I am of the school of thought that politics and society are inseparable. That is, our quality of life is directly connected to our political direction.

If my premise is valid, our political direction over the past half-century is WRONG. While it can be argued that we have advanced during that time in many ways, it can be equally argued that we have fallen in many other ways.

Maybe an example will illustrate my point.

When I was 10 years old, growing up in Dayton, OH, I "bought" (with my dad's financial backing) a paper route. Over the year-and-a-half I had it, my little business financed two bicycles, saddlebags and a shoulder-bag, hundreds of comic books and Cokes, many dozens of Hostess cupcakes, generous Christmas gifts for my mom and dad and sisters, a transistor radio (which had a seemingly endless appetite for those insanely expensive 9V batteries), model airplanes and cars, and a lot of candy for my friends.

(It should be noted that, as long as I had that paper route, and the cash it generated in my leaky pockets, I was a very popular fellow.)

I learned lessons. I'll leave it to my biographer -- if ever there is one -- to work out the details.

But it's simply fact that today you can't let a ten-year-old kid do what I did at that age. Allowing a child to do what I was plainly allowed -- encouraged -- to do then will get you arrested promptly today, and prosecuted with the full force of the "law."

My question -- challenge -- to all of you is to define what happened. Something happened! What was it?

What do you think?

  I can relate to everything in your post...but I have a question...why would they arrest you for allowing your kid to have a paper route.?

Quote from: zip on October 25, 2010, 02:35:33 AM
  I can relate to everything in your post...but I have a question...why would they arrest you for allowing your kid to have a paper route.?

I have that same question.

I think I get your point Tbone,
For one thing I too had a paper route before I broke puberty, and it was a tough job, I started with 98 houses, that started me three miles from my neighborhood.

I guess he is making the point that letting a kid work at 4:00 am by themselves, is now considered child abuse, or far worse, neglect.
Back then we kids saw it as an adventure, coming of age, if you will.
Now, it's seen as bad parenting, letting a kid out in this World alone would be considered stupid.

Exposing any child to learning self-respect (and the sweet rewards of capitalism) should rightly be a crime in Obamacommieville. You deny that child the mind-set of growing up dependent on others (principally the government). No good young comrade should  endure that horror.

Let loose the dogs of war and Child Protective Services!

Yeah, Solar, you got it. The fact is, I wouldn't allow my own 10-year-old to have a paper route in Dayton, OH. And if I was so inclined, I just might be talking to the Children's Services people (at least) or a gun-toting police officer (!!!!!) by week's end.

I guess I was just waxing nostalgic...

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 25, 2010, 01:59:06 PM
Maybe his kid was selling ZigZags.

I guess we need to call out the CPF crew to shovel all the Beauscrement.

Quote from: bama_beau_redux on October 25, 2010, 01:59:06 PM
Maybe his kid was selling ZigZags.

I agree you would really have to look at the safety issue.  A kid that age out early in the morning by themselves would be a target to the sick twisted people of the world.

I use to help my brother with his paper route.  I sat on the back of the bike and threw the papers while he rode along....my fee was ice cream. (I was 6 what did I know.)  I eventually progressed up to babysitting - that where the money was... 8) 8) 8) 8)

Quote from: Solars Toy on October 25, 2010, 08:04:17 PM
I agree you would really have to look at the safety issue.  A kid that age out early in the morning by themselves would be a target to the sick twisted people of the world.

I use to help my brother with his paper route.  I sat on the back of the bike and threw the papers while he rode along....my fee was ice cream. (I was 6 what did I know.)  I eventually progressed up to babysitting - that where the money was... 8) 8) 8) 8)

Well, wait a sec...

There were "sick twisted people" back then, weren't there?

Are there a LOT more of them now, or are they just more apparent?

GOD, it's so confusing! LOL!!!!! :P :P :P

Quote from: tbone0106 on October 25, 2010, 10:01:21 PM
Well, wait a sec...

