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>> Mr. Kesterson: My main job was actually
to get the mail in, sort it and get as much of it
worked as you could and get it dispatched to the proper train
or town that you had to go through.
Do it all efficiently and everything else because of the
scheme knowledge that we had to have.
It was pretty important that you knew what the letter was and we
didn't have zip codes then.
You had to know the name of the town and what train, other train
it went to or whatever it went to, to get there efficiently as
you could get it there yes.
>> Mr. Glasco: Sorting letters, sorting
bundles out of the pouches, sorting newspapers,
not many parcel post at that time
but just whatever that particular job called for that
was our duty.
>> Mr. Ingram: It was whatever job you bid on.
You might have certain letters to go through or you might have
newspapers and so it depended on what bid you had in on.
And they had what they called the organizations every so often
and the seniors would bid in first so us younger fellows took
what was left.
>> Mr. Liszewski: We had a lot of responsibility.
You had to learn lot of different jobs.
You had to know a lot of states, like going north you had to know
especially Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, some of Indiana, Iowa
even work some Minnesota mail.
And after I made regular I worked Chicago city.
Cause that was a hard exam to pass and nobody wanted that job.
Ended up being a good job because you worked six days and
was off eight, so I lucked out.
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>> Mr. Hight: When I accepted the job
and went to Chicago and that first day
they took about 15 of us into a room.
And they were explaining what we were supposed to learn and when
that guy told us about you know you're going to have to learn
maybe 5000, where 5000 towns and cities are and I thought umm
that doesn't sound too good to me.
But there was only one person, he got up and he said, "I don't
think I can do this, I'm going back home" and I wasn't too sure
about it myself but I am glad I stuck with it.
>> Mr. Glasco: I didn't have a good memory base
or whatever you would call it and my first exam I had to
case the entire state, the state
of Michigan and it was really tough.
But you soon learned that we really had dump spots that
you could put some of the cards where you didn't have to learn
every one of them, put it there and they would take care of it.
So you were tired, very tired at the end of your shift.
>> Mr. Moody: It depends on what job
you was on whether you was working letters or
working papers and parcel post or doing the local.
And you had to take a test about every six months and you had to
pass I think 97 percent of it.
You had study cards, little cards that told you the name of
towns and on the back of them was where the mail went, certain
lines or such and we took that every six months and you had to
pass it, expect you to pass it.
I think I learned every town in every state from Texas clear up
to New York State during my time of service.
It took a lot of studying you got credit for that study time,
allowed so much credit for study time.
>> Mr. W. Waldman: That's why you got
paid for like 48 minutes that was an
hour because you had to do so much studying and also
keep your schemes up, your schedules and then you had to
get your supplies like your labels stamped up and if you
were working a pouch or rack or paper case you had to get your
labels stamped up and laid out to label things up so there was
quite a bit to do on your days off also.
>> Mr. Mitchell: You would set them up so that
they would just run right into your cases.
After you hung your case you could just run your labels in
and get your facing slips stamped up.
>> Mr. W. Waldman: But each label
or each facing slip you stamped it with
the train and number and your date and your name on it so if
there was a mistake they traced it back to you.
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>> Mr. Bliss: We got to Chicago on
Thursday morning and we were supposed to be in there at
4:30 on Wednesday morning and a fellow came out
of the office down to meet the train and he
says "you guys didn't do bad", he says "you're only", let's see
four o'clock, we got in there by about oh, I think it was around
nine o'clock and he says "you're only five hours late", no John,
this is yesterday's train eight.
Well, then we were due back to work already.
Our train to leave Chicago then was at 10:30.
Well, we just barely had time to go grab a bite to eat and have a
sandwich made then come back.
And we left Chicago at 10:30 that morning and we didn't get
out to Omaha until Friday, Friday afternoon and boy I'll
tell you sitting, being in that train car from that time, from
Tuesday evening till Friday afternoon, well I'll tell you we
were a bunch of clowns.
>> Mr. G. Waldman: Gilman, it was a
roundtrip from Chicago to St. Louis and back.
You went to work at 5:15 in the morning and finished up at 8:30
at night and back in Chicago so I was 15 hours and 15 minutes so
it was strenuous, you had to be young to put up with that.
>> Mr. Ingram: Lot of time the train
was late, course you're up and at it.
I think I can remember coming out of Cleveland to St. Louis
and maybe be on the train 18 hours there would be trouble
someplace or waiting on something so lot of times you
were on there for a long time.
>> Mr. Kesterson: I can remember one
time when I was subbing, I went from Chicago to Buffalo, New
York and me and a black gentleman
done parcel post in the box car.
It had lights in it all the way to Buffalo and we stopped to
open the door, I mean the train was still moving but you opened
the door around Lake Cincinnatti and opened the door and he
showed me the lake up there.
We got into Buffalo and I said, "I think I'm going to get a bite
to eat and go to bed".
He said, "Well, you can get a bite to eat but
no need to going to bed".
I said, "Well, I am tired", this is 14 hours we had put in then.
The train goes on down to New York City and in an hour we got
to be back on it to go to Chicago.
So there was no going to bed, it was just get a bite to eat and
back to work.
>> Mr. Bliss: It's kind of *** the wife
because they're home with the kids and they're
having to do everything and we come home, we rode
then we had to sit down and we would study
and get things ready for our next run and you know it just
put a lot on them.
And we couldn't, as we were going along like that and the
kids were in school, you missed out on
all their programs and everything.
But then at the same time, on the layoff, well not the layoff
but your time off, you had 24 hours a
day with your kids you know.
And you spent more time with your kids probably more so than
most people did when they was working an eight hour job and
coming home.
And so you know it had a lot of benefits liked that.
>> Mr. Liszewski: To me it wasn't real hard
work but you got tired because you worked quite a few hours.
But boy when you seen them big city buildings there in Chicago
you felt lot better.
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>> Mr. Hight: When I was a youngster I
used to visit my aunt in Carbondale, Illinois.
It seemed like every time I was there the guy next door was
sitting in his swing out on the porch.
I asked her, I said, "doesn't that fellow work?" "Oh yeah, he
got a good job, he works the Railway Mail Service".
Said "he works so many days then he's off so many days".
Those off days were really attractive to
me even as a youngster.
>> Mr. G. Waldman: The schedule I had on
the CHI-GIL to St. Lou was two three, two three,
two nine, so I worked six days out of
twenty-one.
But each time I went out I traveled 1800 miles by rail
before I got back home.
>> Mr. Collins: Had awful good benefits.
You would work six days on, eight days off but you got your
sick leave and you got your vacation so
you had a lot of time off.
That was probably the best part of it the pay wasn't all that
great but you could live on it.
>> Mr. Liszewski: Some you worked
four day and off nine, six and eight then
they had five and nine.
So you had a good layoff in between but you did have to
study on your days off and get all your paperwork and
everything, all your labels and everything done at home.
If you was a register clerk you had to get all that
correspondence done, make sure somebody signed for every
register you had.
So you had a little time at home to work.
>> Mr. Mitchell: Once you got to be a regular,
you work a week and off a week.
So that week off you would put everything off till your week
off to get things done around the house.
I was on the Highway Post Office and I couldn't get a sub I could
trade with the guy right opposite me.
Then I would cover him his next one of his next runs which we
would work together.
>> Mr. Hight: A fellow asked me one time said
"what do you do with all those days off?"
I said "I have a wife and I have a home
and that pretty well takes care of my days off."
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