This morning I was leaving the house to go up and play Pickleball. As I was driving down the street there was a news paper delivery guy delivering the Sunday Las Vegas news paper to a couple of neighbors and it triggered a bunch of memories around the news paper.
Jennifer liked to read a news paper. We had been Montana Standard (Butte paper) customers for years. When we first lived in Lafayette we would get the paper via snail mail. The the internet started up and we eventually converted to getting it digitally. When we moved to San Antonio we started getting the paper there. Then we converted to getting it digitally as well. She liked the San Antonio paper and continued to read it here in Mesquite and she would also puruse the Las Vegas paper. She figured out some work around because the papers used the two news papers used the same software.
Unfortunately last month I canceled my subscription to the Montana Standard. My reason for doing that was that they just kept jacking the price up. Now they are hounding me to resubscribe with all kinds of crazy offers ($1 a month for six months, etc). I am refusing to bite, just on principle more than anything else.
If my business was so important to you, why did you just keep jacking the price up. Many times these price increases were unannounced. The bill just increased and the quality continued to decrease. So I felt like they were treating us like suckers. So guess what, you lost my business. Maybe I am cutting my nose off to spite my face. So be it.
Jennifer and I had taken to calling the Montana Standard the Sub-standard years ago. The reason for this was the declining coverage of local news/sports. The electronic version is a joke in my opinion and it just kept getting worse.
Seeing the delivery person chucking the papers out his car window also triggered a childhood memory. When I was a kid, the way our paper got delivered to the ranch was via the Intermountain passenger bus. They would chuck the paper out the window as they drove by the ranch. This is when the road was still a two lane road. Most days they were pretty accurate (especially when my Cousin Bill Ryan’s father in law was the bus driver). However there were days that for whatever reason it became a treasure hunt (snow, fog, another driver, etc.).
Winter always provided some challenges, especially if we had a powdery type snow storm. The paper would maybe skid down in the ditch and get lost in the snow. Sometimes my grandpa and/or dad could track the skid marks and find the paper. However, some days it would not be found. Come spring time and when the snow melted off, we would find those lost papers. They usually were a soggy log of wet paper. The paper was wrapped in a brown paper wrapper to keep in bundled. Rainy days also presented challenges if you did not get the paper right away. Some days grandpa would have the paper laid out and drying out in the milk house and it would be a little wrinkled when you read it.
When I was a kid, I like to read just the comics. I would sit at the kitchen table in my grand parents house and read the comics. Depending on the time of day I would maybe have a bowl of mush (Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal) with them or several pieces of candy from the candy dish that was always on the kitchen table. My grandparents (especially grandpa) loved their candy.
Once the interstate was completed the delivery method was changed numerous times. At first they would deliver to a paper box near our mailbox, then that changed to paper boxes near the community mail box five miles down the road. The cost they wanted continued to escalate and we eventually converted my folks over to digital as well.
We all liked having a physical paper vs digital but it just became not worth the cost to get a physical paper. I guess it is just part of progress.
One of these days I will have to share my memories on how phone service has changed over the years. That one is really interesting.
Last night I mentioned that we were going to the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies at the Casa Blanca casino. They did a nice show especially since the Casino did not charge to attend.
The room was pretty full when we got there, we had to stand for their first set. They took a pretty long break and quite a few folks left and then we got a seat. Like I mentioned yesterday, I am not a real big fan of their genre of music, but Jennifer was and she would have really enjoyed the show. I did not mind listening to them live, but it would not be a genre of music I would play at home. They finished off the show with Zoot Suit Riot which is probably their biggest hit.
One thing I will say, is that the lead singer was a little bundle on energy. He was constantly bouncing around and dancing around on stage.
Well enough for today, I need to get something productive done before I go to Sunday evening Bocce.
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