Paperboy #4

Sorry for the delay...but it's not like this is the morning paper or anything.

Let's talk canvassing.

When i worked for the Toronto Star, one of the extra things that one could do to earn money was to go door to door canvassing. Usually this was done under the guidance of a more experienced paper delivery person, so i went out & about with one of my grade school teacher's sons & a couple of other guys. They were a few years older & knew the ropes. Some of the guys were jerks who would try to bully me but my teacher's son kept a handle on things & would put them in their place. We would be sent a list of addresses by the Star & then would head out with forms & pen in hand. This work usually occurred on school nights, from i can remember.

Most often we were sent to apartment buildings rather than urban neighbourhoods. Apartment buildings worked well for this sort of thing because there were lots of addresses contained within a small area. You could cover a lot of ground in a short time. The idea was to go knocking door to door offering some kind of special deal on the paper, say, 2 weeks free delivery if you signed up for a 6 month period. I don't recall having a terribly high success rate, but i do recall meeting all sorts of crazy weird people.

Some people would be really happy to see you. I can remember an old lady who had a parrot. She answered the door, i gave my spiel, and said, "that's nice, would you like to meet Pedro?". I was caught off guard (and only 11 or 12 years old) so i said "sure". She went back into the apartment & showed up a minute later with a brightly coloured parrot who could say his own name & "who's a dirty birdy". She didn't end up subscribing, but i was impressed regardless.

Other people were not so happy to see you. A hulking bodybuilder answered the door, sweating profusely and shouted "I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FREAKING REPS HERE!!!", and slammed the door.

I also had a drunk guy who could barely stand answer the door & tell me it was nice that i was a reporter at such a young age.

Sometimes, though, people would actually subscribe. When they subscribed, the Star would provide you with a bit of cash & some points. The points could be put towards purchasing prizes. They had some pretty good stuff. I ended up with decks of Toronto Star playing cards, ball caps, tickets to see the Toronto Marleys & the Blizzard Indoor Soccer team, but the craziest prize that i ever got was a wrist watch radio. Now it wasn't like a Dick Tracy watch, but it could pick up FM radio (at least that's how i remember it) & had a little headphone jack that you plugged into.

I'm not sure what happened to that watch. I wouldn't mind having it now.