STRONG — At 71 years old, Kay Brackley still enjoys driving in the early-morning hours to deliver newspapers to Sun Journal customers. She has done the part-time job for 24 years.

“It gives me good spending money,” she said. “You have no hassles. You pick up your papers and do the route and do it right.”

She is an independent carrier.

On top of that, she thinks it is healthy for her.

The air is fresh and there are no germs floating around because it is too cold, she said.

She is unable to stand on her feet for eight hours a day because of arthritis in her back. This job allows her to work, she said.

“I just do my job and go home,” she said. “In good weather, I can do my route in two-and-a-half to three hours.”

Her husband, Bob, was a newspaper carrier for 25 years. He stopped delivering because of health problems in March 2014. But if he could, he would deliver the newspaper on his hands and knees, she said.

She considers her time delivering to be hers.

It is quiet and peaceful, she said.

“I see a lot of deer,” Brackley said. “I used to see a lot of moose, but I don’t see as many now. When the snow is on the trees, it’s like a winter wonderland. Even though I don’t like it, it is beautiful. When the snow is light, I love driving through it when the roads are not plowed. It’s wonderful.”

Sometimes she listens to the radio, sometimes audiobooks. Years ago, she talked to a Temple man on her CB radio.

Brackley has missed just two days of delivering papers — the height of the 1998 ice storm and during blizzard Juno. Even during the latter, she picked up her newspapers but decided the weather was too bad to deliver them because snow was falling fast, making the roads nearly impassable and the visibility very limited.

So she brought the papers home and doubled up deliveries the next day.

The only day she has off each year is Christmas, the one day the Sun Journal does not publish a paper.

Each day, she drives 105 miles to deliver 160 Sun Journal newspapers and two dozen Waterville papers.

She got started when she was a convenience store manager in Livermore Falls.

Her husband was delivering newspapers in the area and she wanted him closer to their home in Strong.

A route opened up in the Phillips and Strong area and he told her if she took it for three months, he would take over after that, Brackley said.

So she balanced being a store manager and a newspaper carrier.

When the three months were up, he decided not to change his route, so she kept it.

During her career, she has been recognized for saving people’s lives. One of those times was when she noticed that a Phillips resident had not taken her newspapers out of the box for three days, which was unusual. She called the Sheriff’s Office, and upon investigation, it was discovered that the woman had had a stroke.

Brackley is considered a very dedicated, quality carrier, said Mike Theriault, Sun Journal circulation director. Her husband, he said, was the same.

“They are incredible,” he said.

Carriers face more challenges during the winter months.

During the past two weeks, a job that normally takes three hours can take 20 to 30 percent longer because of the weather, he said.

One of the challenges is that carriers are often unable to see the Sun Journal boxes because they have not been shoveled out, he said. Another problem is that walkways are sometimes not cleared and carriers may slip, fall and get hurt. Any shortcuts may be covered with snow so it takes longer to deliver the papers. Subzero temperatures also are a factor. 

dperry@sunmediagroup.net

Copy the Story Link