Paper Envoy

It’s been a heck of a two months for father-son duo Carlos Padilla and Carlos Padilla — Junior and the Third, respectively — who head into the Independent’s drop-off spot early every Thursday morning to deliver the papers to Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria, Ojai, and Ventura. They’ve been delivering us for three decades, but the fires and floods are making this patch particularly rough. “Everyone asks, ‘Why are you late?’ when the truck can’t get here on time [from Orange County],” said Carlos Jr., adding with a twinkle in his voice, “but I am the first guy who gets the paper and the last guy who reads the paper, after I get home.”