Former Enterprise paperboys share fond memories

Jun. 7—HIGH POINT — ow badly did David Mitchell want to become a High Point Enterprise paperboy back in 1957?

Badly enough that he was willing to fudge his age, like some underage teenager trying to lie his way into the Army.

And it worked.

"I went up there to The Enterprise to apply, and I heard (circulation manager) Charlie Loflin tell the kid in front of me that you had to be 12 years old," recalls Mitchell, now 76, of High Point. "Well, I was next in line, so I told him, 'Yes sir, I'm 12.' "

He was really only 10, but he got the job. Enterprise officials later learned of Mitchell's fib, but by that time he really was 12, and he had established himself as one of the newspaper's most dependable paperboys, so the company wasn't about to let him go.

"Back in those days, a lot of us young boys were newspaper boys," Mitchell says. "We were a dedicated bunch."

Indeed, they were. The 1950s and '60s marked the golden age of entrepreneurial adolescent boys hopping on their bicycles every afternoon — and every Sunday morning — to deliver the paper to dozens, sometimes hundreds, of subscribers. Of course, bike-riding paperboys are unheard of today, largely because of the advent of morning papers throughout the week and because of safety concerns that weren't even an afterthought in the '50s and '60s.

"Sadly, it's not a business for a young boy to do anymore — it's not safe," says Tom Gray, a 66-year-old High Point native, now living in Memphis, who carried The Enterprise for several years in the late '60s and early '70s. "But we didn't even think about it back then. There were no fears of anybody messing with you."

Gray and childhood pal Jim Beck, another former HPE paperboy, recently reunited at one of their favorite old hangouts, The Dog House, to reminisce about their days delivering the paper.

"I would hang around with Tom and help him do his route until one came open, and then I took that one," recalls Beck, now 65 and living in Greensboro. "I learned how to carry the papers from him — he was my newspaper mentor."

According to Gray and Beck, each day Enterprise employees would drive bundles of newspapers to their homes, so when they got home from school the papers were there, waiting to be rolled, loaded up and delivered. On Sunday mornings, the boys also had to insert the comics section and advertising circulars, which made for an extra-thick paper.

"It took me two trips to do my paper route on Sundays," Beck says.

And that was with three baskets on his bike — one on the front and saddle baskets on either side.

Instead of bicycle baskets, Gray carried his papers in a large, canvas bag with a strap that went over his shoulder. Later, his dad built him a steel cart, similar to a grocery cart, for delivering papers.

Back in the day, Beck and Gray — and a third carrier, Fred Teague, who lived in the same neighborhood — delivered papers throughout the week, then went from house to house Friday evening to collect payment from their 100-plus customers. On Saturday, they'd go pay what they owed The Enterprise, then go spend some of their profits at The Dog House, Mabel's — a hangout where they played an hour or two of pinball — and Bicycle Toy and Hobby.

"If I wanted any spending money, that's how I got it — mowing yards and delivering papers," Gray says. "If we wanted something, we had to go out and earn it."

Granted, they weren't exactly getting rich. Mitchell remembers that customers paid 35 cents a week for The Enterprise when he started delivering. It had gone up to 55 cents when Gray began his route, and 80 cents when Beck started. Most of that money went to The Enterprise, although some customers were good tippers, especially during the Christmas season.

Beck, Gray and Mitchell all say the job taught them about money management and dependability. Beck even won the newspaper's Carrier of the Year award in 1972, earning himself a savings bond and a new HPE delivery bag.

Mitchell did Beck one better: In 1959, he won a 10-day trip to Europe in a contest sponsored by The Enterprise and Family Weekly, the paper's Sunday magazine. He won the contest by earning points for his dependability, timeliness and ability to recruit new customers (he sold 50 new subscriptions).

"Everybody on my route took the paper except for one guy," Mitchell remembers. "He told me, 'When they stop putting (Soviet leader) Nikita Khrushchev's picture on the front page of The High Point Enterprise, then I'll subscribe.' He ended up taking the paper later, though."

Mitchell says he hustled for the same reason he took the job in the first place — he wanted to make money to help his mother, who was a single mom with four kids and working two jobs to make ends meet.

"So that way, if I needed to buy tennis shoes for gym class or buy any kind of new clothes, I'd have the money to do that myself," he says. "I just wanted to help my mama any way I could."

Even if it meant telling a little white lie to get the job.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579