(Before Driver's License) Fred Hembeck wrote in his February 11th entry about the dilemna he faced when his local source for comics dried up, and had to depend on his parents for transportation to get them.
My story is a little more involved. Living in a very small town with no sources of comics, and the nearest one being five miles away that was between home and where my parents work (and would be easier to stop on the way home rather than go home and back) resulted in either repeated asking, hiding necessary supplies (baby brother's diapers is the one I remember the most) and other various means.
The most convoluted came about when the drug store in town quit selling comics. At the time, we had 2 mopeds that we were allowed to drive around town. Got very good gas mileage, the drawback being it could only go up to 25 miles an hour. Feeling adventuresome one day, I went to another nearby town about 3 miles south and found a five and dime (that's what they actually called it, although it was more of a curio shop) that sold comics. For over a year or so, I would "sneak out" and pick up my comics on Wednesdays. Given the slow speed relative to cars, I even found a back road route I could take that would reduce interaction with other cars to a minimum.
At the time, Marvels were 40 cents and DCs were 50 cents. At first, they wouldn't put out the more expensive comics because of their price, until I expressed an interest in those as well. First they let me look through the box they came in, and then they put them out. I continued to buy my comics there when I got my license until before I went to college and discovered mail order and comic shops. Which was a good thing, since comics were starting to be direct market only. There was a used book store up in Lafayette that sold new comics as well that I was able to go to every two months or so and pick up Micronauts, as well as get into the ending run of Nap-Con in Indianapolis.
Actually, a comic shop, Fool's Paradise, in Bloomington Indiana. One day riding the bus to class, I saw a window display with comics in front. After class, went back to it to find out they opened at noon. It was the first semester at college and hadn't learned the scheduling classes later trick. Came back again after they opened and said the line everybody said that went from newsstand to comic shop: "I died and went to Heaven". It became an almost daily stop since then, since it seemed there was no set date for getting new comics, they came in when they came in. I'm not sure if it was the nature of the market back then (1982-83) or if it was a cash flow situation.