Lou.

[mrissa]

You know who I miss? I miss Lou. Lou was our mailman at my folks' house from the time I was 12 until sometime after I left for college. I gave Lou cookies at Christmas, and Lou left a Christmas card, and he did everything right, just as a mailbeing should, and he talked to me sometimes but never too much. I've never had another mailbeing that good.

I mean, I don't miss him like I miss the_overqual or wshaffer or somebody who's a personal friend. But I think he moved to Amber to be their Platonic essence of mailbeing. That's what I think. And I wish they'd send him back, because how important is it that the denizens of Amber get their mail delivered properly? For me, not very. Doesn't help me much, is what I'm saying. Given that they're fictional and all.

If you're thinking this is like the time I missed my former bookstore clerk, you're probably right. (Except that I miss Will more than Lou, even though I buy SF far less than six times a week.) But you all remember how well that eventually went. Well, at least some of you do: I went to Minicon, and I met madmanatw, who sees Will all the time, and so he could verify that Will was okay, or at least as okay as one might expect, and I was so happy I kept telling random friends and acquaintances. So maybe Lou is okay, too.

There's a reason timprov makes frequent reference to the "Dharma and Greg" episode where Dharma is considering adopting her grocery clerk's baby. But Lou was my mailman for over four years, so naturally we had a friendly relationship. It's not like he was a substitute one weekend or something. I only know a few of our substitutes.

Comments

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

I kinda know what you mean. When I was growing up, I liked across the street from my elementary school. And we had a crossing guard there at the corner, who we just called The Crossing Guard Lady.

15 years later, she was still the Crossing Guard Lady on that corner, and I visited her whenever I went home. I was told her name once or twice, but I don't remember it. I met her in second grade, and I visited her after graduating college. She finally retired a few years ago, and I do miss her.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

My mom has had the same mailman for probably 12 years now. He's the father of one of my pre-HS friends, and when I'm home for vacation, I always like to wait for the mail to chat with him about her. He delivers us mail that shouldn't get to us at all, will mail letters stuck in the mailbox with money taped to them, and brings packages too big for the box up to the door. He's a nice mailman.

(the substitues are usually a)my former riding instructor and b)a classmate from school who was always mean to me in the way that mase all the teachers say, 'Oh, he just likes you and doesn't know how to show it." That wasn't the way.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The thing that annoys me about our current batch of mailbeings is that some of them will get out of the truck, walk a package to the door, walk back down to the bottom of the driveway, get back in the truck, and put the rest of our mail in the mailbox. Why do this? What purpose does it serve? I know it's not against regs to bring the mail with, because the Nice Bearded Guy does it all the time when it's his turn. I wish we had him all the time. I wish we had somebody all the time. Our route gets traded off way too much, and it means that some of the people take forever.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

We have a wonderful mailbeing named Tillis (dunno if that's his first or last name - or perhaps it's his only name: Tillis for Hire). When he brings packages and sees that one of our cars is in front of our house, he brings all the mail from the group mailbox. He came to tell me that he saw my dog running loose in the neighborhood (luckily, I had already found the dog and was sitting on the sidewalk with my arms wrapped around his neck in floods of tears of relief). When our next-door neighbors moved to Florida and then back to the neighborhood inside of six months, he would grab mail that was flagged for forwarding to Florida and deliver it straight to them. In other words, he pays attention and has the capacity to remember a lot of stuff.

Nice mailbeing.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

When my mailman Rob retired, two years ago, after being the main guy for this building for almost as long as I've lived here, I made him a (second) CD. Full of Shockwave stuff, emphasis on Mpls environs. He said he was retiring on a certain date, and I aimed for a farewell gift. Unfortunately for my plans, he took vacation/sick days at the end, and actually left for Florida two weeks early. The PO didn't have his address, but fortunately our Office Manager did.