THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409030192
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Kermit Robinson surely must be the oldest living Virginian-Pilot paper boy in Virginia Beach, if not in all of Hampton Roads,
``I don't think there's any question about Virginia Beach,'' said the 92-year-old Robinson.
Robinson was reminiscing from the living room of his retirement home at the First Colonial Inn. Born at Virginia Beach in 1902, He began delivering the newspapers in the little resort town around 1910, he said.
Robinson inherited the newspaper route from his older brother who had delivered the papers for several years before that. When Robinson quit the route several years later, he passed the job on to a younger friend, Duck Braithwaite.
At the time Virginia Beach was small enough that each boy in his tenure was the one and only paper boy in town. Since both his predecessor and successor have passed away, Robinson believes there couldn't be many paper boys much older than he!
When he had the route, he would deliver a scant 35 or 40 papers in winter and 150 or so in the summer. The daily paper cost 2 cents and the Sunday paper, 5 cents. But the young Robinson would charge the tourists 10 cents for the Sunday edition.
``I was profiteering,'' he said with a laugh.
He made the most money he had ever made at one time on the day when World War I was declared. ``Boy, I sold some papers that day,'' he declared.
Each morning, after delivering papers to the cottage line, Robinson would get on the train and ride to 31st Street, delivering papers along the way to Virginia Beach businessmen, who were his customers, as they boarded the train for work in Norfolk. Then he would ride the train back downtown to school.
``I went to school over the jail,'' he said.
School was taught in the town hall at 15th Street. The town hall served as school, jail and all other government offices too, Robinson explained. After seventh grade he went on to real school, the new Oceana High, built a few years earlier.
Robinson was born on 25th Street across from where Ingram Pharmacy is now. His father, James L. Robinson, was a surfman with the U.S. Life-Saving Service and worked at the station that is now the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia at 24th Street and Oceanfront.
Surfmen worked 10 months out of the year and made $85 a month Robinson recalled. In the off-season of summer when there weren't many shipwrecks, his father worked as a carpenter.
Working as a newspaper boy wasn't Robinson's only source of income either. Like his father, he worked other jobs. He and his brother teamed up to trap rabbits. They would skin and clean the animals and then sell them for 25 cents each. Big ones brought 35 cents.
And in the summer in addition to delivering newspapers, Robinson helped deliver groceries for Storey's Grocery Store on 17th Street. The delivery wagon, powered by two mules, had a covered top and wide tires so it wouldn't sink in the sand.
Robinson and his family attended Galilee Episcopal Church when he was growing up. At the time the church was at Oceanfront and 18th street. Later, Robinson served three successive terms as senior warden from 1958 through 1960. On his 91st birthday, the church vestry issued a resolution thanking Robinson for his ``faithfulness.''
``When a man gets as old as I am and has been a grand rascal all my life, that's a fine thing to have,'' he said. ``There's a man upstairs I can't fool and that's the Lord!''
Robinson did not live at the Beach all his life. As a teenager, he moved with his family to Norfolk when his father retired in about 1920. For several years he was on the road with his job with the Royster Fertilizer Company. But he moved back to the Beach as soon as he could.
``Because it was my home,'' he said. ``I got sand in my shoes in Virginia Beach and I never got it out.''
P.S. AN OPEN HEARTH COOKING DEMONSTRATION will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at historic Lynnhaven House, 4405 Wishart Road. The program is free with admission. Call 460-1688.
KID'S FISHING DAY will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Parents and grandparents are encouraged to bring the kids and learn more about the art of fishing. Call 721-2412.
MYTHS, MAGIC AND MIRRORS, a special theme tour on the legends surrounding mirrors, will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Adam Thoroughgood House. Call 664-6283 for reservations. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Kermit Robinson, 92, reminiscing from the living room of his
retirement home at the First Colonial Inn, began delivering the
newspapers in the little resort town of Virginia Beach around 1910.
by CNB