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Longtime postal carrier to retire
We often take things for granted — the sun rising each morning, having a bed to sleep in, the mail being on time.
In a world of email, text messaging and social media, the United States Postal Service still delivers mail six days a week and it’s more than just junk mail and bills — it’s letters from a friend, a picture of a new grandchild, an invitation to a wedding.
Postal carriers across the country walk or drive their routes each day, rain or shine so that you get your mail on time.
Since 1987, Mike Bessey has been one of those carriers striving each day to have the mail to his customers on time, but come Monday, there will be a new face delivering the mail on Route 2 as Bessey is retiring.
Bessey and his family moved to Nevada in 1985. He owned and operated a restaurant before joining the US Postal Service in November 1987 as a part-time rural carrier associate. When the full-time carrier retired two years later, Bessey took over the route.
“I wanted to be able to spend time with the kids and take a vacation,” Bessey said.
He had heard veterans were given preference in the entrance testing for USPS. Bessey had served in the US Army from 1970-72 with a nuclear missile battalion in Europe.
As a rural carrier, Bessey’s day was more than walking door to door or sorting mail in the post office’s back room.
“Rural side is completely different,” Bessey said.
Unlike city carriers, rural carriers do not wear a uniform, are paid by the day, and have to provide their own vehicles. Bessey said 60,000-mile tires might last for 20,000 miles because of the rough roads.
One of the biggest changes over Bessey’s career has been the sorting of mail. Mail now comes pre-sorted for each route.
“You come in, do your job, and go home,” Bessey said. “Your biggest concern in the winter is whether you got snow on the ground — snow really slows you down.”
And it’s not just snow, flooded roads cause delays as well. “During dry times, you eat a lot of dust,” Bessey said
No matter the weather, accuracy is important.
“You gotta be exact on what you do,” Bessey said. “You have to know your families.”
Bessey delivers mail to 383 families and a number of businesses including Max Motors and others in the industrial park. He works north to Compton Junction and then east along U.S. 54 Highway before ending near Legacy Farm and Lawn.
“Mine isn’t the biggest route,” he said.
Bessey spends five to six hours driving his 105-mile route each day. Route five, the longest, is 125 miles.
Mike said the biggest thing he is going to miss is the wildlife — otter, deer and turkey. He once saw a flock of 10-15 bald eagles attack a group of snow geese.
The wildlife, however, was not the weirdest thing Bessey encountered. He once drove up on a woman that was laying in the road. He stopped and asked if she was OK. She said yes, she was just resting. Bessey left her there and kept driving.
Retirement brings new opportunities though.
Bessey said he was looking forward to, “being able to do whatever I want to do instead of having to be somewhere.”
Bessey will get to enjoy retirement with his wife Kim who retired from Nevada R-5 last month.
He described the Postal Service as a good career saying, “it’s taken care of my family over the years.”
“I’m really the last of the old people,” Bessey said. Few others in the Nevada Post Office have been there as long as he had.
Nevada’s Postmaster, Julie Mader, said Bessey was a good carrier and that he took care of his customers.
Mader said Bessey “made sure that if we could, we took care of the customers.”
She said Bessey was serious about being on time — he had businesses on the front end of his route waiting on the mail early each morning.
I told him he should probably do the cooking for this retirement,” Mader said.
Despite a career with the USPS, Mader said Bessey still enjoys cooking and is a good chef.
“I think he has a heart of gold,” Mader said.