Grand Falls-Windsor’s Art Griffin was only seven-years-old when the first Grand Falls Advertiser hit the streets 75 years ago.
And he was one of the young boys who helped it reach the houses, along with his five-year-old brother Bill, and 11-year-old brother Desmond.
“The three of us we’re the first carriers,” Mr. Griffin said.
Michael and Walter Blackmore were paper makers at the mill in Grand Falls. While still working at the paper mill, on April 8, 1936, they published the first Grand Falls Advertiser.
With the help of Mike’s wife, Laura, the newspaper ran on the eighth and 23rd of each month.
Walter Blackmore was married to Mr. Griffin’s aunt Lucy Griffin, his father, Tom Griffin’s, sister. Mr. Griffin said that was the reason he and his brother’s received the paper route.
“And he was also my godfather. There was a bit of nepotism there,” Mr. Griffin said.
“I remember an old lady that lived down there by the United Church now, it was an old house there and this old lady always had an English penny to pay the paper.” - Art Griffin
“They were pioneer families here, Dad and the Blackmores.”
Mr. Griffin said his father came to the town at the age of 16.
“His father died when he as 14 and there were six children in the family,” Mr. Griffin said. “They went in the orphanages, except for Dad. He had to go try to make a living for the family. Him and Dan Byrd came in from Dunville, Placentia Bay. You couldn’t find a place to stay unless you had a job so they built a tarpaper shack outside the limits of town and eventually they got a job. Dad got a house on First Avenue. After a while they brought his mother in.”
Mr. Griffin said, as the story goes, his father’s younger brother Jim tried to enlist in the military from the orphanage.
.jpg)
.jpg)
I was also a paper boy for the Advertiser. I had the best route in Grand Falls,It was starting out at the mill and after the midnight shift came and the 8AM went to work I had the High Street from the upper Royal Store to the lower Royal Store. I picked up the papers on Friday evening and I was at work at sevenAM at the mill. My grandmother opened an account for me at the Coop Store an I cashed it in i 1957 and bought a car with the money. I had the paper route from 1940 til 1948. When I left to go to New York to live with my father I gave the route to Fred Sanger a very good friend of mine at the time. Just a little info. I hope you print it. Regards Fred LeMoine