I was a mailman for about 8 years, during which time I was permanently assigned to 5 different route assignments, the last of which was a carrier technician assignment covering 5 different routes. My first route had a reputation of being the worst route in town and often went unbid. I reported to work one morning to a route that I had been working. I liked the route but being an unassigned carrier, I could be reassigned at the whim of the supervisor and that is what happened that morning.
They have subsequently placed an opt clause in the National Agreement that protects the subcarrier from that, but back then I had no recourse. I was an unassigned regular carrier at the time and was waiting for a good route to bid on, but the only one available was this lousy route that nobody wanted. I was so angry about being bounced around that I walked over and grabbed a bid card and bid on that route. I figured having a lousy route was better than being moved around at will. Needless to say, I was the only bidder and it was soon my new permanent assignment.
It wasn’t so bad and I enjoyed it once I cleaned up the mess with loose dogs that was never addressed by previous carriers. But it still was not the route I wanted to have. I got frustrated and bid off of it when another route came up for bid but it was no better. That route had a pickle factory on it and the smell when I delivered that street was disgusting. I immediately bid back on my other route, which was still unbid. I lasted about two weeks on that second route.
Eventually, a route became vacant that I really wanted to have. It was near a large shopping center called Lincoln Center where my Uncle Carlos worked. Although it was not on this route, my intention was to sweet-talk management to put it on my route during a future route adjustment opportunity. That route became mine, it was Route 713.
Within a couple of years, my opportunity to get Lincoln Center on my route presented itself. We were in the process of inspecting all the routes when the carrier that delivered the shopping center had a motor vehicle accident backing out of a parking space in the busy parking lot. He was parking in several different locations in order to deliver all the mail and I figured the chances were good that it could happen again. I developed a plan to be able to serve the entire shopping center without parking anywhere in the lot and took it to management as a suggestion for a route adjustment. They bought the idea and before long, it was a permanent part of Route 713. I delivered that route for several years and even bought a house on that route.
There was no other route that interested me and I could see myself delivering that area for the rest of my career, except for one thing. I am not one that is cut out for routine. I would get bored doing exactly the same thing every day and was frequently changing the travel pattern on the route to be more efficient. That satisfied me for a while but eventually, I became interested in becoming a manager. Once I became focused on that goal, I decided to bid on the Carrier Technician job as it was a promotion with higher pay. I figured if I was going to go into management, I might as well give myself a pay increase based on seniority before I got the management job. That would give me an even higher salary when I put on the tie. I didn’t want to leave Route 713, but I would be leaving it anyway as a supervisor, so why not? It worked.
Recently, I saw a post on Facebook about Lincoln Center and I made a comment about how I was once the mailman there. Someone wrote a very nice compliment about remembering me and how nice I was. She even mentioned the address of her parent’s home, but when I saw that, I knew I had to respond. I thanked her for the wonderful words but admitted that it wasn’t me as I never had her parent’s street on that route. Mind you this was back in the 80s. But her comments fit the way I was back then and really it is how most letter carriers I worked with were. Most loved their customers, and became like family to those we got to talk with. Another comment came back with someone that DID remember me as I recognized not only the address, but the family name as well. Being a mailman was a great job and a job that I was blessed to have for many years. I used to think that letter carriers were invisible to most people. I figured they are part of the scenery and most people didn’t even notice them. Those remarks I saw on Facebook showed me that I was possibly mistaken about that. A mention by two random people after 40 years, tells me that it wasn’t just me who felt like family. It really perked up my day.
