As I have been thinking today about returning to work tomorrow, I needed to find an upbeat thought. What came to mind was a song my dad used to sing to me, when he took me on his mail route, way back when. I’m sure it wouldn’t be allowed anymore, but back in the late 50’s, early 60’s, I occasionally rode along. At the Post Office, I would sit on a stool between the two sorting stations for the mail routes, and watch my dad and our neighbor, Bill, who was the other mail carrier, fill the cubbyholes with cards and letters. Everything would be pulled back out, and stuffed into leather bags, which had their place in the back seat of our car. I remember the smell of the leather, and the buckles that held the bags shut. We would pull up to all the rural mailboxes, mailed popped out, and new mail popped in, before we drove off to the next one. Along the way, Dad would be singing to me or whistling….always a happy time out on the dusty, country roads.
Coming into the home stretch, with the village water tower in sight, Dad would be singing “Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it’s off to work we go, To get a pop, or a popsicle, Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho.” I knew that, after getting the bags out of the car, and things squared away at the post office, we would soon be headed for a treat. I always had my mind on a Tootsie Roll, a full-sized, five-cent one, and that is what I would get….the perfect way to end a special day. “Work” didn’t seem so bad back then!
That’s me with the toothless grin, standing in front of my dad, with my older sister, Cheryl, and younger sister, Kathy in 1961.