundles of papers hot off the press. McIntyre would add inserts, fold the papers and rubber band them before packing them into two saddlebags on his handlebars and riding off.
“The hardest part was the long uphill stretches,” McIntyre, now a Rancho Cucamonga resident, recalls by letter. “My route truly was huge and seven days a week.”
He tried to get in and out quickly from gang territory. Ditto from trailer parks with their hot asphalt and speed bumps. Once he kept working despite a cold that lasted a week. Another time his bike got two flat tires and he had to walk the rest of the route.
All this for less than $100 a month. Nobody gave tips.
The last straw came when The Sun quit billing customers, leaving carriers, now reclassified as independent contractors, responsible for collecting.
“I tried this for one billing cycle,” McIntyre says, “and found myself on my beloved Saturday morning free time trying to catch deadbeats who were always ‘a little short’ or ‘hadn’t cashed their paycheck yet.’ That meant a return trip or two.”
Soon it was adults delivering the paper from their car, and that was it for kids on bikes.
Still, McIntyre has some good memories and good stories, and he remembers his teenaged ritual after knocking off for the evening.
“After my route,” he says, “I always would sit on my front porch and read the paper.”
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The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, a newspaper whose roots in Ontario go back to 1905, jilted the city in 2015 for neighboring Rancho Cucamonga. In December, five years later, the paper returned to Ontario, renting space within an office building at 3200 Guasti Road (even if we’re primarily working from home these days). While the change of scene was fine, we’re back in Ontario where we belong. Also, with a name as unwieldy as Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Rancho Cucamonga is just too many syllables.
David Allen writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, too many days. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.
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