Once A Paper Person

By JOSEPH E. RAY A t the age of 12, I started helping a 15 year old with his afternoon paper route. The name of the paper was The Knickerbocker News. His route was 105 papers, six days a week. Each paper cost 42 cents. You had to collect each week from the customers, mostly on Saturdays. If you were lucky, sometimes a customer would give you 50 cents; some would only give you 40 cents.

The way to get a paper route in those days was to start off helping an older kid with their route. When they turned 16, they would find other jobs. I got the route when I was almost 14 and a guy named George Nugent, now an Albany police officer, was my helper.

I worked the paper route for almost two years. When I became a freshman in high school (Cardinal McCloskey High School), I tried out and made the freshman baseball team. George got the route for himself.

After the baseball season ended, I needed to find a job. My father was a hardworking man with three children. My older sister went to Vincentian Institute. My grandfather paid for her tuition.

When my baby sister came along, my dad was saving for a house to get out of a small two-bedroom flat. He told me I had to pay half of my tuition at Cardinal McCloskey. The tuition was $8 a month — my dad would pay $4 and I would pay $4. The other option was I could transfer to Albany High School. I could go for free and play sports. I was pretty good in basketball and baseball. Yet, all my grade school friends were at Cardinal McCloskey. I decided to come up with half of my tuition. I knew my dad did not have any money to give me to go out. I already had odd jobs shoveling snow, cutting grass and would do anything else for spending money, i.e. setting pins at bowling allies or working at VFW Bingo setting up tables and selling hot dogs. Bingo was a big deal in the early ‘60s.

Looking back now, I should have gone to Albany High School. Life would have been easier and when I met my future wife at 19, she graduated from Albany High School the same year that I graduated from Cardinal McCloskey. After I graduated from Cardinal McCloskey, I got a job at General Electric in Albany. I got married, had a little boy and bought a twofamily house. Things changed in a big way.

General Electric told me I had to go on nights when I was married for just two years. Neither my wife or I wanted that, so I changed jobs.

I got a job at LaSalle School for Boys, which dealt with troubled kids from the state. LaSalle was run by the Christian Brothers, a great group of people. My daughter came along soon after. After some time, the Brothers encouraged me to go to college. They said they would help pay if I agreed to commit to stay with them Once a paper person...

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