Sixty-five-year-old Paul Beckett delivered his last newspaper on Dec. 31, writes Leslie Krowchenko for the Daily Times.

The newspaper delivery carrier has been working his paper route for 30 years.

Now it’s time to retire.

“I’m looking forward to things I haven’t had,” he said. “Things like vacations with my wife, Margie, going to bed at a normal hour and not getting up at 3 a.m.”

His job means collecting papers in Havertown in the middle of the night, bagging them, loading them into his pickup truck, and beginning his 53-mile delivery route.

 “The milage comes from going up and down each side street,” he said. “There are only three streets without a delivery.”

He has never missed a delivery.

 “Roads have been closed for downed trees, but they haven’t stopped me,” he said. “That’s what 4x4s are for.”

Beckett also made sure the neighbors he visited were safe and he kept an eye on homes where families are on vacation.

One couple often invited him for coffee or breakfast.

 “I have become good friends with many of you,” he wrote in a goodbye note. “You will be missed.”

Read more about Paul Beckett at the Daily Times.