The Paper Route

Book excerpt: Seventeen year old Gary Matthews faced the same old story: a new town, new school, making new friends. His father was an Air Force pilot and they had just been stationed in Homestead, Florida in 1958. Trying to avoid an unhappy home life and fill the void of his summer, Gary stumbles upon a job that will change his life: a colored paper route in Jim Crow Dixie. To his surprise, Gary soon makes scores of friends, from the elderly widow, Hattie Donovan to the vivacious Lucy Brown, to Ty Shaw and his days of Negro League Baseball and friendship with the legendary Satchel Paige, to an unlikely and dangerous romance with Joyce Rogers. Gary soon faces redneck bullies at school as well as the biases of his own parents. But when tragedy strikes, Gary is comforted by the love and affection of those on his route. His time on The Paper Route teaches Gary life lessons that will shape and guide him for years to come: love, compassion, sorrow, faith, hopelessness and the indignities of life amongst the poor. It is a remarkable, touching experience of warmth, kindness and learning how to see the world from another person's perspective.