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Ruth Hunke is ready to retire, but she won’t be quitting.
Ruth is a postal carrier, working out of the Stark City Post Office. Although she is a full- time carrier, delivering to people in and around Stark City and Newtonia, Ruth started her job in 1984 as a substitute carrier.
“Ted Brown was the regular carrier and Harold Harris was the postmaster,” Ruth remembers. “I worked almost every Saturday and whenever the regular carrier took vacation or was sick.”
Being willing to work on the weekend paid off for Ruth as she landed the full-time position in 1990, a job she has held since that time.
Running a rural mail route is not a routine job.
“The size of the route and time it takes has increased over the years as more people move out in the rural area,” Ruth says. “I drive about 100 miles and service about 400 boxes each day.”
But Ruth’s day begins a couple of hours before she settles in behind the wheel of her station wagon.
“I spend about two hours each morning sorting and casing the mail into the order that I deliver,” she said. “Our mail comes into the post office each morning in tubs, sacks, and trays. The postmaster sorts the mail between the two routes and the post office boxes. Then I sort the mail for my route and load it into my car.”
Once she’s loaded up and off, Ruth spends between five and six hours on the road. Then, it’s back to the office to turn in the mail she picked up that day from boxes along the route. She also turns in stamp orders from her customers.
As with most jobs, the most interesting part is meeting people, something Ruth enjoys but doesn’t often get to do.
“I meet quite a few of my patrons as I have to get signatures on some things and take packages that won’t fit in the mailbox to the door,” she said. “It is always interesting to meet the people behind the names I see.”
Perhaps more so in the country, the arrival of the mail is a big item in each day. But Ruth doesn’t have any patron who is always waiting at the mailbox.
“I don’t have any who wait at the box unless they need something like stamps or if they are waiting for a particular item,” she said. “Sometimes they will see me coming and wait for me to get to their box. I try to stay fairly regular in the time I get to the customer’s box, but sometimes that is hard to do because of the fluctuation in the amount of mail and things like flat tires that comes up.”
Ruth Hunke is ready to retire, but she won’t be quitting.
Ruth is a postal carrier, working out of the Stark City Post Office. Although she is a full- time carrier, delivering to people in and around Stark City and Newtonia, Ruth started her job in 1984 as a substitute carrier.
“Ted Brown was the regular carrier and Harold Harris was the postmaster,” Ruth remembers. “I worked almost every Saturday and whenever the regular carrier took vacation or was sick.”
Being willing to work on the weekend paid off for Ruth as she landed the full-time position in 1990, a job she has held since that time.
Running a rural mail route is not a routine job.
“The size of the route and time it takes has increased over the years as more people move out in the rural area,” Ruth says. “I drive about 100 miles and service about 400 boxes each day.”
But Ruth’s day begins a couple of hours before she settles in behind the wheel of her station wagon.
“I spend about two hours each morning sorting and casing the mail into the order that I deliver,” she said. “Our mail comes into the post office each morning in tubs, sacks, and trays. The postmaster sorts the mail between the two routes and the post office boxes. Then I sort the mail for my route and load it into my car.”
Once she’s loaded up and off, Ruth spends between five and six hours on the road. Then, it’s back to the office to turn in the mail she picked up that day from boxes along the route. She also turns in stamp orders from her customers.
As with most jobs, the most interesting part is meeting people, something Ruth enjoys but doesn’t often get to do.
“I meet quite a few of my patrons as I have to get signatures on some things and take packages that won’t fit in the mailbox to the door,” she said. “It is always interesting to meet the people behind the names I see.”
Perhaps more so in the country, the arrival of the mail is a big item in each day. But Ruth doesn’t have any patron who is always waiting at the mailbox.
“I don’t have any who wait at the box unless they need something like stamps or if they are waiting for a particular item,” she said. “Sometimes they will see me coming and wait for me to get to their box. I try to stay fairly regular in the time I get to the customer’s box, but sometimes that is hard to do because of the fluctuation in the amount of mail and things like flat tires that comes up.”
The biggest challenge on Ruth’s mail route are roads. Most of her route is on dirt roads which often have potholes and rocks until the road district can get them fixed.
“The weather can make a mess of things in a hurry,” Ruth said. “Snow is always a challenge. The ice storm a couple of years ago caused a lot of difficulty in getting around with all the power lines down across roads.”
But, in keeping with the motto of the U.S. Post Office, neither rain or hail nor....
“The tornado last spring that hit Newtonia caused a lot of detours, difficulty finding customers who lost houses, avoiding emergency vehicles, etc., but I think we were able to get the mail to most everyone every day,” Ruth was happy to say.
Once she has driven her last mail route, Ruth will be able to spend more time with her family and more time helping her husband, Delmer, run his business. She also has a three-week vacation planned which will be spent at the family’s cabin on a lake in Canada.
With a big smile, Ruth exclaimed, “I’m going fishing!”
But, for now, Ruth is the “catch of the week” as our Today’s Woman.
