A superhero mail carrier marks 39 years with the Hollister Post Office

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Standing in front of a cabinet lined with slots, each one marked with an address, Ed Smith deftly sorts the “raw” mail—envelopes that could not be processed and sorted by machines—as he prepares for his deliveries to the 493 stops on his route. Scattered around his cubical are tokens of appreciation from other mail carriers, including an embroidered blue cape reading “Super Hero Mailman Ed,” an Oscar-like award for “Best Co-Worker,” and a wrestling-style belt he was given at the height of the pandemic for working 42 days in a row.

“They kept saying we were gonna get a day off,” Smith said. “But we were in a situation where people were getting sick, and the staff was running low. We were just doing what postal carriers do—whatever we have to do to get the job done.”

Smith delivers mail to Hollister’s downtown area, including to the BenitoLink office. It is a bit of a prestige route, befitting his 39 years of seniority at a job he never intended to be permanent.

“Two years out of high school, I took the test,”  he said.  “I thought this would be a good job to do for a little while before I decide what I really want to do. I guess I’m pretty good at this. So I’m glad I stuck with it.”

There have been a lot of changes since Smith started, most noticeably in mail sorting, which is largely done by machines at a San Jose processing facility that pre-organizes most of the letters by route and address, then “cases” it, putting the mail into flat boxes that are ready to load onto delivery trucks. 

“When I started,” he said, “I would case up to 20 feet of letters and magazines every day. You’d be in the office for three to four hours putting them in order, and then you would be on the street for about four hours. Now we only sort maybe a couple of feet, so we can be out in an hour or two.”

Once the raw mail is cased, the parcels—perhaps as many as 250  a day—are also put in order. Over the years, Smith said, there has been a shift from the bulk of the deliveries being cards and letters to parcels and packages taking the lead, the result of increased use of email for communications and a boom in online ordering. 

Parcel deliveries from Amazon have tapered down somewhat since their warehouse began serving the area directly, Smith said, but there is still plenty to sort and deliver from the daily FedEx and UPS dropoffs. And Amazon still provides enough packages—sometimes as many as 17 palettes at once—so that the final half-day of deliveries before Christmas are nothing but items from the online retailer.

Once the truck is loaded with the sorted deliveries, a carrier has to juggle the hand-sorted mail, pre-sorted mail, and sorted packages, which have to be collated on the fly as they follow their routes.

“It becomes a very memory-driven job,” Smith said. “Whatever you put in that bag, and whatever parcels you have, you have to remember it all when you walk up to every house and say, ‘Here’s your mail.’’

Between his years of service, as well as filling in for absent carriers and serving as the in-house trainer for new carriers, Smith says he has gotten to know the city intimately. 

“I know basically what every route is, and the whole series is my brain,” he said.  “The scary part is that I can walk in and do any route and put the mail in order. So it’s a great job if you can remember things and you don’t mind walking six or seven miles a day.”

One of the carriers who Smith trained, Angelique Hernandez, was promoted as Hollister’s newest postmaster four months ago and now supervises him.

“Ed has been around the block, literally,” Hernandez said. “He’s our shop steward for the union and a jack of all trades. He does everything around here. And he is probably one of the friendliest guys you’ll ever meet. He loves his job, and he loves his people.”

And the affection between Smith and those he delivers mail to was readily apparent when BenitoLink briefly followed Smith at the beginning of his route, starting at Third Street with a mix of residences and businesses. 

When he got to The Hair Shoppe on East Street, the beauticians were waiting with a bevy of smiles and a Christmas present.  “We think the world of Ed,” said Judy Hooper. “He’s always very courteous to everybody. He’s prompt, he’s funny, and we just love him.”

There are downsides to the job as well. Delivering the mail can be  physically exhausting, particularly during the summer heat waves. And it can also be dangerous as well, as evidenced by a recent Ring video which shows Smith escaping to the roof of a car to avoid being bitten by a vicious dog he had encountered along his route.

“I know I have a dog that loves me to death,” Hernandez said. “But she will attack somebody if she doesn’t know them. Dogs are a huge hazard that people seem not to understand. I hope people can keep that in mind: no pet loves a mailman.”

Regardless of the downside, Smith said that the job carries both rewards and a feeling of responsibility.

“Mail carriers are the eyes of the neighborhood,” he said. “You’re keeping an eye on the elderly, and you are being a part of that community. For some people, we may be the only contact they have all day, even it if is a simple ‘hello.’”

While admitting the work isn’t for everyone, Smith said, for him it is a rewarding job and he encourages people to remember that the post office is always hiring.

“It is physical and can be a challenge,” he said, “but you have that sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. As you are completing your route, you’re taking care of your customers and taking care of the city. You are part of a a big group effort, from the top to the bottom. If you are looking for an awesome job, we’re waiting for you.”

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