At age 80, an Anchorage mail carrier has served the same neighborhood for nearly a half-century

Charles Seamans sat in his mail truck, read the newspaper and finished his third ice cream bar of the day. It was 10 a.m.

He ramped up slowly that September morning before carrying on his life’s work, delivering letters and packages to the people of Anchorage’s Turnagain neighborhood. Seamans, who turned 80 weeks earlier, has been carrying mail here for 48 years.

When he stepped onto Lord Baranof Drive, he carried a handful of letters and a head full of irreplicable neighborhood knowledge. In all these years, he has never regularly held another route and, due to his seniority, he’ll never need to. But to say he’s familiar with Turnagain understates his connection. For decades he has braided himself into the lives within his 366-house zone.