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It’s said that waitresses are the best tippers. Having been a waitress myself many moons ago, I can tell you this is true! You understand how frantic it is when you get swamped, or the delicate line you have to toe when you have a very picky customer and a very grumpy cook.

I guess it’s another way of saying, “Before you criticize, walk a mile in another man’s shoes.”

Mail carriers and the post office in general are easily maligned. I confess myself to laughingly snipping to my sister Julie, who besides being the mayor of this here small town also works at the post office in our sister town of Pokey, that my mail was wet one day. Well, with one carrier out for maternity leave, and another out for an operation, Julie had to fill in during the busiest month of the year, December, with record breaking cold…in IOWA…

Thus begins the description for Hazel Twigg O.L.D. (Once-Loved Doll) No. 102, Jude the Mail Carrier and his little friend Zippy. You can see their adoption page HERE.

I call this the “Cliff Claven” look.

Jude is a 13″ composition Kewpie doll. That must have been one happy factory. So many times as I was working on him, trying on his hats and coats as I adjusted and sized, I would catch a glimpse of his smiling face and it was impossible not to smile myself. What a worthy soldier for this trying job of his!

You might look outside on a beautiful spring or fall day, when the temperatures are perfect, not to hot or too cold, and there’s a slight breeze, and the sun is shining, and here comes your mail carrier outside when you’re stuck inside at an office or in your sewing room. “Lucky carrier!’ you might think to yourself. “I wish it were my job to simply walk about!”

Jude comes with warmer temp delivery clothes as well.

Oh sure, it’s all fun and games when the weather’s nice. But in the searing heat of summer! In the frigid cold of winter! Not so. Especially this last December when warnings would scroll along the bottom of the screen of your TV. “STAY INDOORS” the warning warns, “DANGER OF FROSTBITE AFTER 30 MINUTES TO EXPOSED SKIN.” And below that a flashing list of school and church closings.

It was on a day such as this, with the actual temperature at -10, with the wind chill making the “feels like” three plus times that, that Julie had to leave the office job for which she was hired and deliver mail herself.

Note the chain. This is for the “relay boxes” dotted throughout the town.

“I hope I don’t quit, I hope I don’t quit,” Julie muttered to herself as she tried to grasp little envelopes with gloved hands and avoid falling on ice while peering for obscure house numbers in a town with which she’s not familiar.

Hours later she was shouting to the heavens through frozen lips, ‘I HOPE THEY FIRE ME! I HOPE THEY FIRE ME!”

Jude’s bag is filled with Valentine’s things, but he carries the bag year round. Think Christmas trees and candy canes, or flags, or spring flowers…the possibilities are endless!

Well, she didn’t quit, and she wasn’t fired. She continued trudging on delivering mail into the dark hours, sometimes through occasional tears. This is not a job for sissies. THIS is why she’s my hero. As are ALL those who deliver mail. THANK YOU, brave carriers! Jude is a tribute to YOU.

The reason this post is called “The Essentials” is because of a comment our own local carrier here in this wee town made. Several roads and highways were closed, there were dire warnings for travel and a lot of cars going into ditches. “Only the essentials are supposed to be out,” he said. “So I’ll be there…”

Bless him. You need that kind of spirit to do what mail carriers do.

I called Jude “Jude” after the Beatles song, “Hey Jude” and my mangling of the lyrics: So letter out and letter in and Letter into your heart and so forth. It seemed a worthy name.

Speaking of worthy, Louella De Nice was adopted by the VERY worthy Hillary P. of New York, NY! This makes EIGHT O.L.D.’s (and their occasional companions) for Hillary, if my count is correct. THANK YOU, Hillary!

And with that, I leave you! Be kind to each other, and to your local mail carrier! I know you already are – and that’s why you’re my favorite.

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