The people who keep the Globe going

A salute to the folks who have helped keep the Globe in operation for 150 years, from the press crew and delivery people to longtime subscribers.

Edward McCarthy, then 8, shown after picking up papers to deliver on April 8, 1966.Charles Dixon, Globe Staff

This 1966 paper boy is me

My father found out production of the newspapers had started back up again [after a five-week strike]. So we were over at the Morrissey plant to get the papers, and some reporter was out front with his camera. My father, being a very funny, outgoing guy, said, “This is the newspaper boy you want, right here.” [Charles Dixon, the photographer] said, “I want you to take these newspapers and run as fast as you can, and jump as high as you can.” I think I still have the original 8-by-10 glossies. It’s not like it was front page news, but it was a big deal. – Ed McCarthy, now 63, as told to Jules Struck

Five Stenstroms at the Globe in 1999. Left to right: Daniel’s cousin Rob, father John, Daniel himself, brother David, and cousin Stephen.from david Stenstrom

The Globe’s printing presses are my family business

The paper’s always been a big part of my life, since before I was born. My father had been a Globe pressman since 1957. I’d go with him to get his paycheck­ — I was probably 10 years old. He let me run the machine, hit the buttons, before I really knew what it was. I started working in the pressroom as a teenager­ — my father was there, my brother, a couple of cousins. My father worked at the Globe for about 46 years. He started on Washington Street in downtown Boston and retired from the Morrissey Boulevard plant in 2002, at 64 years old. I’m still there in the Globe pressroom. In a way, it’s a bit of a legacy for my father. – Daniel Stenstrom, pressroom foreman, as told to Jules Struck

A golden retriever picks up The Globe at the end of the driveway.from barbara baskin

A newspaper’s long journey to subscribers on Martha’s Vineyard

Barbara Baskin and her husband, John Breckenridge, started getting the Globe in 1970, and that means they might hold the record for longest-term subscribers. “We — miraculously — are able to have it delivered every day to the house, which on Martha’s Vineyard is kind of a feat,” Baskin says. Papers get to the island via the Patriot, a private boat the Globe has chartered for decades, and then a delivery driver takes over. One new driver kept getting lost, Baskin recalls. “I finally hailed her down one morning and I said, ‘Let me get in the car with you. We’re going to go deliver the papers.’” The last steps of the journey were long up to Harry, the couple’s late golden retriever. “Anything good outside, Harry?” Breckenridge would ask, opening the front door. And down the driveway the good boy would go, coming back with the news of the day. – Jules Struck