When I was first hired I substituted for clerks and for carriers and managed to keep working for my dad as bookkeeper. If one of them needed me more we worked it out.
The first day I carried the mail for Pete Halteman on his day off I was getting close to Ms. Lucille Jones (Davis at that time) and she was waiting on the porch for me.
When I got there she informed me that they never locked the doors and if I needed to go to rest room or need a snack and something to drink to make myself at home. She showed me where the kitchen, fridge and snacks were. She celebrated her 100th birthday Saturday 08/11/12 and It was Charles birthday as well. If God makes angels of humans then she, Charles and Bertha are truly destined to be Angels in fact they already are.
When I first started we had railroad post office and highway post office. I think they each ran twice a day headed south in the morning and north in the afternoon. We also had truck delivery in early morning. The RPO and HPO clerks would deliver mail in one town and while standing, at the sorting case, they would sort it while swinging to and fro. We would meet the mail at the depot and would place a canvas and leather bag on a hook and the RPO clerk would throw out our mail at our feet and a hook on the train would grab our outgoing. I found out years later that one of our railroad clerks was my childhood neighbor and good friend Jerry Matthews. We never came into direct contact with each other so there was no way for us to know.
Early in my career I had a very nice lady who was living on Beeler Hill where the Larkin’s live now. She was Ruth and Bill Hinkle`s daughter Mary Ann. This lady was as mischievous as her mom so we did some teasing. Her husband was in combat in Viet Nam and they wrote almost daily. She knew if she did not get one it meant he was not in garrison. Every day she met me at the door to see if I had a letter from him. This really touched me for when I was in the army I saw guys I knew get Dear Johns from their wives and girlfriends. Not many but enough to see the pain inflicted when their allotment was going home. When I did not have one I quietly let her know. Now just to see one of the prettiest smiles I have ever seen I would turn not giving her the letter and walk to the step then turn and show it to her. I only wish all spouses of soldiers were like her.
I was carrying the mail up College Street on extremely hot day and when I left Merle and Brenda Locks to deliver the Weatherspoons mail. I noticed Patrick and Jerry Lock with a water sprayer and near fighting over it. I noticed they decided to share it and thought, “I am about to get sprayed with water.” I walked to the mail receptacle and no water. After leaving the mail I carefully pulled the weather flap over the opening in the mail pouch to cover the mail and headed to the street to cross over. Nothing, nothing that is until I got to the street and I could hear giggling. They wet me good and at a hundred degrees it felt good. I am glad Spooney, Janette, Muriel and Brenda did not find out.
I was heading to the carport at Joe and Wanda Rushings one day as that was where they had the mail box. The car was gone and I saw Todd sitting on the step. I noticed he was holding one of the little toy bow and arrow sets and he had a particular grin on his face and I knew what he was thinking. I turned my back to leave. He could not see the smile on my face but I knew exactly what he intended. He did. His mom and dad would have spanked him but it was funny. Without the kids the job would be no fun and the days would be long.
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