Child LabourThere is a special part of Hell I'd like to reserve for those arses that order every single Sunday paper. Do you know how heavy that makes the bundle of papers some poor kid (ie me) has to lug around? Funny how your papers always seemed to get mangled in your letterbox...
I loved my paper round, but, looking back, I was getting paid peanuts to ruin my back and cycle around in the cold and dark. How were you exploited as a child?
(
chthonic, Fri 17 Feb 2006, 12:05)
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I, Like many, had a daily paper round.And mine only had 50 houses on it - which you would not think too bad. You could not be more wrong....
I used to report to the newsagents (it was actually a shed of a house nearby) at 4 O'Clock in the morning, every morning except the weekend. The houses I delivered to were of well to do people - no housing estates, a lot of houses with stupidly lond driveways, and the round actually covered 3 villages. They all subscribed to various periodicals which weighed a ton, and Fridays were the worst, as that's when the Essex Chronicle was sent out, and virtually everyone subscribed to that. It would take me at least 2 and a half hours, and once my Dad helped me do it with the car as we were going away - he was shocked at the distance I had to cover.
The final straw was one day when my bike was fucked, and I had to do the round by foot - 5 and a half hours. And all this for the princely sum of three pounds fifty a week. I got some tips - there was the quid fiddle from one house I had to take over from the previous delivery boy, but I would be lucky to see a fiver a week - and at least 5 of the people on the round were millionaires. The first house I went to - well her bill was 1.48 (we had no float) and she would never let me off the 2p, so I would end up having to detour back just for that.
It was the doctor that made me quit in the end, threatening to report my bosses to the police for flaunting of child labour laws.
(, Sun 19 Feb 2006, 10:00, Reply)
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