"You better pick up your feet, you got a deadline to meet..."
When I left Alberta College with my shiny new educational upgrade, I figured that instead of a "job", I would get a "position". To that end I went to interviews with various companies and government agencies. I had a couple of offers for "entry level" spots, which didn't pay as well as a labour job, but had promise for the future. I had just accepted one with the Alberta Government as a "map machine operator" when I got a call from the Post Office offering a spot as a Letter Carrier at about fifty percent more than the Alberta job was going to pay. I was a country boy and had little idea what a letter carrier did, other than walk around all day, but what the heck, I took the job.
I found out soon enough what it meant to be a carrier. I was the Queen's representative on the streets of Edmonton, I was "uniformed personnel", I was in the throes of a left over army from WWII. Training consisted of taking the newbies on a quick tour of the downtown Post Office with accompanying monologue:
"This is a letter case, this is a back case, this is where you pick up registers, this is where you pick up baggies, this is where missorts go. Empty bags and fold them so and put them here. This is "your" Crown lock key guard it with your life, this is the coffee room, this is where you get your uniforms, goodbye."
Then we got kitted up in temporary uniforms and were measured for our own and were issued caps and badges, with I.D. numbers which were ours for the duration. (# 024, I still remember).
We were then parcelled out to experienced carriers and learned the "real" job for three days, then assigned to various open spots in the city.
We started sorting mail at 6:30 AM and were tied out and delivering by 9:00 AM. I first walked out of Bonnie Doone, then South Edmonton, then LCD #11, where I bid on the Griesbach walk and kept it for two years until I resigned to go to Europe. When I returned I hired on again, but with no seniority I was on spare board, mostly with long term sick relief and holiday relief out of Station "C" (NE). I resigned again to attend the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Radio and TV Arts.
Radio jobs were scarce when I finished and paid peanuts when you could get them, but I lucked into a Laboratory Technician job for the Psychology Department at the University of Alberta and worked there full time for a semester, then part time while I attended University classes.
I also worked evenings and weekends driving a truck as a Mail Service Courier delivering "night special deliveries" and clearing mailboxes.
This job couldn't make the nut so when summer rolled around I was back as a letter carrier. I was sent to South Edmonton again, which I liked because it was close to home. I did several Garneau walks on supervisor relief until I bid the part time HUB (University Housing) walk. This left my afternoons free to attend classes.
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