My mailman is the best mailman in the world; well, at least in our town. He’s been our mailman for more than 10 years. He’s one of a kind. He walks faster than any other person I know, especially considering he carries this humongous mailbag. He doesn’t like to use the little wheeled cart. He says that it slows him down. He’s a wiry guy, slender, 5’ 8” and he probably weighs about 130 pounds dripping wet. The mailbag is half as big as he is! I often wonder why he doesn’t topple over! Maybe that’s why he moves so darn fast.
He wears an ear piece for his phone, so he can walk, talk and deliver mail all at the same time. Talk about someone who likes to multitask. He checks in with his wife to see what he should pick up for dinner, makes sure his kids do their chores and gets the mailed delivered at the same time. He’s always on time or early and he never gives us the wrong mail. You can set a clock by him. He’s very friendly and will stop to chat for a minute, but just a minute because he has to keep up his momentum.
When we have the town food drive for the poor, we are supposed to leave our donations in bags by our mailboxes. He will carry the lighter bags with him, put the others in front of the houses and come back after he’s done with our block. He flies up in his truck to pick up the rest of the food. The truck barely stops, this long arm sticks out and scoops them up. Then he's off like a shot, back to the post office.
One year when he was off on food drive day, the substitute mailman left all of the bags in front of the houses. I saw him drive by and waited a couple of hours before I realized that he had forgotten to come back for them. I drove over to the post office with the bags. The person who took them from me told me that she could tell our mailman wasn’t working that day, because they had less bags than usual! Apparently, he is the first to bring in bags for the collection every year. We both laughed about his "Speed Racer" habit.
He cares about the people on his route. He does not gossip about the people he delivers to, which I like a lot. But if he knows someone is sick, he will ask about them and check on them himself if he doesn’t see them for a day or so. He rings the doorbell for the elderly people to let them know that he just delivered their mail. Actually pretty funny considering, you can time him almost to the minute on his route. He likes to make sure they get their mail. He's often halfway up the street by the time some of them get to the door. He will turn around and wave at them if they come out and yell hello. Then again, he’s off like a shot. Sometimes some of us stand outside talking, just waiting to say hello to "Mr. Energizer Bunny".
One year when he was off on food drive day, the substitute mailman left all of the bags in front of the houses. I saw him drive by and waited a couple of hours before I realized that he had forgotten to come back for them. I drove over to the post office with the bags. The person who took them from me told me that she could tell our mailman wasn’t working that day, because they had less bags than usual! Apparently, he is the first to bring in bags for the collection every year. We both laughed about his "Speed Racer" habit.
He cares about the people on his route. He does not gossip about the people he delivers to, which I like a lot. But if he knows someone is sick, he will ask about them and check on them himself if he doesn’t see them for a day or so. He rings the doorbell for the elderly people to let them know that he just delivered their mail. Actually pretty funny considering, you can time him almost to the minute on his route. He likes to make sure they get their mail. He's often halfway up the street by the time some of them get to the door. He will turn around and wave at them if they come out and yell hello. Then again, he’s off like a shot. Sometimes some of us stand outside talking, just waiting to say hello to "Mr. Energizer Bunny".
A few years ago we went away for a really long weekend for a family wedding. I forgot to call to have the mail held, after I called to cancel the newspapers. He noticed that there were ads stuck in our door and a piece of mail in our box. When we got home and I was outside, he saw me and yelled, “I’ll be right back.”
He turned around and sprinted back up the street where he came from. A couple of minutes later, he was back with the truck. He had taken the ads, the piece of mail and had carried a big plastic postal box in his truck every day, adding mail to it until he knew we were home. He even took a delivery box that came for me and put it in the box too.
I could have kissed him. There was a lot of mail. He told me that he knew we were gone because we didn't get any newspapers too. I called the local postmistress and told her we loved our mailman. I told her to please never move him to another part of town, or we would have to move wherever he went! She laughed and told me she had a lot of people call about how much they liked him. She said the other mail carriers were tired of hearing about how good he is. I told her he needed to train everyone else to be the best mail carriers too.
She told me that she did promote him. But he quit the job after a couple months, because he didn’t like being inside and had gained 20 pounds. Now I know the secret to why he’s still my mailman. He wants to stay wiry!
I told him what she said and how I was loosing weight from walking too. Now he laughs every time he sees me out walking. He’ll call out to me, “Are you still practicing to take over my job when I retire?”
There's no way I can replace Mr. Energizer!
I told him what she said and how I was loosing weight from walking too. Now he laughs every time he sees me out walking. He’ll call out to me, “Are you still practicing to take over my job when I retire?”
There's no way I can replace Mr. Energizer!
