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Greg Land delivers mail on his final day of mail to the same neighborhood in Forest Lake for 36 years of his 38-year-career in the USPS.

Greg Land chats with Forest Lake resident Denise Berberich along this final route before retiring.

Greg Land delivers mail on his final day of mail to the same neighborhood in Forest Lake for 36 years of his 38-year-career in the USPS.

Greg Land chats with Forest Lake resident Denise Berberich along this final route before retiring.

Mail carrier, hailed neighborhood hero, retires after 38 years with USPS

In his 38 years as a postal carrier, Greg Land has only had his skin punctured by dog bites three times, walked hundreds of miles per year, and made friends in the central Forest Lake neighborhood along his route, between Broadway Avenue and 11th Street, and west of Highway 61.

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, the Columbus resident walked his final steps as a delivery carrier for the United States Postal Service and retired from his job.

There wasn’t a big party with a cake and streamers, but along his route, area residents greeted him in person or had posted signs to offer their congratulations and thanks for 36 years of delivering their mail.

Thirty-eight years ago, Land was unhappy at his desk job, and decided to apply with the USPS after he saw an ad in the newspaper. He was initially placed at the New Brighton post office working as a substitute, then six months later, saw there was an opening for a substitute mail carrier for Forest Lake. Two years after he began, he saw the opening for a small route in the heart of Forest Lake open up – a walking route. He got the job, and has stayed on that route ever since, even as other driving route opportunities came up.

“I like getting out and walking,” Land said. “I don’t know, it’s just kind of boring sitting in the truck all day long. If you’re out walking, you’re out and seeing people,” he said.

And seeing people – and getting to know them – is what he’s done for 36 years. He came into the route as a young father, and greeted many older folk along his route.

He recalls people like Lois Danielson, who lived on his route until she died. Or a World War II veteran and his wife, who would invite him into their house to chat, or another resident who liked to bake pie.

“He’d invite me in for a piece,” he said.

He noted former Forest Lake Times editor Cliff Buchan and his wife would leave sodas and snacks out for him on his route.

Now, he says, the ages are reversed: He’s more old, and more young families are moving into the neighborhood, though he adds that many of the residents have remained the same over the years.

“The town has changed, but not the older part of town,” he said.

He doesn’t know the younger generation along his route as much, which he largely attributes to them working.

“Some of these older people are looking forward to getting their mail. Some of the younger ones don’t pick up their mail for weeks,” he laughed. “It’s a different world now.”

As for the job itself, one wouldn’t particularly expect much to change in nearly 40 years of delivering mail, but Land said that there is a lot more route to cover, now, and far less sorting the mail.

“We used to sort all our own mail - you’d have 12-15 feet of mail, random order, put them in this case with 700 deliveries. It took a while to get good at that. Now the mail is sorted all in order,” he said.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” goes the motto of the United States Postal Service.

And to the residents along Land’s route, there hasn’t been a day that Land hasn’t delivered on that motto – and more. On his last day on his route, many people came out to greet him – not just because it’s his last day, but because they see him every day, and have grown to appreciate him.

“He was the best. I could set my clock by him,” said Denise Berberich.

Area residents concur: Land is exceptional at his job – like clockwork, he will drop off the mail, and will stop and briefly talk to people to catch up.

Indeed, Land did spend many years trudging through snow and walking carefully on ice, running away from dogs or dealing with the sweltering heat.

He says he’s fine walking in the summer, knowing how hot the USPS trucks can get. He brings some bottles of ice so he has cold water to drink all day long. In the winter, he layers up, and takes breaks in his truck.

“With the truck, you can at least warm up, then walk a bit. Sometimes you get a bit of driving in there, and I’ll throw my pair of gloves on the heater,” he said. “With a truck you’re not out there six hours steady.”

Years ago, when he didn’t have a truck for a bit, area residents would invite him inside, even one apartment building leaving a chair inside the vestibule for him to take a break and warm up.

Residents would sometimes plow a walking path right through their yard, he said.

“That’s real nice when people do that,” he said.

The ice buildup wasn’t so bad when he was younger and he’d fall, but “it’s not quite as much fun to fall when you’re older.” He learned to put spikes on the bottom of his boots, a help during his last decade as a mail carrier.

Spring, he said, always came with a sigh of relief.

“You’re 10 pounds lighter,” he said. “You just feel so good. The route just feels so much easier.”

A gardener himself, he’s admired different landscaping projects by area residents, or looking at others’ gardens along his route.

Sometimes, he said, the job has offered some funny and interesting stories, like the time a man decided it’d be funny to grab his hand from the other side of an inside/outside maildrop.

“It scared the heck out of me,” he said.

Another time, he said, he threw a snowball at a cat who kept scratching up his hand when he dropped in the mail.

“He didn’t do it anymore,” Land laughed.

He’s seen people open packages in front of him, only to discover strange things inside.

His career as a mail carrier gave him the thing he wanted years ago: being outside, and not stuck in an office. And this job offered the antidote to a need to be out of the office.

“I like seeing people, chit-chatting — you’re not standing outside all day, but you’re not all on your own out there. You’re not so isolated, you’re seeing some people. I really like being outside and walking. I kept my route the whole time because of that,” he said.

He said he’ll miss the walking, and of course the people, but he’s ready for retirement: more time spent with his 2- and 4-year-old grandchildren, who are cared for by Land’s wife five days a week. And it should be a surprise to no one that on his list of anticipated retirement activities is going for walks with his wife.

“She does a lot of walking,” he said.

Hannah Davis is the Area Editor at the Forest Lake Times. You can contact her at hannah.davis@ecm-inc.com or (763)233-0709

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