WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Postal worker retires after 40 years
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STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) - Co-workers laughed when Arnold Deal recalled selling stamps for six cents. Those days are long gone. And now so is Arnold. He retired after 40 years working in the same post office. He told how he interviewed for the job and started the same day.
"I came home and my mother asked me how did I like it; I said I didn't like it," recalled Deal. "She said well you'd better go back down there tomorrow and I've been here ever since. I blame it all on Momma."
Neither rain nor snow, we've all heard that creed. Well, Deal retires with over 15 months of unused sick leave.
Each day, Deal's voice over the loudspeaker announced the windows were open. Co-workers thought of a way to keep that.
"Wouldn't it be neat if we could record that and we could play it and people would look around and think Arnold is back," exclaimed Carey Harville.
From the thousands of letter slots to the front counter where he met the public...he's seen his hometown change as much as the postal service itself. Faster paced, more technology... but maybe not as personable.
"I knew everybody; everybody knew me," said Deal. "If somebody died, you heard about it. You knew about it. And you knew them, just from that daily stack of paper, church newsletters, bills and everything in between. You didn't discuss it but you knew their personal business in reality cause you saw what they were dealing with."
Customers say he will be missed.
"It will be sort of strange, I tell you, because he's an institution," said customer Larry Williams. "He's the first person I look for when I come in."
Deal says he'll visit his former co-workers from time to time and patiently wait his turn in line. Otherwise, he'll spend his time with his wife and the rest of his family.
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