1999 : THE PAPER BOY : Part VII
• Green Sheets: There is no such thing as Extra Money
In my youth there were no elaborate play dates and we made our own cakes to save money. Watching the ladies who decorated cakes at Smiths Market was cool, those ladies had skill. Admiring the airbrush artwork at Smith’s bakery was the closest we got to the food network.
Most did not have much but we had the things that were most important. Life with family, freedom and faith. We did not take any of these for granted. TV signed off with our national anthem indicating it was time for bed followed by a glaring test pattern. We rested before the next busy day and the responsibilities that accompany freedom.
Lawn service was you or the kid next door not a business where a truck pulls up with teams of relentless blowhards. Tranquil mornings have given way to blowing dust into the neighbor’s house who had their windows open enjoying the cool night air.
Most things were not open on Sunday as that was family day. Most went to church and all honored the day of rest. Sure we had picnics and bbq’s and outings but they were more family centered not technology centered. The church of football now dominates Sunday.
Not having things built character and you had to be creative
You had to figure things out. Good character and strong work ethic were a necessity
Not having things built character and you had to be creative. You had to figure things out. Good character and strong work ethic were a necessity. School was important. Things taught in sixth grade in the past are now college level. Today most of what you learn doesn’t prepare you for the real world.
We always loved visiting family in Pacoima. After WWII my grandparents bought a flat on Kamloops Street back when the San Fernando Valley looked a lot like Porterville with agriculture and orange tree’s. My grandmother in her later years told me how they lived in the 1950’s with a large family in a small house.
It was a deep lot and originally they paid about eight thousand dollars for the house and it took thirty years to pay for it. In the early 21st century the house in Pacoima sold in two weeks for more than four hundred thousand dollars. It’s Amazing look back at how the times have changed. In the course of fifty years a house had a fifty fold increase in value.
Sadly over the past twenty years or so all of that changed dramatically as my grandparents went on ahead in the great beyond and now two of my uncles and many great uncles and aunts.
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The McKervey’s were originally from New York.
They called my Grandpa “Brooklyn Eddie” as he always told stories about the Brooklyn Dodgers and always railed against Tommy Lasorda explaining how the LA dodgers were never as good as the Brooklyn Dodgers. I loved the banter in that Irish Italian east coast family mix. I remember my Great Grandma Camille Barbarino at the dinner table when I was a child in this small house with a big family.
Grandma Barbarino came to America from Sicily in the early 1900’s indicated by her name at Ellis Island. Under her maiden name of course which was Tornabene. I found that out later in life after my Aunt Maryann traveled there and confirmed this on her trip to New York.
Dinner at the house was boisterous and loud. If you were an outsider you were sure to get plenty of attention from these former New Yorkers. It was Norman Rockwell image for sure but turn up the volume and the clamor as the family broke bread. Many a time seats were added when an unexpected visitor showed up. It is a wonderful memory.
Raising a family in East LA even then in the 1950’s was a challenge and most of the family went to Catholic school. My Grandparents were parishioners supporting Mary Immaculate School from the beginning. The Church and the school were a big part of the family in Pacoima so I have learned from the eulogies.
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My part in this story doesn’t start until the 1970’s
My part in this story doesn’t start until the 1970’s. I was very little back then but I have many memories from that time when families were much closer than they are now. It wasn’t just necessity it was the way it was back then. American culture even in the city was much more family centered in the no so distant past.
My first introduction to the Van Nuys News and Valley Green Sheet which boasted 13 news zones and 200,000 circulation. The green sheets were four times a week. The Hustle and bustle of an early to rise frenetic moment. My uncles were rolling papers as fast as they could piling them in the living room as high as the dining room table. It was frenetic and jarring to the uninitiated. This is no pay by the hour job this is get it done as fast as you can.
It starts as soon as the paper bundles are dropped off. The folding begins and didn’t stop until the entire living room was full. I looked for a picture but could not find one. To a young boy it seems like a mountain. The rubber bands were cool and the rubber band fights were epic. Once the folding was done the next stage came quickly.
My grandfather was never subtle he came across like a drill sergeant and with a forceful voice “get moving or else.” You don’t talk back or ask questions of a WWII veteran now working multiple jobs raising a family with a mortgage. Little did I know as a child the history of my grandfather surviving more than one beach head in the South Pacific? What would a child know about defeating the socialists, defending freedom through sacrifice?
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My grandfather was a real man and I always looked up to him
My grandfather was a real man and I always looked up to him. Of course as grandsons my brother and I got special treatment while the rest of the family got the harsh reality of what is meant to be in charge of the green sheets at 5am.
