“Neither snow nor rain nor heat of day nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

As I’m already well aware, The Evening Sun is published every weekday, with only Christmas Day being the exception, all year long. This standing tradition has not missed a day in 118 years, thanks to people like 12-year-old courier Nicholas Mooney.

Nick delivers the paper on far more days that the local post office does – in the face of snow, rain and even the occasional state or federal holiday.

A relatively new employee to our operation, Nick is a Norwich Middle School seventh grader and has been delivering The Evening Sun along his two newspaper routes in the City of Norwich since Sept. 10, 2008.

For all you who don’t deliver newspapers, let me tell you that the months between September and February are a four-month-long winter weather run of the gauntlet. Nick, who travels his route on foot, is obviously not a delivery boy any longer – he has been sired in the trials of mother nature’s chilling winter weather and was a delivery man.

“I hate the cold. During the winter I really wanted to quit, but I didn’t. I like delivering the papers the rest of the time, just not when it’s so cold,” said Nick.

“But Nick,” I said, “You’ve really only had the route during the coldest part of the year.”

“Yeah, but warmer days are ahead,” he said with enthusiastic relief. I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d all be better off adopting such an attitude.

Delivering papers is pretty straight forward, but it’s the little things that count when it comes to earning a good tip, Nick explained.

Nick took me through a crash course on the preferences of his subscribers, which focused on three main points: where to put the paper, how to fold the paper and when to deliver the paper.

I can’t remember the number of times I heard Nick tell me, “Not there, over there,” and “Wait not like that, like this.” Obviously I had underestimated the complexity of the operation, but Nick kept me encouraged. “Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” he’d say.

Surprisingly more people than you might think prefer having their paper somewhere else besides their mail box. As I learned, some like it stuffed in the screen door, others want it passed through a mail slot or resting in a specific place on their porch. Nick took it one step further and described to me how a few customers requested the paper be folded a certain way.