Paper route

I found this on the amazing Gangrey. It's a video of a San Francisco Chronicle reporter going back to the paper route he had when he was a kid.



(I had that "Ice Cream Castles" cassette, too. Still got the CD somewhere.)

A few years ago, when the Observer's power went out and the backup power failed, the paper came out late. Most of our carriers work other jobs and they couldn't deliver the paper that day, so some of us volunteered to run the routes. I went out with our sports editor, Gary Schwab, to a couple of neighborhoods in University City. Gary rolled the papers, I drove, and along the way we met a bunch of people who cared deeply about the paper, the news, and the city. There are a lot worse ways to learn about a place than by delivering the paper every day.

The original Gangrey post has a few comments from writers who had paper routes. If any of y'all had routes, in Charlotte or elsewhere, I'd love to hear your stories.

Story of the day: Little Duck

Almost 25 years ago, when I was working at the paper in Augusta, Ga., we had a writing workshop. The guy running the workshop handed out a story I had never heard of, about a soldier who died in Vietnam and how his body was received in his small town back home. That story holds first place in my Great Stories folder, and I still read it every couple of months. But it hasn't been available online for years.

Until now.

My friends at Gangrey.com have brought the story back, with a note from the author's daughter. I urge you, more than usual, to read this story. Share your thoughts in the comments.

(And FYI, if you love great stories, and great discussions about stories, go poke around in the Gangrey archives. You can get lost in there.)