Since day one of The Morning Star in 1988, Ernst Van Gameren has been faithfully making deliveries to residents eager for their morning paper.
And now, after 34 years, Van Gameren is hanging it up.
The 57-year-old got accustomed to waking up at midnight to deliver bundles of papers on all of hospital hill and downtown 30th Avenue — the apartment run, as it’s called. He also did 24th Avenue, Okanagan Landing Road, 27th Avenue and all the streets in between.
“I used to start at 12 at night and pick up the papers, me and my buddy there would load it in the truck. Sometimes we’d have to make two runs because the truck wasn’t big enough,” he said.
On his delivery route, Van Gameren got his exercise in over the years. He says he had “huge calves” from doing bundle drops and delivering door to door to as many as 1,800 homes.
For Van Gameren, meeting and talking with the people he delivered papers to was what kept him going at the job for so many years.
“There was a lot of elderly people, especially later on when I was just by myself doing it. But they’ve all passed away unfortunately,” he said.
“That’s the sad part of it is the friendships you make because I used to always have people meeting me at the door.”
Back when the newspaper had three publications a week, Van Gameren would carry an extra 20 papers with him to accommodate the people on the street who would ask him for one.
Van Gameren says his last day at the paper was an emotional one.
“I had a little bit of crying,” he said. “You go to different places and you see the people that used to greet you, so that was a little bit of an emotional trip for sure.”
Van Gameren was married in 1988, a time when mortgage interest rates were at 13.5 per cent, so the opportunity to get a second income at The Morning Star was perfect timing.
He says he doesn’t have big plans for retirement — he’s only partly retired, after all, as he runs his own business, Van Gameren Yard and Home Maintenance Services.
“I got to keep busy, I’m Dutch,” he laughed.
“I just want to thank The Morning Star for the opportunity and for allowing me to be able to work for that many years.”
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