{"id":7863,"date":"2026-07-24T07:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=7863"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:17:48","slug":"lessons-learned-from-being-a-paperboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/lessons-learned-from-being-a-paperboy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned From Being a Paperboy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>

I was interviewed recently for East Texas Tonight<\/em>, a 15-minute weekly show on KLTV, a television station based in Tyler. Host Kylie Neel did her homework and asked intelligent questions. I hope my answers were as nimble. I will leave that to viewers to judge, which you can do if you haven\u2019t already by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kylie noted the wide variety of jobs I held, particularly in college, as I pursued a liberal arts degree, majoring in English, history and philosophy: bottle washer at Made-Rite, pizza delivery driver, steak cook at Bonanza, dog catcher for the City of Nacogdoches. (She didn\u2019t go \u00a0into as much detail as I did here.) She asked what job taught me the most about human nature. My reply:<\/p>\n

What taught me the most about human nature was being a paperboy, which is how I started at the Longview paper when I was 13 years old in 1968\u2026 That\u2019s really what sparked my interest in journalism and newspapers.<\/em><\/p>\n

I also noted that my degree didn\u2019t actually qualify me for a particular job. I loved<\/em> my time at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. Since I was paying for my education, there was no parental pressure to take courses that would make me more attractive in the job market. I believe the professors there helped shape my worldview, broadened my horizons, and gave me a solid foundation. To do what<\/em> was the conundrum.<\/p>\n

I told Kylie the original plan was to attend law school at UT-Austin. I took the LSAT and got accepted, then changed my mind and headed to graduate school in photojournalism at the University of Missouri. Money woes (out-of-state tuition) forced me to transfer to UT the following year. The rest is history\u2026<\/p>\n

Back to being a paperboy. I was essentially a door-to-door salesman, peddling the Longview Daily News<\/em> \u2014 the afternoon edition \u2014 throughout downtown Longview and part of the neighborhood that surrounded it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We had moved to Longview from New Hampshire in June 1968. At the time, the Granite State was lily-white. It still largely is, with white folks making up 91 percent of the population. Allenstown, the small village where I was raised until nearly 13, was largely French-Canadian and Catholic, as were we, at least on my mom\u2019s side of the family. Her maiden name was Bourque. The surnames of my friends included Courtemanche, Boudreau, Reslock, and Reneau. By contrast, Longview was racially diverse, though it was basically white and Black, with few Hispanics or Asians at the time. Catholics were a decided minority in Longview in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

My paper route reflected not just the racial diversity but differences in income, culture, and dress. There were:<\/p>\n