NEW MILFORD — In the mid-1970s, town residents may have seen Patrick Costello delivering mail on rural roads from his own car — a 1969 red Chevrolet Camaro.
“You sit in the middle of your seat and use your left foot for the gas pedal and your left hand to drive,” said Costello, a New Milford resident and post office employee. “Then you pull up to the mail boxes, which are all on the right hand side, and you stick the mail inside.”
Costello delivered mail that way for about a year until a mail carrier retired and the carrier’s mail truck became available.
It’s now Costello’s turn to retire, after working for 48 years for the post office, spending all but two of those years working at the New Milford Post Office on 37 Main St. Through the years, he has worked at about a dozen different jobs including a mail carrier, window clerk, machine operator, distribution clerk, and vehicle maintenance associate.