4 Responses to The Daily News of Newburyport, Ma

1. I’m going to “bait” my old friend Carlton Brown with this one. He can add more content and color to a “News-worthy” event in which he was one of three key players. The time was, I believe, summer 1968 or 1969. The place was in Leo Quinn’s back yard. Leo lived on the corner of Salem and Purchase Sts. originally. He was fun to hang out with not only for his easy going demeanor but also for his inventiveness. The fact that the Quinn family also had the first color TV in the neighborhood made his house a sure bet for three or four hours of Saturday morning cartoon viewing. After which we would spend endless hours in his cellar where he had rigged up all sorts of electric panels with lights, switches, and knobs on them. These and a modicum of imaginative thought were a kids dream come true for fun. A finished play area in a basement was a treat for most of us who were used to having those spaces filled with near empty paint cans, spark plugs from two or three cars ago, and other seemingly useless junk. At Leo’s we were free to be what ever our young and creative minds wanted to be. And that was usually to do with “Space”. Where a plain and mildly decorated refrigerator box once suited we young astronauts for a space-craft, now came a “Giant Leap” for us with a cellar full of flashing lights and room enough for a reasonably sized crew. Even that got old after a while and we would head outside to the back yard that was so played in as to be devoid of grass. There was a splendid tree house, dirt to dig in, all in a fenced in oasis. Then the Quinn’s renovated the old “Fowler” house next door. They tore down the old boarded up single floor store that separated the two houses. Leo and his family moved into the “new” place on the corner of Franklin and Purchase Sts. and the old place was rented out. No more basement playroom but a new open space in the new yard had been created with endless possibilities. This yard and the addition of a plywood pick-up truck cap, provided the first component for Leo, Carlton, and our slightly over-emotional friend Don, to embark on their own “Space Odyssey”. I’ll invite Carl to pick up the story here…

   

   p. j. nichypor November 11, 2009 at 1:04 pm Reply

2. I know Carlton Brown … well, I delivered the Daily News when six days cost 42 cents. Got the route from Peter Genna, who was a nephew of Officer Peter Genna of the police department, and lived on Pine Street. It was cold in winter delivering along Water Street on a bicycle all the way out to Dr. Ames’s house near Rolf’s Lane.

   

   Bob January 10, 2010 at 10:12 pm Reply

3. HAHA!! Once Over Lightly!
   I thought that was poor grammar when I was really young, evidently it meant they had basically done a half-assed job:
   http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/once-over-lightly

   Anyhow, Being a paperboy was a decent job, I do remember people giving me a hard time for having pannier baskets on my bike for paper delivery. The baskets also had a nasty habit of making my bike fall over when it was on the kickstand, spilling papers all over the ground.

   I had some cool places on my route: Dr Videkyo, a chiropractor with a very cool office staff; some little toy shop in an old lady’s living room, halfway down on the right; The Beef Corral (which had the TMNT video game, lost a lot of quarters there…great place to get pickles tho!; Labadini’s restaurant, another place to get pickles (got a job there after the paper route)

   I also remember the Staff Photographers were always catching pics of locals in the paper (obviously) and I recall being in there once for sure, but I think twice. The one time I know for sure was a picture of me and my dog on top of a parking lot snow plow mountain at the Tannery.

   Oh daily snooze… 🙂

   Interesting side note:
   I would pretend that I was shorted a few papers and go into Richdale’s and grab three or four copies of the DN and stuff a couple porn mags in between the papers, go to the reg, pay 35 cents a piece and come out of there the happiest boy in town. I was so clever at getting them, but damned if my mom didn’t find every single one once they got home…I even had a secret hiding place behind some bricks in a disused chimney in the basement…she still found them. Either I sucked at hiding things, or she was amazing at finding them…maybe a little of both.

   

   Chris Becker May 25, 2010 at 12:47 am Reply

4. I was both a paperboy as a youngster and a “stringer” for the Sports page later on in my years.

   Please add the following to the list of Daily News employees above:

   Kevin Doyle – Sports Editor

   James Bianchine – Assistant Sports Editor

   

   Rollie September 12, 2011 at 6:33 pm Reply