‘I’d Rather Give Than Take’

It’s 6 on a Sunday morning and 87-year-old Crosby Millage is already on the job, just as he is almost every day, stacking editions of the day’s papers on a rickety wooden shelf of the tiny newsstand he runs.

“I like to work. It keeps me alive,” says Millage, who has been selling newspapers for more than three decades and has been at his current spot for 10 years.

From a brown, 7-by-4-foot stand at Adams Boulevard and Normandie Avenue, Millage sells four local papers and the Daily Racing Form. Decked out in a slightly tattered, dark gray suit, a short-brimmed black hat, black wing-tips and a green apron for loose change, Millage is a beloved neighborhood presence in the West Adams district.

Bonnie West’s car rolls to a stop at the curb. She has been coming here every Sunday for seven years on her way to church. She recently subscribed to her newspaper’s delivery service but still gets a Sunday paper from Millage.

“I don’t need another paper, but he is such a nice, good man,” she says.

On this cloudy Sunday morning, West has only large bills. Millage hands her the paper and tells her she can pay next time. A short while later, West returns with the money.

“She’s a nice lady,” Millage says.

Raised on a cotton farm in Louisiana, Millage came to Los Angeles on a bus in 1951. Soon he landed a construction job downtown. In an era in which much of the city was still segregated, Millage, who is black, says he did not encounter racial prejudice on the integrated crews. “I belonged to the union and it made things smooth,” he says.

Like many old-timers, Millage, who now lives in Watts with Bessie, his wife of 60 years, talks fondly of bygone days.

“People weren’t so greedy. People are too greedy now. I’d rather give than take. Nowadays, everybody wants to live too fast. I take my time. That’s the only way to live.”

Throughout the morning, he repeats his philosophy of life almost as if it were a mantra: “Treat people right. I don’t mistreat anybody. Treat people good and you’ll make it.”