When Doris and Marvin Storie met in Boone in 1963, he owned two cars: A Volkswagen Karmann Ghia he drove in the middle of every night when he delivered copies of the Observer, and a Pontiac Grand Prix he drove while courting women.

Most of the time, he took Doris out in the Pontiac. But on a few dates, she rode in the Karmann Ghia. "I was crazy enough," she said, "to go with him a few times delivering papers. I didn't know what I was getting into, did I?"

They married six months after they met and have been delivering the Observer ever since, Marvin for 50 years, and Doris for almost that long. He's 73, she's 69 and they said they still enjoy it.

In all those years, their subscribers have gone without papers only an occasional few days when snow was too deep, or ice too slick. In the 2009 Christmas Day ice storm, they got all but 18 papers delivered, then had to drive through their neighbors' yards to get home because so many trees blocked the road.

"Marvin believes the paper has to be delivered no matter what," Doris said. "One day, it was so bad we were together in the VW and snow was blowing everywhere.

"He said, 'It would take a fool to be out here today.'

"I said, 'I haven't seen anybody but the two of us.'"

A little extra income

Marvin has quite a few stories to tell from his years as an Observer carrier: About the 3-year-old girl he found sitting near downtown Boone all by herself at 4 a.m.; the drunk college students he drove back to campus after he saw them wandering around in minus-35 degree weather; the rooster that attacked him when he went to collect payment from a subscriber.

There's no better job, he said. Marvin should know. He has worked a few others. He and Doris ran a landscaping business. They owned a garden center and mini-storage business, and they still run the storage end of it. They raise beef cattle. They own an airplane landing strip. Doris worked 13 years for the Agricultural Extension Service.

But with the help of money they earned delivering papers, they said they put their three daughters through graduate school at Appalachian State University. "Most of the people who carry papers," Doris said, "are professional people doing it on the side to make extra money."

Marvin said people often ask him why he doesn't quit. This is what he tells them:

"I can tell you one thing: Ever since I've been carrying those papers, I've had enough money to buy a hamburger. I never have been totally broke."

How do you fold a computer?

They get up around 2 a.m. and each drives about 70 miles in separate cars on separate routes. It takes them four hours to deliver the weekday paper and five hours to deliver the bigger Sunday paper. They both listen to gospel on their car radios, and have seen more beautiful sunrises and starry nights than most of us.

"You're out there by yourself, at a good time of day, with nothing to bother you much," Marvin said. "You can drink a Red Bull if you get sleepy."

They've watched Boone grow bigger and the number of newspaper subscriptions grow smaller. They now deliver about 600 papers, down from a high of 2,400. When they started, the daily paper cost 7 cents, the Sunday paper a quarter.

Doris scours the front page for news before she begins her route. She reads the rest of the paper at home.

"I love The Buzz," she said. "I read that every morning. I read the editorials and see what the thinking is. It gives you a comparison. The other day, I was reading where newspapers are one of the most readable products because you have the fold.

"People say, 'I get my news on the computer.'

"And I say, 'Well, do you take that to the bathroom with you?' "

Meet carrier David Smiley

WHO: He's 75 and lives in Charlotte, a former middle school social studies teacher who filled in as a carrier in the mid-1970s and kept at it.

WHAT: He had hip replacement surgery seven years ago and couldn't bend over. So he got up at 11 p.m. before his wife went to bed so she could tie his shoes. He drove to where he picks up the papers and read until they arrived around 2 a.m. His hip healed, but he keeps the schedule because he enjoys the quiet time reading books on economics.

WHERE: He delivers to the Park Crossing, Heydon Hall and Seven Eagles communities in Charlotte. "I've never been accosted by anything other than a little colt when I went up to what used to be a farmhouse off Sardis Road..."

WHEN: He goes back to bed after delivering, and figures he gets a combined seven or eight hours of sleep a night. "I've done it for so long, I'm used to it."

WHY: "I really do enjoy delivering the paper and enjoy speaking with subscribers on my route. I try to deliver the paper the way I would want to receive it: dry, readable and earlier than on time."