Yuma mail carrier returning job to sender

After 33 years, 6 months and 18 days, Bob Carey is retiring from the Yuma Post Office.

Carey has served as a letter carrier for most of those years, but he has also been in charge of a pretty big annual food drive.

Under Carey's leadership the 2009 drive netted 27,000 pounds of food, which was donated to Crossroads Mission. The food drive has been hosted by the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 1642 of Yuma for 16 years.

Carey moved to Yuma in 1977 after leaving the Navy. He operated the same route for many years and got to know the people he was serving pretty well during that time.

"I've seen Yuma grow a lot," he said. "I had the same route for 19 years down by Yuma High School. I saw one couple move in who had just had two little girls. When I left that route one of the girls was coming back from college to teach at Yuma High."

Carey said Yuma has changed dramatically over the years.

"It was a lot smaller. There wasn't a whole lot past 16th street and where I live now down by the Walmart on Avenue B, that was all citrus and lettuce fields. Yuma has grown quite a bit since then."

Carey said technology has changed the post office since 1977.

"There have been so many changes over the years and a lot of it has been automation. They have machines that actually sort the letters now. Now a letter carrier is taking out two to three times as much mail in the same amount of time because they don't have to sort it."

Carey said he has delivered to all kinds of neighborhoods, rich and poor.

"We are in everybody's neighborhood every day. I could tell what was going on in my neighborhood. I could tell if somebody passed away by the mail they get, who people owed to, if they paid their bills. Of course I could never really tell anybody about that stuff because it's against the law."

Carey said knowing the people on his route so well actually led him into saving a life back in 1985.

"It was an older gentlemen in his 80s who lived by Yuma High school, and he used to come outside every day. For about three days I didn’t see him, so I went up to the house and the door was open and I found him. He had fallen out of bed and had broken his hip and laid there for four days."

Carey said he didn't think he was going to be a mailman when he was a kid.

"No, I wanted to be a policeman or a fireman when I grew up because my father was a policeman and my uncles were firemen. I never thought I would be a mailman."

Carey said he didn't think he would still be at his post 33 years later.

"I almost quit the first day I delivered mail. This kid opened his front door and he had a dog that jumped up and had his paws on my neck and his teeth were in my face and it scared me to death."

Carey said that was just the first of many encounters with dogs he had over the years.

"I've actually been bit three times. The worst was by a German Shepard named Rambo that broke through a door to get to me. I've been chased by a bunch of dogs and have had my mail bag ripped and my pants ripped."

Carey said he doesn't have any regrets.

"No, it's put my girls through college and put a roof over my head. Actually, the last few weeks I got to thinking about how it doesn't seem like that long. It's not always been perfect, and I've been through like 15 different post masters here and survived them all."

When asked what he was going to do now with his spare time Carey said he is actually busier now than when he was employed.

"I'm going to keep busy with my motorcycle group, the American Legion Riders. We also stay busy selling Girl Scout cookies. I've been doing that for 21 years. I'm going to help with the food drive again this year, but I'm actually going to train somebody else how to do it."

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Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.