2020.02.27 THROW BACK THURSDAY - Riding wIth Nellie in Boyle Park

Home of My Grandfather, L. B. Edwards, on Oak Street in Little Rock. He had a small wagon and horse named Nellie that gave kids rides at Boyle Park in Little Rock. I know many kids rode in his wagon and would like to hear of anyone who remembers him or possibly has a picture of Mr Edwards or Nellie! Thank you! 

CLASS NEWS

Our Dewana and Rex having a big time at Mardi Gras - Orange Beach style!!!

And these wonderful newsboy stories are still coming in!  This one is from someone in the Class behind us but concerns a member of our Class.  Problem is . . . he won't let me use our Classmates name!  Uh Oh!!!  Bet some of you can guess who he's talking about!

Here is the long lost story of a 14 year old boy who lived in the low income Ghetto called Cammack Village. That has now changed, but too late for me.  My friend on the same block had a Gazette paper route about the time the Brailey & Company decided to clear the Valley below Cammack Village and build the Kingwood addition to start the expansion of Little Rock. It was a very up and down hilly sort of route and took a while to get it down to a proper way to work. My friend then had an offer for a much easier route in Cammack Village which consisted of Kenwood, Longwood and the other long street which consisted of solid houses for a total of 16 blocks. It was easier than Kingwood, but I needed a job.  My friend handed me the pad which had all the coupons on it for each month and when you personally collected, you tore off the coupon for that month. I thought "this is going to be easy"!  However, after getting up at 3 or 4 each morning, which was a real drag, I began to question my judgment.  But I kept it up for a month and looked forward to collecting ALL that money!  At my first stop the people said, "we have already paid that", and showed me a stub for that month.  Next house . . . same thing.  As I ran through the route, I finally got about 30% of what I was owed and most of those were the ones who were not at home when the collector was by. I was short a couple of hundred and my good friend denied collecting, so my Dad bailed me out for the month. I wanted to quit right then, but the Circulation Manager talked my Dad and me into going one more month so I could pay my Dad back.  Well, for the next 30 days, (at 14 with no driver license) most of the time I secretly backed my Dad's 1948 Studebaker Champion car out of the driveway  (burning a quart of oil every 40 or 50 miles) and off I went.  I took the time to put a rubber band around each paper so I could throw out both the right and left windows and make it in record time. Boy did I get a lot of complaints, but I didn't care if I got fired. Well, I collected with verbal abuse, but got enough money to pay my Dad back. 

The moral of this story is:  Thanks to my best friend, who "almost" still is, I worked for two months free.  My lips are sealed on who my good friend still is....

George Doe   (as in Jane Doe)

MARYLOU,Not to drag out the paper boy stories, but I had a what was supposed to be a  large "motor" route when I was in the 8th and part of the 9th grades at Westside JHS.  I was not old enough to drive so I walked the bigger route. It was bordered on the north by 13th street, on the south by what I believe was then 20th (but is now Charles Bussey Ave.), on the east by Woodrow, and on the west by Valmar.  I believe I threw Nancy Bostic's family their paper.  My papers were dropped at the corner of 20th and Booker.  It was a Democrat route so it was in the afternoon, except on Sundays.  I tried to get the weekday papers on all the customers' front porches by 5:00 pm and the Sunday morning paper on the porches no later than 7:00 am. I can identify with all of the previous accounts from my '56 classmates - tri-folding all the papers except the Sunday and Thursday ones.  They were too big and had to be folded into a rectangle.  They could not be thrown as far so I had to walk closer to the porches on those two days.  I also have memories of all the problems we had collecting door-to-door and getting my bill paid to the Democrat each month. I think I eventually cleared between 30 and 40 dollars each month on that larger route.  On rainy days and Sunday mornings I wore a large poncho so I could cover the papers in both the front and back parts of my paper bag, and I had to fold them inside the poncho to keep them dry.  I remember on some very cold and wet Sunday mornings finishing the route with ice cycles hanging off the bill of my cap and standing on the hall floor furnace when I got home to warm my nearly frost-bitten hands.  One thing no one else has mentioned that I thought was a bit intriguing is how, when you throw a route in the morning only once a week, you could really tell how the daylight hours were getting longer or shorter each week as the seasons progressed. My second route was when I was in the 11th grade at LRCHS.  My second route was in my own neighborhood - bordered on the south by 18th street, on the north by 13th street, on the east by Cedar street, and on the west by Washington.  My papers were dropped at 13th and Lewis.  It was a smaller route, and I only made 25 to 30 bucks a month; but I was playing for Highland Methodist Church's youth basketball team in a league at the YMCA.  I generally ran the route on Tuesdays and Fridays to finish in time to catch the bus at 13th and Lewis and get off at 5th and Broadway in plenty of time to walk to the Y and get dressed out for the games. Except for mowing lawns in the summer and selling peanuts, popcorn and sodas at the Travelers' games, those two paper routes were the firsts jobs I ever had.It was interesting to learn that Jean (Kizzia) Gray was once a part-time paper girl (a feminist pioneer) as well as a pretty accomplished ballerina.  I wonder how much Dean paid her for the companionships and assistance? Gary Frederick

These stories are getting better and better!!!!! 

REMEMBER TO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ML