A Labor Day tribute: Ink, hard work, and lessons learned

As part of celebrating Labor Day, we asked neighbors and business owners to share stories about their first jobs and what they learned from them.

 

You can read about a wide range of experiences on pages 14 and 15 of this week’s newspaper, ranging from working at a grain elevator to babysitting, food and beverage experiences, and a host of other first-time jobs.

 

I found it refreshing to see how many readers shared stories about either writing for or delivering their local community newspapers.

 

My first job, beginning when I was about 8 years old and lasting until I was about 12, marked my inaugural foray into the newspaper business. It didn’t involve writing or delivery, but I did get ink-stained hands.

 

My best friend Brad and I went around the neighborhood collecting stacks of recycled Pottstown Mercurys, our local Pennsylvania paper to which everyone subscribed, in a three-block radius of our homes.

 

We stored stacks and stacks of papers in my parents’ basement until we had enough to take to the recycling center, which back then we called the junkyard. There, we threw all the stacks onto a huge scale and compactor. We got paid by the pound and used our hard-earned cash to buy baseball cards!

 

We learned the value of hard work, teamwork, and the importance of keeping our commitment to our neighbors to haul away their newspapers, but only after they read them cover to cover.

 

And I still have those baseball cards.