There were "sick twisted people" back then, weren't there?

Are there a LOT more of them now, or are they just more apparent?

GOD, it's so confusing! LOL!!!!! :P :P :P

Didn't John Walsh's son get kidnapped while doing his paper route years ago?  That was the first nationally publicized one that I'm aware of.

One of my sons had a weekly paper route (suburban paper) when he was about 10.  I'd drive him when we were in the midst of a snow storm in Nebraska.  My daughter also delivered that paper when she reached 10 or 11.  I remember driving her during a tornado warning.  We needed it to get done faster than she normally walked.

The 3 boys all started working at Baskin-Robbins when they were 15 y.o.  They're all still gainfully employed.

Well, Crepe, you're talking NEBRASKA here.  Middle America.  Mom, God, and apple pie. 

There are TWO Americas today.  Big city America, where all the freaks and fruits and nuts and gang-bangers live, and small town America, where the "real" people still live.  Two different worlds.

Quote from: AmericanFlyer on October 26, 2010, 09:06:40 AM
Well, Crepe, you're talking NEBRASKA here.  Middle America.  Mom, God, and apple pie. 

There are TWO Americas today.  Big city America, where all the freaks and fruits and nuts and gang-bangers live, and small town America, where the "real" people still live.  Two different worlds.

I deal with those 2 ways all the time.... In my town,, take for instance something as simple as a bake sale for raising money for school or church things.  It is not allowed here in town. Nope the schools force you to go buy things like cup cakes n such for classroom parties. I was floored!  No granny we cant make em, the school wont let us.  Last weekend I bought a homemade apple pie down by the cabin... they had a bake sale for camp tuck.  They looked at me like I was bonkers when I told them how great it was they still could do that.

I miss the paperboys/girls.  Around here the last kid told me that they were being replaced by people who needed jobs with cars and because it wasd not safe for kids.  He didnt like it either
;)
Elfie

Quote from: crepe05 on October 26, 2010, 03:51:19 AM
Didn't John Walsh's son get kidnapped while doing his paper route years ago?  That was the first nationally publicized one that I'm aware of.

One of my sons had a weekly paper route (suburban paper) when he was about 10.  I'd drive him when we were in the midst of a snow storm in Nebraska.  My daughter also delivered that paper when she reached 10 or 11.  I remember driving her during a tornado warning.  We needed it to get done faster than she normally walked.

The 3 boys all started working at Baskin-Robbins when they were 15 y.o.  They're all still gainfully employed.

No, no! John Walsh's son, Adam, was kidnapped from a mall in Hollywood, FL. He was only six years old. The final verdict was that he was one of the boys picked off by a mall security guard.

In the year+ I had my route, my dad drove me once -- during a blizzard that essentially shut down the town. And it was always a combination of riding and walking, mostly walking. In those days, I was taught that a paper properly delivered was dropped -- just so -- between the storm door and the entry door. You can't do that from the seat of a bicycle.

Of course, we can't leave the economics out of it, now can we?

When I bought my paper route, the DDN cost a whopping 62 cents/week, including the big Sunday edition with all the "stuffs." (We called the color inserts "stuffs" because that's what we had to do with them at 4 a.m. -- "stuff" them into the papers, one at a time. The "stuffs" and the paper were printed separately and came from two different places.) As 1960s inflation took its toll, I had to tell my customers that their week of news would cost more. The weekly bill went from $.62 to $.67. I have never heard such grief and groaning over a nickel in my life.

Hee hee!

Is it good perspective to observe that a single copy of the Dayton Daily News will set me back more than a week's worth cost back then? There's certainly an inflation story there, but there's also the fact that the DDN has devoured all its major competition and is still floundering. When I was a kid, the Dayton Daily News was the afternoon paper; the Journal Herald was published six days a week as an early morning rag. DDN bought the evil Journal Herald a long time ago, but still can't seem to make it happen.

This pattern is reflected in cities nationwide.