When he was 9, Frank Brunn wanted to be a paperboy so badly he worked for a dime a day. Twenty-five years and 10 siblings later, the route brings in $30 a week for his 15-year-old brother, Rich.
But not for long.The Pittsburgh Press Co. wants to join dozens of newspapers around the country that have replaced the foot-and-bicycle patrol with a more efficient system of adult carriers with cars. Caught in the plan, which has spawned a lengthy newspaper strike, are 4,500 youths and 605 Teamsters drivers.
"The bosses just decide things, and they never think of the little guy," said Rich.
In 1980, 90 percent of all carriers in the United States were under 18. In 1990, the ratio had dropped to 66 percent, according to figures from the Newspaper Association of America.
The reasons? Changing housing patterns, fewer afternoon newspapers and fewer kids.
Suburban sprawl has created "undeliverable" subdivisions - far-flung, smaller developments that lack enough would-be subscribers to make a whole route, said Randall Notter, spokesman for the Press Co., which publishes The Pittsburgh Press and prints and distributes the separately owned Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
And since the mid-1970s, afternoon papers have been fading. In 1992, about six in 10 U.S. newspapers were evening editions, down from about eight in 10 in 1980, according to Editor & Publisher, a New York-based industry journal.
A youth tossing newspapers is likely to have an afternoon edition in hand because evening papers can be delivered after school.
Also, the number of 14- to 17-year-olds declined 18 percent from 1980 to 1990, and the average youth carrier lasts only about 10 months.
Even Teamsters drivers, who have publicized the youth carrier issue in their labor dispute with the Press Co., have complained in the past about how tough it is to keep a carrier, according to Notter.
"You hear about some youths carrying them for several years. A lot of them turn over after just several weeks," he said.
A faster system also could bring subscribers more up-to-date editions of the morning Post-Gazette or the afternoon Press, Notter said.
"We're not dinosaurs here. We can't just run the way we've always run and compete," he said.
But youth carriers present at least one advantage to circulation managers with high standards. A youngster is more likely to "porch" the paper than an adult throwing papers out of a car.
One group of adults that object to the change are carriers' parents, who believe their children's routes help instill a work ethic.
"I don't get any handouts from my parents. I have to work for everything I do, and that's the way it's always been in my family," said Rich, who has two routes and makes about $50 a week.
Walt Disney, Ross Perot, John Wayne, Carl Sandburg, John Glenn, Jackie Robinson, J. Edgar Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower and Bob Hope are a few of the dozens of former paperboys who are in the International Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame.
Historians believe the first U.S. newspaper carrier was Benjamin Franklin, who, as an apprentice in his brother's printing shop, delivered copies of the New England Courant in Boston in 1721.
Since then boys, and later girls, have maintained the tradition.
Rich's mother, Sarah Brunn, said each of her 11 children has had a hand in the Press route since 1967.
The American paper carrier will not go unmourned. The paperboys are a throwback from a more innocent era, a time when kids roamed the streets without fear and saved their dimes for the malt shop.