When I arrived in Bay Village in the fall of 1980, I was a young stud of 25.
I had spent my first year plus in Strongsville which was all mounted. From there
I had a brief stop at Sections in downtown Cleveland and then shook hands with
some guys at Pearlbrook before moving on to what would eventually become my home for
the next thirty-six years, Bay Village.
I gradually noticed something that hadn't dawned on me at my prior stations.
Some of the old guys were doing some serious limping.
It's not my point here to argue the whole "correlation does not imply causation" dabate,
but I think most people would not be surprised to hear that some mailmen often develop back
issues during their careers.
Still, I heard bosses more than once tell carriers that they "must have done something at
home" whenever a carrier complained of a backache or similar malady. That course of thought
aside, many of us might conculde that maybe it had something to do with walking around all day
with a 40 pound bag full of mail on your shoulder.
The following spring, 1981, was my first spring carrying a bag on my shoulder
and delivering mail on foot. Each year after a couple of softball games I would
start to develop a ”strawberry” on my right hip. I always slid head first and I
often had to lean onto my right hip in order to avoid a tag. Well, the abrasion
from sliding was in the same spot that my mailbag would rub up against my leg
as I walked. With every single step.
This was kind of unacceptable. That, along with the limping old-timers, gave
me pause.
The more I thought about it the more worried I became. Down the road
(excuse the pun), I didn’t want to become the next casualty. And the bag
rubbing up against a skinned hip wasn’t much fun either. Within a year or two I
decided that I had better do something about it or I’d be the next Quasimodo
Blue.
I felt these guys were probably limping and causing damage to their backs by
carrying the bag on the same shoulder all of the time. In my mind the answer
to this, or at least to minimize the effects, was to carry the bag on each
shoulder for the same amount of time.
If you’re right-handed you are holding the mail in your left hand and sorting
through it with your right. You reach with your right arm to put mail in the
mailboxes. When you’re delivering mail you have to reach into the bag
continuously for more mail. Well, you can’t do that with the hand that is holding
the mail so generally the bag would be on your right shoulder and you would
reach into it with your right hand (mostly to grab magazines). But I began to
occasionally put the bag on my left shoulder and would reach over to the bag
with my right hand. Difficult. Very. I tried for a while but it soon became
apparent that this was not the solution.
To get the bag on my left shoulder, I would need to deliver left-handed.
So that’s what I started doing. It was difficult at first. Learning to do
anything with the other hand is difficult. (C’mon guys... you know you’ve tried!)
But I taught myself to do it.
Because I had already been delivering right handed for a couple of years I
gave myself a crash course in learning to deliver left-handed and delivered
left-handed all the time. It was really a challenge at first and I felt awkward
and dropped more than my share of mail. But soon I got the hang of it enough
to feel comfortable and I started to deliver every other swing “other-handed.”
One swing right handed, the next swing left-handed. But this became too
confusing, to hard to keep track. Keeping track of what hand I delivered from
day-to-day would also be problematic so I settled on delivering the first half of
my route left-handed and the second half right-handed from then on.
After perhaps a year or so, I became as efficient and capable delivering
left-handed as I was right-handed. In fact, I soon couldn’t even remember
honestly which way was right-handed and which way was left-handed.
I think this led to several other advantages.
If you look at most mailmen in their summer clothing, you will notice a big
stain on their right shoulder. This is from the strap of the mailbag. Also, on
their uniform pant, you will often see wear where the bag rubs along their leg.
By switching shoulders every day, well, you could argue that I had two stains
and two worn spots, but at least they were distributed a bit more evenly. I
think it made the uniforms last a little longer and look a little better.
Another advantage was to the fingers in my hand. Sorting the mail all day
with the same hand every day for thirty or forty years can’t be doing much for
the long term health of the hand. So I think it is better from a carpal tunnel
point of view.
And still another advantage is that I was able to work through certain health
problems. A sprained finger? Well, I could deliver pain-free other-handed for a
couple of days.
I think the main benefit was just getting the bag off of the same shoulder
every day. I don’t know what tomorrow may bring but I do know at this time I
have no back problems. I think it was good to alternate like that. Good for my
back. Good for my shoulders, my hands, my hips and my legs.
Kahuna... When I broke a bone in my right wrist and
wore a cast, I cased mail left handed.