Signed, sealed, delivered ... in time for Christmas
We’re quick to credit Santa and his elves with making Christmas happen, but if you spend any time with a United States Postal Service (USPS) employee, you’ll quickly learn they’re the ones behind the real Christmas magic.
On a foggy morning in early December, I find myself at the Clovis Post Office not to mail my own holiday cards and packages, but to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on here during the busiest time of year. My initial request to talk to some postal workers about their jobs during this busy season has resulted in a generous invitation to shadow some Clovis letter carriers for the morning.
Clovis postmaster Drew Esquer greets me upon my arrival and gives me a tour of the post office’s sorting area, which buzzes with postal workers sorting packages and letters for later delivery. The tour is brief, as we’re scheduled to meet letter carrier Angel Gomez, who is already well into his daily route when we catch up with him.
Gomez, a 31-year veteran of the USPS, has spent his entire career in Clovis, and has, at some point, been assigned to every route within the city limits. “I’ve seen a lot of growth,” he says. “It’s gone from a small town to a big city.”
His current route, which he’s covered for eight years, includes a mix of residential and commercial addresses. During the holidays, he tells me, the volume of mail he delivers each day nearly doubles.
“We haven’t hit the peak, yet,” he adds.
The “holiday peak” typically happens around Dec. 15, says Esquer — but the season is already in full swing. And it involves more than simply delivering the mail. Turns out USPS employees also double as Santa’s helpers — a role they take seriously.
“The best part of Christmas is when you get that letter addressed to Santa, the North Pole, and that’s all it says,” Gomez chuckles. “You just get that special feeling that, OK, this letter is going to Santa.”
I think I know where Gomez is going with this. Several years ago, when my family lived in the Bay Area, my then-4-year-old son presented me with a handwritten Christmas letter and asked me to mail it to Santa Claus. I was more than a little surprised when, on Christmas Eve, we received a response from the man himself. It bore an Oakland postmark, so I suspected it had been intercepted en route to the North Pole.
“That letter gets answered by somebody here at the post office,” Gomez confirms.
“There are volunteers,” Esquer says, “who do it to perpetuate the holiday season for the kids as they grow up.” Many, he adds, prefer to remain anonymous: “Postal Service employees really try and give back to the community. We do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and just try to serve. In essence, that’s what the Postal Service is.”
As if on cue, a customer greets Gomez with a smile as he approaches his home. They shake hands and exchange a few words as he hands him his mail. This is typical of his mostly-retired residential customers, he says.
“My customers come out and acknowledge me every day. I’m kind of like the window to the outside world for them, a lot of times. Any time they have customer service issues or any questions, they just come to me and say, ‘You know what, Angel? I need this can you take care of it for me?’ And I’ll take care of them.”
And though postal workers don’t ask for or expect recognition, their customers occasionally express their thanks with small tokens of appreciation.
“If they give you a warm cup of coffee,” he says, “that makes you feel good the rest of the day. I get so many cards (during the holidays) ... I get more cards from customers than we do from family members.”
“Angel has that old school mentality,” Esquer says. “The way the post office used to be is, if you got a letter, you delivered it. Now it’s a little bit tougher but if the mail gets addressed to his general area and it’s missing a number, he’s going to know where it goes.”
“They’re going to get that piece of mail,” Gomez confirms.
Esquer and I leave Gomez to finish his route and meet up with Jennifer Rodriguez, a letter carrier who has been with the Postal Service for 16 years.
“We get funny items,” she says as we walk one of the neighborhoods on her route. “You always kind of wonder what it is and then you ask the customer ... and it’s like, a car bumper. The other day I had a 65-pound package and I think it was fish tank rocks or something.”
Delivering during the holidays is extra special. “Kids get all excited, they want to know what’s inside ... When I ring the doorbell I’ll hear, ‘What’s that, Mom?’ Sometimes they’ll run out and they’re whispering, ‘Don’t ring the doorbell, it’s for the kids,’ and they’ll throw it over the side fence or something,” she says with a laugh.
Esquer and I follow Rodriguez to a retirement home on her route; her entry is heralded with greetings and well wishes.
“Hi, honey,” one woman greets her.
“Love your hair,” her companion says.
Inside the mail room, another customer approaches to tell her she’s going on vacation. “No problem, I’ll take care of it,” Rodriguez replies.
We make a second trip to her truck to re-load her satchel. In addition to the extra packages and letters, carriers are delivering this week’s edition of The Clovis Independent. As she efficiently loads the papers in her bag, I learn the mail satchels can carry up to 35 pounds — and that they have a second, lesser known purpose: “It’s kind of like a shield,” Esquer explains. Stories about the dog biting the mailman are rooted in truth, and the bag acts as protection.
As Rodriguez continues to make her deliveries, Esquer shares some important tips and reminders for USPS customers.
“I’d strongly recommend putting an address inside the box, whether it’s the destination of the addressee or the sender,” he says. He also suggests insuring packages and covering addresses with mailing tape because conditions like fog, rain or snow can cause the ink to bleed and “then the package gets illegible.”
Then there are the reminders about what not to send. Prohibited items include ammunition and explosives. Other things like perfumes, knives and food should be declared to ensure they’re shipped correctly.
Esquer lists some gifts that have turned out to be a letter carrier’s nightmare: smelly cheese sent as a gag gift, an ant farm that broke en route to a grandchild and perishable tastes of home.
“People will ship tamales, cookies,” he says. “Cookies are definitely fine, but tamales need to go one to two days. A lot of people will ship fruit — the fruit needs to be hard.”
To ensure Christmas delivery, the USPS deadline for standard ground-delivery service is Dec. 15. First Class Mail and Priority Mail should be sent by Dec. 20 and 21, respectively. The deadline for overnight delivery via Priority Mail Express is Dec. 23.
Weather conditions like snow and rain may cause unanticipated delays, Esquer warns, but the USPS will do its best to get holiday packages delivered by Christmas Eve, which falls on a Saturday this year.
“We have employees working 24 hours (a day) here,” he says. “Hopefully [Christmas Eve] will be a great day and all of my employees will be done with their routes by 5 to be with their families. [But] we’re going to go until the last person’s back.”
When my kids were younger, I used to read them a classic picture book called “Seven Little Postmen.” Its 1950s-era depiction of postal workers as devoted public servants determined to deliver the mail on time seems too good to be true, a reflection of a simpler time, but after this morning I understand today’s letter carriers are no less devoted to their jobs.
As Drew and I return to the post office, I’m left with a new appreciation for the men and women who keep the mail running and, in the process, add a little magic to the holiday season. I’m reminded of Gomez’s words as he talked about letters to Santa and thankful customers: “The holidays are my favorite time of year because everybody’s happy, everybody’s in a good mood. It’s just a special time. It’s like no other time.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "Signed, sealed, delivered ... in time for Christmas."