—This letter appeared in the “Where Are They Now” section of the Post on June 1, 1971
Dear Editor,
I was once a Saturday Evening Post boy. I sold the magazines at the Hollis Railroad Station in Hollis, New York. Unfortunately there was a kid named Maury who also used to sell The Saturday Evening Post there. He was a head taller than me and weighed 50 pounds more. He didn’t like my selling the Post on “his turf,” so he used to burn my arm with cigarettes.
I moved across the street from the station, but Maury didn’t even like this. He used to yell, “You dirty blank blank. I’ll kill you if you sell a magazine.” But the people used to like me and many of them walked right past Maury and bought the Post from me. After everyone left the station I ran like a gazelle, my Saturday Evening Post bag waving in the air.
I think during one of these dashes I decided that when I grew up I’d get out of sales and on the editorial side of the magazine.
Cheers,
Art
This article is featured in the July/August 2021 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
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Comments
Really good feature from 1971 to enjoy again now on Art Buchwald. My parents were big fans of his column in the L.A. Times, and got me into them also. I’d always heard positive stories of boys selling the Post, working toward that prize of a neat new bicycle or whatever other prizes were available for successful sales volume.
But hearing of a ‘turf wars’ and arm cigarette burns is a bit too much. Didn’t Ross Perot sell subscriptions as young as 7 years old? I think so. That would have been too young for me. 9-11 (’66-68) would have been about right age wise, and my last chance for the Post otherwise.
Between 2017-2019 I passed out subscription cards at the Lake Balboa Dog Park to receptive and enthusiastic people. Most had no idea it was published or thought it went away years ago. I just kept it simple by saying it’s subscription only, so it’s an understandable misconception. It’s as great as ever, and they can look forward to it every other month. Just keep it out of the dog’s reach!