[Jeff Higgins]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned their paper routes yet. I started mine at about age 10 or 11. Delivering was great - I would get out on my bike before school, head up to the paper shack where we got all of our papers for our routes, and headed out to deliver from there. By the time I got home my mom had my lunch packed, I had a quick bowl of cereal, and off to school.

Collecting really sucked, though. We had to go door to door to collect everyone's subscription payments. Really taught me a lot about human nature, at that ripe young age. Lots of folks tipped pretty darn good, but lots of folks wouldn't pay at all. Every excuse in the book, if they even bothered to answer the door. Some pretty mean people, too, especially considering it was a kid they were dealing with.

Lots of my fellow paper boys rejoiced when the paper changed to mail-in subscription payments. In spite of the hard time I got from a few of my subscribers, though, I hated it. It made it a lot harder for the nice folks to give us tips. That's where the real money was.

And how about lawn mowing? Talk about another cash cow for a willing young man. I did that for about the same length of time, from about 10 or 11 until I was old enough to drive. Actually, I quit the route, but kept mowing, at least for a few folks, long after I was driving.

I wound up buying my first decent motorcycle, that I actually owned and paid for myself, with that paper route and lawn mowing money. It was my first 1976 Sportster. Unfortunately, not the one I still have today, darn it. The one I still have was purchased when I was 19, and it was my third by then.

But, um, yeah - paper routes and lawn mowing. My friends and I made some serious bank (for a kid) in these endeavors. Some of us saved every last damn penny, some squandered all of it on little b.s. crap along the way. Much like real life, I guess.