Thomas B. Barker

Newspaper Boy Thomas B. Barker

Travel to the 1950's with Tom Barker as he takes you on his Rollfast Bicycle for a ride back in time when the minimum wage was $1 an hour, a stamp cost 3 cents and a newspaper was a nickel. Tom takes you on a visit to the lost world of the delivery of the mighty newspaper by an army of teens. Learn how hundreds of newspaper carriers got the latest news, fashion, sports, and advertising out to the masses. Understand the importance of the newspaper boy institution and the famous people it has influenced and were once among its ranks. 
Tom will tell you how he got his paper route, overcame obstacles, made new friends, and endeared himself to the customers on route S-2 in Irondequoit New York.Today newspapers are delivered by sometimes grumpy men in automobiles who deposit the thin wad of newsprint into a plastic tube at the side of the road. Back in the 1950's each customer had a special place reserved at their house for the gentle placement of the thick, rolled up, multipage conveyance of information. It was a different world back then and Tom will take you there.