Dependability is a virtue of enormous proportions in any job, and for more than 30 years Iolans living south of Madison Avenue and east of Sycamore to Tennessee knew within minutes of when their mail would arrive each day.
Patti Whitcomb, with a bag bulging with letters and circulars, met her customers’ schedules.
The unofficial motto of the Postal Service says it all: Whitcomb went forth six days a week delayed by “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night …”
“About 6½ hours,” it took her to cover her route. How far did you walk? “I figured it up several times and I think about 12 miles.”.
How she came to don a Postal Service uniform began as an accommodation to a friend, and was something of a lark.
“I was working at McDonald’s and a friend said she was going to Fort Scott to take the postal examination,” Whitcomb recalled. ‘‘’Why don’t you ride along with me and take it, too,’ she said. I thought, ‘Why not?’ I told myself if I didn’t take the test, I’d have no one to blame but myself,” for not seizing an opportunity to move into a permanent and better-paying job.
“I thought I got a good score, and I was called in for several interviews,” but no job offer was forthcoming, until just before the three-year deadline was about expire.
Her first day was Nov. 22, 1986. She was assigned full-time carrier for south Iola in July 2002.
“I was stationed in Iola since the start, but also helped out in Yates Center and Humboldt,” before settling on the specific route.
Originally, first thing each morning, she sorted mail into trays for ease of delivery. Now, with automation becoming more prevalent each year, most mail arrives already sorted, although “I did some each day,” Whitcomb said.
She has been one of four full-time carriers in Iola, assisted by two who work part time to fill in for vacations and illness.
“I GOT to know lots of people on my route,” Whitcomb said. “Today (Wednesday) a woman told me she remembered when she was a teenager and was I carrying her mail. She thanked me for a job well done.
“I always tried to be on time” — and rarely failed.
Did any incidents leave a lasting memory?
“Not really,” Whitcomb said, with a chuckle. “I’ve never been bitten by a dog, although there seem to be more (out and about) on my route than before and I’ve had more trouble with them.”
Weather makes the job more of an ordeal, when rain gushes down or snow builds to several inches.
