Mail carriers come in all sizes

When I was much younger, I was jealous of anyone with a post office job.

We all knew what we believed to be the truth: they didn't work all that hard, got paid really well, had jobs for life, and got to go on strike whenever they wanted. Not only that, but the mail never got delivered on time, so you obviously didn't have to care.

I know better now. I've got friends who work at the post office, not just in the sales and public relations departments.

I know people who go out every day and deliver mail, no matter what the weather.

Sure there have been a few letter carriers who exhibited less than admirable traits.

I had a carrier once who had a tendency to linger a little too long over lunch at the neighbourhood pub. Somehow he always got the right mail in the right box, but most of us on the street never figured out how he managed all our front steps.

We've also run a few pieces about carriers who stole from, or destroyed mail.

But try to list as many bad carriers as you can. Now write down the number.

Thanks to wikipedia, here's a list of some famous letter carriers. It probably isn't complete, but take a look.

Famous real-life letter carriers include: "Terry Griffiths, a former postman who became a world-champion snooker player; Olivier Besancenot, a candidate for the French presidential elections in 2002 and 2007; David Harvey, a goalkeeper who became a postman after leaving football; Brad Hogg, an Australian cricketer who is a former Perth postman; Alan Johnson, the UK Secretary of State for Health; Neil Webb, another footballer who became a postman after leaving football; Raymond van Barneveld, a darts player, who was a postman before his darts career; Rob Arnold, a chart-topping popstar from New Zealand; Steve Taylor, a midfielder who played for Crystal Palace, and, amongst others, is currently working as a postman in Britain; Charles Bukowski, novelist and poet; and Kimeru, a famous Japanese pop singer, was a mailman before he pursued his singing career."

I'll bet you that my list is longer than yours. Even though it seems slightly skewed towards one particular sport, (blame that on casual research), it also shows individuals skilled in the arts and a disproportionate number of politicians.

My point simply is that there is no "typical personality type" for postal workers any more than there is for bus drivers, factory workers, or even stamp collectors.

Frankly, I'm glad that we have fast-walking, bag-carrying, ballpoint pen-cancelling, dog-fearing souls out there.

If there were no letter carriers there would be no mail; and if there was no mail then there wouldn't be a need for stamps.

Without stamps we'd all have to fall back on spoons and snow-globes to collect.

Try and fit those into an album or stockbook.

Bret Evans

April 29 to May 12, 2008 issue of Canadian Stamp News