Mailman Bill Clark has been a postal carrier for longer than he cares to remember. He’ll be retiring soon, so we caught up with him at our rural mail box, to ask a few questions.
“I get to the Santa Ynez post office at 7 a.m.,” says Bill. “Then I sort out all the ads, the newspapers and magazines and then the letters and bundle them in batches and place them in order in big trays.”
Sure enough there they are, neatly stacked in plastic trays on his left side. On the right of his red, white and blue truck is his door exit, where he can reach out to the mail boxes.
“This route here, is the longest one in Santa Ynez. It is both up in the hills, on the flatland and down Armour Ranch Road and out Happy Canyon to where the wilderness starts. I know most of the people and can usually spot whose car is going by.”
By 4 p.m. he is generally through with his route and goes back to the post office.