My favorite columnist, Thomas Sowell, has a column about once a month titled random thoughts so I thought I would list some Post Office random thought that stand out.
The first has to be about a lady who lived near the end of my mail route and was so sweet. She would always have a big, I mean big, smile and a kind word. She would put her letters on the box and I would pick them up for posting like I was supposed to do. Well almost, I was supposed to only if I had a delivery but I picked up all I noticed from everyone. Sometimes I would miss one while I was fingering mail for the next delivery but I managed to see most.
Often she would call the Post Office and ask to talk to me. She would not tell the clerks what she wanted. She would ask if I would bring her a book of stamps occasionally but more often she would tell me to be sure and knock on her carport door when I got there. When she came to the door she would tell me she had a pie for me and I should stop by on my way home and pick it up. She made the most amazing coconut pie with a four inch, toasted light brown, meringue. They were delicious. I noticed her car gone one day and remembered the last time that happened she was in the hospital. Not wanting to leave mail if she was not home I knocked on the door. When she answered I told her I was just concerned that her car was gone that time of the day. She said, “Bobby I got down town the other day and I realized I was not safe to be on the highway. I called my son to come get my car and sell it.” This was surely a first. This wonderful lady was Tommy Bugg`s grandmother Mrs. Beulah Ashley. I am so blessed that she was one of my friends as well as a favored customer.
One of the funniest Post Office memories was the couple who worked at different offices in town. One day he stopped me and asked me to watch his mail and if he got a letter from a certain town to “please” put it in the box at his work and not take it to the house. Not too long after that his wife told me that if she got a letter from a man to put it in the box at her work and “please” do not deliver it to the house. I never knew if I should have got them together and told them this so they could both get their mail at home.
There was the time we had a big ice storm but not as bad as the 2009 storm. Ice covered everything. I made it all day without falling. That is until I got to the Baptist subdivision. When I went to cross from Tap Featherstone`s to Doctor Barbers I fell. I fell hard. The street there was high in the center like the highways in Germany. This was to let rain water runoff and not pool. Well I got up and took a step. Bam I was down again. I realized this street was not going to let me cross standing up so I crawled across dragging the mail bag. I got up and sheepishly looked all around to see if anyone had seen this spectacle.
One time one of the carriers, not me that time, stepped off a porch into a rose bush. I forgot if it was J. W. Chandler or Pete Halteman. He should have been watching where he was going and not watching the female sun worshiper. Laughing must have been my mistake for a few yrs later the tables turned.
I was carrying the down town loop and was crossing from Tip Johnson plumbing supply to Dobson corner. The Mexican strawberry pickers were here picking berries. I noticed one of the young ladies getting out a car ahead and to my right. I was looking to see if I could make out the brand of the fantastic jeans she was wearing. Smack, I walked into the store corner. It gets dangerous out there.
Published in The Hickman County Times 07/17/12 Vol 3 issue 29
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