Historic post office triggers many memories

Old photos of the post office in Webb City triggered some memories for Lisa Erickson:

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My parents and I were raised in Webb City. My dad was John Daniels (Class of 1938) and my mom was Carole Melugin (Class of 1939). I graduated from Webb City High School in 1973.

My dad worked for the post office from 1960-1982, and my uncle, Harry Tarrant, was the postmaster from 1949-1973. My mom’s sister, Frances, married Harry Tarrant, and they raised three sons in Webb City; Tommy, Steven and Douglass. Now let me take you back a few years…

The year was 1960, my dad had been working at the Webb Corporation for a few years, and he was really interested in taking the postal exam for employment with the United States Postal Service. I remember him studying at the kitchen table. Everything at the time was done by hand at the post office, no computers or sorting machines. His studies included towns, zones and sorting mail quickly, which he would practice at home. Dad passed the exam and got a job as a substitute. This meant you had a variety of jobs but not a steady income. My mom was a homemaker at the time, so he would call and say, “I have 15 minutes for lunch and I will be by the house in 30 minutes.” Mom would have his lunch ready.

Dad finally got a route, a steady job, where he actually carried the mail, but it was hard work. He would freeze in the winter and sweat in the summer. One year at Christmas, I got him a hand warmer (a new invention at the time). The post office did not have trucks like they do today so Dad bought a large panel truck and leased it to the post office to deliver packages.

I always thought of the Webb City post office as a big and rather scary place, especially when it was quiet. Although it was against regulations and I had to keep it a secret, I got to watch many parades from the office window inside the building… did I mention Uncle Harry was the postmaster!

One day, my dad jumped off the loading dock at the back of the building and broke his arm. He was worried that he might get in trouble, so our family always said he fell in our garage at home. As far as I know, he never told the truth to anyone who worked at the post office.

In 1970, Dad applied for and earned the position of window clerk. He now had to learn to figure postage, no computers or scales that gave you the total postage needed on a package.

We always called him Scrooge at Christmas time, and it was not because Charles Dickens was his favorite author. The line of people mailing packages for Christmas would sometimes reach the front door. When the USPS would raise the price of stamps, it would bring out Scrooge no matter what time of the year it was.

I remember the time someone put a cat in the mailbox in front of the post office. There was the time someone put fire crackers in one of the drop boxes in town. Also, there were the rare times that someone would break in the post office. The office would be a mess and the U.S. Postal Inspectors would be everywhere, investigating the building.

My dad passed away in 2005 at the age of 85, but he never forgot the post office telephone number, the names of the men he worked with and even the addresses of many of the people he delivered mail to their houses. The post office is a beautiful building and was so much a part of my dad’s life, as well as a part of Webb City history. I hope they never want to replace it.

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Thank you so much Lisa for taking the time to share these special memories of your dad and the post office. Being a former postal employee of Webb City, I can relate to the spooky feeling of being alone in the post office!

I recall one Christmas (I think 1996) when I talked the postmaster, Rod Bray, into letting us be involved in the Christmas parade. I took the big gold colored mail bags for priority mail and cut holes in the bottom for legs, put my grandkids in the bags and stuffed newspaper around them. Other employees joined in on the fun. They walked beside the mail truck looking like bags of mail. We were reminding everyone to mail early for Christmas! What a fun family memory.