In the beginning: Toronto Daily Star carrier

You could say newspapers were in my blood from an early age. It was inherited from my father, Fred, who sold newspapers at the corner of Christie and Dupont in Toronto in the early 1900's.

My older brother, Bill Cosway, was delivering the Toronto Star in 1952 when I got my first paper route, working out of an agency at 22 Barton Street, in the Bathurst and Bloor district.

It was the start of a beautiful, eight-year friendship.

(Photo above: 22 Barton Street agency rep Robert "Bob" Britnell, me and a new bike won in a subscription contest)

In the early 1950's, the Star and Telegram were late afternoon editions and you could deliver both - until they decided to make carriers choose one or the other. I chose the Star.

The number of customers on my routes varied, but at my peak I was delivering the Star to 350 people in a wide range of the Annex, including the posh new apartment buildings on Spadina Road, Walmer Road and St. George Street.

Two things I quickly learned as a carrier: it was cool to always have money in your pocket at a young age and I had a knack for selling subscriptions in contests.

Also discovered that single women living in high rises thought nothing of coming to the door scantily clad to pay me for the deliveries, but that is another blog.

As one of the Star's top subscription contest salesmen, I won six consecutive trips to New York City, three by train and the remainder by plane.

The overnight train journeys cemented a love for trains and for New York City. The royal service in the dining car, the clickety clack through cities and countryside.

In later years, felt sorry for the chaperones who had to manage 150 boys and girls on each trip, but at the time we didn't hesitate to sneak out of our hotel at night and roam Times Square. Or pile into one room to smoke, play poker and tell tales. (Photo at right: Me on the floor trying to fleece fellow carriers in a New York hotel room.)

During a January 1959 New York Rangers/Maple Leafs game at Madison Square Garden, I left with a buddy to catch an Alan Freed concert at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square.

And what a memorable night it was, with 17 rock and roll acts, including Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochrane, Bo Diddley, Jackie Wilson, Frankie Avalon, the Everly Brothers, Dion and the Belmonts, Jimmy Clanton etc. All for a $4.50 ticket.

Another memorable evening was a first visit to Radio City Music Hall, where all 150 young carriers enjoyed the colorful Christmas stage show - plus a screening of Peyton Place. Our escorts, we called them Huey, Louie and Dewey, sounded apologetic for the movie.

Now, a confession. I shoplifted an Empire State Building souvenir. For years, I waited for a knock on the door and my arrest for shoplifting. It never came and I never shoplifted again.

Meanwhile, back on my paper route . . .

Hurricane Hazel ravaged Toronto in October 1954. On the second day of the hurricane weather, carriers were given the option of delivering or not delivering. I delivered. Several days later, when it came time to collect, a woman on my route complained that the paper was wet that day.

In all my years as a carrier, never had to ask my parents for allowance. When Elvis Presley came to town in 1957 for a concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, paid for the $3.50 ticket from my paper route earnings. Paid for all of the rock and roll records etc. In 1958, at age 16, bought a motor scooter from my earnings and later, my first car. It was teenage freedom.

Fondly remember my carrier days. It provided early training in money management, took me to New York and Detroit, won me bicycles, radios, dartboards etc, kept money in my pocket, taught me how to deal with people. My early ambition was to own a corner newspaper sales business, but subways all but doomed that public service. Fate, however, would keep me in the news biz.

Next blog: Toronto Globe and Mail copy boy