Comments on: “Only a little newsboy …”

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:04:25 +0000

Ardis,
My kind of mother!
Bill

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:30:35 +0000

“We never make the paperboy ask twice — that isn’t fair to him.”

What wonderful words – for much more than that particular application.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:43:49 +0000

Thanks, Bill. FWIW, I remember once when I was quite small (it was in a house we moved from when I was 10) my mother explaining what she was doing as she worked on the monthly bookkeeping. Tithing came first, she said, as she wrote out that check. Next came putting cash into an envelope that went into the drawer on a lamp table, with the instruction, “We never make the paperboy ask twice — that isn’t fair to him.” Everything else came after that.

By: Bill MacKinnon

Bill MacKinnon — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:41:27 +0000

Ardis,
As a former urchin delivering the Schenectady “Union-Star” through the monumental snow drifts of Upstate New York’s snow belt, I appreciate this one too. I did not work on Sundays but did have to “collect” from my customers on Friday nights. Sometimes I found them in the neighborhood watering holes of the tough industrial northeast, where the Word of Wisdom was not widely observed. When I would arrive home well after dark on these cold Friday nights, my mother always had a great fish chowder awaiting me from her vast collection of family receipes from The Rock (Newfoundland). Part of my route lay in a Polish neighborhood, and I know that some of my customers spoke no English but nonetheless subscribed to the “Union-Star” (as well as a Polish-language paper) as an act of optimism or sense of association with their adopted country. These customers were among my nicest in the sense of their treatment of a kid with whom they had difficulty communicating, whereas a few others elsewhere on my route were miserable in their behavior, teaching in the process some early lessons in life about variations in character and how one deals with it.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:59:54 +0000

Thank you, Eric and Ray, for thoughtful comments. Both much appreciated.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:32:15 +0000

Great post, Ardis. There’s a lesson in there about how accommodations should be decided, and it’s one we all should consider carefully.

By: Eric Boysen

Eric Boysen — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:33:45 +0000

I am glad the church leaders of that time and place made an accommodation for the needs of these industrious lads who probably worked as they did of financial necessity, though they deserved a Sabbath day’s rest as much as anyone.

My own experience with newspaper home delivery lasted about a year. I was ill-suited to the requirement of being there each day on a fixed route, no matter the weather or how I felt that day, with a delivery deadline that allowed for no delays. I much preferred to wander and take my time. The discipline was good for me and I am glad I did it, but for me the money was ultimately not worth the trouble. It was also not a necessity to the family budget. I quit the job so that I could have the freedom that meant more to me.

The Sabbath was of little concern to my UU family, but it would be a major concern to me now. Though we have not discussed it much, my wife and I appear to have three rules: 1. go to church, 2. don’t work for money (unless we reeealy need to get something done) and 3. don’t spend money (except for travel and medical emergencies). The exceptions trouble me (except the last), and there are all of the other things we should be doing, but that is how Sunday plays out for us. Sabbath observance is troublesome. But if necessity drove me to work every Sunday, I would be grateful for a church program that helped me put some spiritual content into an otherwise work-filled Sabbath.