Neighbors Send Mailman Notes of Thanks for Extra-Special Delivery

Eddie Guzy recently retired from the U.S. Postal Service after 37 years as a mailman. He didn’t get a gold watch. He didn’t get an official retirement party.

But he did get a doozy of a goodby party Sunday from the people in a Woodland Hills neighborhood who say they miss the extra-special delivery service of “Mailman Eddie.”

The 66-year-old retiree was told as much with kisses, hugs, handshakes and pats on the back by more than 80 people who live along the route served by Guzy for 22 years. The popular mailman was even offered a farewell shake of the paw by Stroby, a German shepherd.

Just to show their appreciation in writing, the guests who came to the home of Alice and Hank Pfenning on Blanco Avenue communicated in a language any letter carrier would understand: They dropped cards and notes into a cardboard box decorated to resemble an official red, white and blue mailbox. It was marked “Eddie’s Mail.”

Became Ill in November

Guzy last delivered mail on his route Nov. 13, 1984, when he took sick, he said, largely out of panic that the post office was trying to force him to retire. Guzy said his supervisors were complaining that he was too slow. But it was then discovered that Guzy had a cancerous tumor in his chest, for which he is now receiving chemotherapy.

So Guzy officially retired from the postal service in February. Sunday’s party was his last hurrah from his “constituents,” as he liked to refer to the people along his route.

The people at the party said letter carriers like Guzy are fast disappearing, and they don’t expect to get another one to rival him. Everyone there, it seemed, had a “Mailman Eddie” story to tell.

Jane Stauss, who benefited from Guzy’s service for 11 years, said, “If we tell all the special things he’s done”--and then she paused. “It’s a good thing he’s retiring. He’d be fired.”

Who else, asked Stauss and others, is going to bother to pay postage due out of his own pocket, waiting for reimbursement later, or leave packages with the neighbors or hidden in a special place in the backyard when no one is home?

Still Writes ‘Hi, Eddie’

Who besides Guzy, his admirers wondered, will stop and ask how the family is doing or take a few minutes to talk with the children? Many of those children grew up knowing no other letter carrier than Guzy. Alice Pfenning said her daughter Mary Jean, who married and moved away years ago, still inscribes “Hi, Eddie” on the flap of envelopes when she writes letters home.

Indeed, what other letter carrier is going to collect stray tennis balls from the high school nearby and play a friendly game of catch with Stroby, Stauss’ dog, who might be the bane of some carriers?

The short, stocky Guzy went beyond the call of duty one day 22 years ago to save a frightened housewife from the bite of a spider.

“I was alone in the house and there was a black widow spider on the mantel,” Helen Granger recalled. “I went out by the mailbox; I would have stayed out there all day. I asked Eddie to help. He threw a towel over it and killed it.”

Guzy was modest about his exploits and the care he put into performing his job. “It would make my day to be helpful,” he explained.

And the goodby party was a “one-in-a-million” occasion for Guzy.

“I thought they had all forgotten me,” Guzy said. “I have more friends than I thought I had.”