After a quarter-century of delivering The Terrace Standard and its weekend sister, The Northern Connector and its predecessors, Maxine Smallwood and Bob Goodvin have called it a day.
Their last delivery was March 6, ending a twice-weekly journey through portions of Lakelse, Lazelle, Atwood, Apsley, Greig, Kalum and the Kalum Trailer Court.
They began as relief carriers for another carrier and then secured their own routes. “It was good exercise,” says Bob Goodvin of the job. “We’d recommend it to anyone. We really enjoyed the walking.”
The idea of exercise was incorporated into another past time of Goodvin and Smallwood, the BC Seniors Games, which began about the same time the pair took up their routes.
Walking the newspaper routes helped keep them limber and in shape for the annual games, they said.
The pair regularly brought home their fair share of medals over the years as representatives of the games’ northern zone, one of 12 set up around the province.
At last year’s senior games held in Langley, Maxine Smallwood received gold in shot put, weight pentathlon, discus, and javelin in the women’s 85-89 division. Bob Goodvin also stood out in the track and field category for men 90 and over, with golds in discus and shot put, and a silver in javelin.
Goodvin and Smallwood also made friends along their routes.
“We got to know a lot of people – and a lot of dogs,” Goodvin notes. Together with Smallwood’s son, Ken, who has been helping them for about five years, and Rhoda Wells, who joined in a year and a half ago, the four said they never met a dog they couldn’t get along with, adding that some dogs looked forward to their deliveries.
“A little cookie, a treat,” said Ken of the secret of dealing with dogs. It was much the same with cats, added Wells.
A side benefit to the routes, in season, was picking fruit in yards. “Not anybody said stay away from our trees. Help yourself,” said Goodvin.
“We just enjoyed doing it,” said Maxine Smallwood. “Everybody was friendly.”