Tales of a Failed Paperboy

I guess I could say my first job in journalism ended in a completley miserable failure.

Let me explain. Before I moved to Sacramento, at 9-years-old, I lived in the east Bay Area community of Danville. I rode my bicycle everywhere courtesy of a great bike trail system and I knew what a paperboy was from a Nintendo game I used to play all the time, aptly titled Paperboy. I'd see other kids around town delivering the newspaper each day, so I thought I was missing out on something. There was no doubt in my mind I couldn't do what that eight-bit kid was doing in the video game. And seeing the other kids around town doing it, too, I really didn't see the big deal. Ride around on my bike all day, throwing newspapers at doors, avoiding hooligans and deranged dogs - are you kidding me? No sweat.

I'll never forget how I pleaded with my mom to let me do it. I was too young, she would say. Didn't matter; I wanted to do it. The financial aspect hadn't even occurred to me. I wasn't in it for any money. I just wanted the action. Yes, I’m talking about the action of being a paperboy. Again, I was 9-years-old.

Anyway, my grandfather of all people, who had raised his family in Danville, including my mother, knew some people who knew some people -- he managed to line me up a gig delivering newspapers for the San Francisco Chronicle.

My first day was a Monday. It also turned out to be my last day. I was supposed to wake up at 5 a.m. At that point I had no idea what 5 a.m. even looked like. I think I was employed for about two hours - the hour it took me to wake up and the hour it took me to come up with an excuse for why I didn't want to be a paperboy anymore.

Well, that was then and this is now. Today I really enjoy delivering the news and I don't even mind waking up at 5 a.m. to do it. Luckily, though, I don't have to get up and ride a bike around town to deliver that news. There's this great invention called the internet.

That 9-year-old boy has been replaced with an e-mail inbox and the local news is delivered everyday on time, regardless of whether or not that boy managed to get out of bed.

Enter the Patch newsletter. Every morning one can expect to open their e-mail and see the latest Fair Oaks-Carmichael Patch newsletter waiting there in the inbox. It's easy enough to sign up for, plus readers will also be notified with breaking news alerts in the area as news happens.

The newsletter is free to everyone, which in this day and age where many newspapers charge for content (they have paper boys to pay out and MANY others), is pretty cool.

If you haven't already, sign up for our newsletter; you can do so by clicking here.

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