Those green sheets had to be out and delivered before everyone’s regular day started. That meant get em’ folded. Get em in the car and let’s get going so they are delivered before the traffic. The family wagon for five uncles and one aunt was a “family truckster” right out of the movie Vacation.
The kind with the fold down seats in the way back and the tail gate that could be let down like a pickup truck once you stowed the rear window. That station wagon was among the biggest there was at the time. Most of the cars back them were large, heavy and dangerous. American Iron.
The green sheets filled the whole back of the wagon up and there was just enough room to sit with papers on your lap. My uncles were sitting on “tail gate” in the back and ready to throw em’. My grandfather barked some orders and away we went.
Rolling Down The Side Streets Wasn’t Too Bad
Grandpa would swerve from side to side as my uncles chucked those giant papers
Rolling down the side streets wasn’t too bad. Grandpa would swerve from side to side as my uncles chucked those giant papers. Those huge things must have been at least a couple pounds each. They seemed like a ton to me, I was still very young and green.
One thing for sure when you run a route like this you never miss unless you want the wrath of the whole team. You have to hit your mark and move so you can get it done. Rolling across the four lane streets was a little sketchy but you hold on and keep feeding the pile to the boys in the back. NO SEATBELTS.
I will never forget the relief when we got back home. The route was over and now it was time to go to school and to work. It was a relief because the yelling and harassment subsided. It was a satisfaction that the big chore for the day was done and it was still early and you had worked up an appetite.
I was just a wide eyed kid wanting to be the guy on the tailgate but was relegated to inside where I couldn’t fall out if we hit a big bump on a tight turn. It was awesome!!! In the real world you never want to be the guy on the back of the wagon. Those are the guys that get bumped off.
Make no mistake an experience like this I will never forget. It informs me still today. The contrast to today’s estrogenic culture is stark. We have lost our edge and become effeminate and weak in most sectors. The culture is at war with masculinity required to protect family.
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The culture is at war with masculinity required to protect family
The culture has embraced the effeminate in a variety of ways that work against strength, clarity and protection of the innocent. Cultures that have a future protect children and families. The nuclear family is the highest ideal as it mirrors the biblical family.
Just look at the Hollywood pervert trend to raise their boys as girls which may need to be renamed pedo wood after all that we have seen and heard. Why is Megan Fox raising her three young boys as girls?
Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) know rebranded as (FDIA) which most would rightfully describe as Insanity, madness, lunacy, and hysteria. The left rails against guns and free speech but never stands against pedophilia. I’m offended that they are offended.
The Left Rails Against Guns & Free Speech
It would be easy to predict hardship and depression if you embrace or encourage unnatural things or artificial things over the real in any form. There are several warnings in the bible about men being effeminate none of them lead to good things.
We have stopped short of wrapping our kids in bubble wrap but I’m sure there are folks trying to come up with a way to do that. We saw some very strange things with band practice in plastic cages at school in 2020.
We saw some ridiculous first movers trying to work inside plastic bubbles afraid of the air. We didn’t see a lot of people for a time because they were too afraid to go outside. The isolation was a shock and awe moment for the world as we became afraid of our own shadows.
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The Paper Boy Had To Be Fearless.
The paper boy had to be fearless. Kids risked life and limb to deliver newspapers. There were no seatbelts. There were no airbags. There were no helmets. The paper boy risked his life to throw those green sheets and a strong family was there to support, encourage and protect him. A strong father inspired his family to overcome no matter the challenge.
The strong father was there to protect you and raise you as a strong man so you could in turn raise your own family and lead the next generation. The Grandfather was still raising his sons while his sons were raising his grandsons. The process never ends in a society that loves life and family. An American ideal remembered with a chain link fence in east LA. The faith that it will all work out if you work hard and do the right thing every day.
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The Green Sheet experience was in the early 1970’s.
The Green Sheet experience was in the early 1970’s. My grandparents lived in the San Fernando Valley. Not Far from Hansen Dam and the now infamous Rodney King traffic stop. This was in the days when police carried Billy Clubs to keep people in line. Brooklyn Eddie told stories about the policemen who walked the beat in Brooklyn with only Billy Clubs no guns. The Rodney King incident put an end to the Billy Club.
There Is No Such Thing As Extra Money
• • • All That Extra Money Was Used To Pay It Forward and Raise A Family • • •
To earn extra money my uncles threw green sheets. The size of those papers was gargantuan compared to the Porterville Recorder. The pile of papers took up the entire living room once folded. All that Extra Money was used to pay it forward and raise a family. There is no such thing as extra money.
