EDMOND — Mail carrier Robert Adams has spent many days delivering mail, but Tuesday — which also was his 60th birthday — was his last.
Adams now is retired after more than 25 years with the U.S. Postal Service, starting with a route in Guthrie. His transfer to the Edmond Post Office came at a memorable time in local post office history.
"He was supposed to transfer here in June of 1986, but he was a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, and he was supposed to go to summer camp at that time, so they postponed his start," said his wife Jo. "He transferred in the day after the (Aug. 20, 1986) massacre."
Adams knew some of the 14 victims who died in the shooting at the downtown post office, he said.
"I had been trying to get transferred in here for months, because I lived here in Edmond," he said.
But the delay turned out to be fortuitous for Adams, who has acquired many other, happier memories during his years on the route.
Mike Smith, a retired rural mail carrier from Guthrie, trained Adams when he was first hired.
"One day he was carrying the mail and I was with him," Smith said. "Robert had the bag and everything, and all of a sudden he starts yelling, 'Dog! Dog! Dog!'"
The dog, as it turned out, was a stuffed animal in the yard.
"Well, they drill you so much about that kind of thing," Adams said with a sheepish grin.
Adams has become a friend to many of his customers in the downtown area, where he has carried mail for most of his years at the Edmond Post Office.
"To him, his customers were like his extended family," said supervisor Liz Nederostek. "I know several of them called and said they planned to put cards out for him (on his last day). I know I'll miss him."
Adams said he and his wife of 39 years plan to spend more time touring on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The couple has one son, Ryan, who lives in Ohio.
Jo Adams, who has worked for 19 years in the heart catheterization lab at Edmond Medical Center, said she doesn't quite know what to do with a freshly retired husband.
"I still have to work and I don't know who's going to take care of him now and keep him out of trouble," she said.
Adams said he has a few ideas of his own about what he plans to do with all that free time.
"Whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it," he said.
acollinsworth@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 117
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