Part 3: Post Office “Random thoughts”

 Part 3:  Post Office

“Random thoughts”

By Bob Templeton  7/24/12 H C Times

Again I hope Thomas Sowell does not mind.

I will never forget moving from the old building

into the new federal building. We worked all

Weekend moving, all on volunteered and unpaid time.

We got to work and Jerald Chandler was there and

had made the coffee. I don’t think JW had made coffee

in a coffee pot before. He had read the instructions

on the can that suggested one tablespoon of coffee for

each cup of water. I have seen asphalt that was not that

strong. Stanley Griffin showed him how to make it.

Speaking of Stanley, one day Jerrald motioned for me to

follow him. We went to the doorway of the swing room.

There sat Stanley, holding up a teaspoon and staring at it.

Jerald asked “Stanley what are you doing?” Stanley never

hesitated, “I am going to bend this spoon with my brain.”

A little while later I passed by the swing room and there

lay Stanley`s spoon, twisted like a pretzel…who knows.

When we were in the old building we had two indoor

drop slots it the window wall. The top was for letters

and the lower a little bigger was for small packages.

We would watch for someone we knew drop a letter in

it and when they put the second in the top slot I would

push their first out the lower slot. This would usually

go on for three or four times. Most folks when they

saw what had been done to them took it in good spirit.

Billie Holland liked to grab hands as customers reached

to recover their mail from the rental boxes. Funny,

they nearly all knew who it was and we would hear a

loud yell, “Billie Holland cut that out.” Billie Holland

and Stanley Griffin were always the office perpetual entertainment.

We never knew what was coming next.

My favorite and it happens to everyone who wears a uniform:

We were shopping and a lady on my route walks

up. “Mr. Templeton, I did not recognize you with your

clothes  on.” Meaning to say my uniform on she turned

Blood  red in the face and Frieda and I cackled. That was

a regular occurrence and was always funny. The expression,

when, they realized they had not said Street Clothes.