Did I ever tell you...

Did I ever tell you I had a paper route. Well Daniel did "officially". We have a local community newspaper that my husband reads from cover to cover each weekend. It's a freebee, part of our tax $$$$$$$$$$$$. Well our eldest son was pestering us for a Nintendo (many years ago) he was about twelve at the time. I kept putting it off thinking I'll get them (our two boys) this as a Christmas Gift. But, you know Daniel, he wanted it now. So my husband said:( as he was absorbing the newspaper one Saturday morning, "they need a paper boy for out street, maybe you could earn the $" No problem, the human resource person dropped by interviewed my very articulate son and BAM he got the job. He was so pleased with himself. Well, he was starting in the dread of "back to school"  sales weekend. Did I mention you get 2cents per flyer, not for each household, from each company. , so 20 flyers to 160 homes $. 40 . When we went to the bank for his "direct deposit" forms, the lady at the customer service counter, had to leave to laugh, his expected deposits would be $14 a month. Anyway, he had it calculated that he'd be wealthy in no time, when on that dreaded weekend our front porch was filled with "flyers" to be inserted into this 6page newspaper.  YIKS Since I'm one of those overprotective mothers, I was going to walk along with him just to make sure he was safe. We had to sign off on "dog bites", tripping, slipping, etc. the newspaper insisted we take out insurance (which got deducted from his paycheck and was more than he'd make in a year) for "amputation of limbs " you can imagine the visions dancing in my head. So as this poor (meaning kid who had to earn a Nintendo for himself, instead of his parents just buying it for him when he asked) kid started to put these things together, I wanted to cry, and I think he did.Well seeing his overwhelming task, I helped him set up an assembly line in the garage with two six foot tables and helped him put things in. There was no way he could carry even just 20 houses worth of papers. So I assembled and he and his wagon started the delivery task. He was like the Pied Pipper of our Street, all the cats followed him around his route, and then at the end he'd have to walk everybody back home.  This load continued throughout the Christmas shopping season and into the spring break season, and then my Daniel thought he need to make a quicker buck. After all  he got the Nintendo for Christmas, but he needed games.  So he nagged my sister Donna to hire him to be a "simulate patient" in one of her Advance Trauma and Life Saving Courses. And I mean NAGGED. Some how she managed to find a scenario for a kid. And now he was making real money. He made more money the first day of his "acting like a burn victim " to rival his yearly income from the newspaper. So needless to say he wanted to quit the route. I thought he should quit after a few months, but he wanted the spare change (and that really was what a paper route pays you) but not the work. By now I was so into the exercise this delivery was giving me that I continued until Sasha was ready to do this. My husband was my companion on the journey. in the mean time.Imagine two grown adults delivering papers for $14 a month and not each $14, together, we couldn't stop for a coffee on that salary. Probably some of the most hilarious times I've had with my husband, who slipped on the ceramic porch when I said "watch that porch" lost his very expensive gloves, got chewed up by a yappy little dog, and had some neighbour yelling at him to watch his flowers. When my husband wouldn't do it anymore, and Sasha quit, I had to give it up as well. After all what was I going to do with all that money.  What brings this to mind, this is Labour Day weekend, and I just got my FULL paper.  Poor kid delivering, WITH HIS MOM.