October 16, 2025
by Tom Ewing
The release of Beth Macy’s new book, Paper Girl, is a reminder of the relationship between local newspapers, the lives of young people, and major transformations in recent American history. Fifty years ago, Virginia newspapers celebrated the boys and girls who made deliveries of the daily paper — often using a bicycle. Governor Miles Godwin issued an official recognition of “Newspaper Carrier Day” on October 11, 1975. One day earlier, the Danville Bee declared in an editorial: “The diligence and perseverance of the newspaper carrier are held in high esteem…At the turn of the century businessmen tried to gain the public’s favor by providing home delivery of their product. Now, while other businesses have abandoned this practice, the newspaper is being delivered just as it was years ago, with millions receiving their newspaper at home.” This historical connection was amplified in the reference to the theme of national newspaper week, “The Spirit of Freedom,” which referenced the struggle for press freedom in the revolutionary era almost two hundred years earlier.
Examples of boys and girls using bicycles to deliver newspapers appeared in articles and illustrations. In Danville, Virginia, Candy Lacey, age 14, began delivering the Bee while bicycling or walking — because people on her route objected to her delivering by horse, which had been her preferred mode of transportation (until her mother told her to stop). A photograph in the Danville Bee on October 11, 1975 shows two brothers, Rusty and Jack Hines, with a newspaper bag draped over the front handlebars of a bicycle. The Southwest Times in Pulaski county, and other newspapers, published a drawing of a boy on a bicycle, ready to throw a roller up newspaper, with a larger paper serving as a kind of superhero cape.
The Urbana Daily Citizen, the newspaper Macy delivered in the 1970s on her 10 speed Huffy, also celebrated International Newspaper Carrier Day. On October 6, 1975, the Urbana Daily Citizen published the same super-carrier cartoon over this inspirational statement: “It’s your Constitutional right to know what’s happening in the world…and it’s our ob to see that you’re made aware in the clearest, most concise way. As long as the American democratic system is alive, we’ll work to keep you informed. For only when there is a system of fearless unbisased reporting are we truly a free people.” The logo for newspaper week — a stylized eagle with the stars and bars on its wings — evoked the same defiant patriotic promise of a free press. To explore connections between Beth Macy’s earlier book, Dopesick, and the histories explored in the Bike 76 VA project, listen to the Radford episode of the podcast.
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