Editor’s note: Former Postmaster Bill Borum submitted the first photograph, showing how Postal workers decorated the sorting station of retiring colleague Randy Temple.
When one works over three decades at the same place, there are rituals that become part of the day. For one Regular Rural Carrier for the United States Postal Service, it was to follow all the morning employees into the building. So, to end that procedure on his final day of work, Randy D. Temple broke his habit of last-man-in.
After leading in his co-workers and clocking in at 6:59 a.m., on Friday, July 21, 2017, Temple was feted during his final day. Before the lobby opened and out of view of customers when it did, the Morrison, IL, Post Office, 226 W. Main Street, was transformed into a party room–where people continued to sort mail and parcels.
- Red, white, and blue balloons drifted casually across the floor. One man enjoyed stomping on them.
- Breakfast pizzas from Casey’s General Store were accompanied by huge, homemade cinnamon rolls, milk, and orange juice.
- Someone arranged for Temple’s favorite radio station, 94.7 WLS Chicago’s Classic Hits, to announce his retirement and congratulate him for 32 years of service to his customers.
- The station played the Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Free Bird” for Temple: “If I leave here tomorrow, Would you still remember me? For I must be traveling on, now, ‘Cause there’s too many places I’ve got to see.”
One of those places will likely be Arizona, where he and wife “Lois spend our summers,” and he plays golf. Temple noted he will “probably not” awake at 6:00 a.m. after today.
Postmaster Brandon Hatteberg, right, presented Temple with a plaque and a Service Award certificate and thank you letter from the District Manager. Temple received a retirement card from his colleagues, which included money.
While he was at work, Lois Temple decorated her husband’s vehicle and filled it with balloons. She retired as a City Carrier in October 2016, but worked to the end of December.
Randy said, “She’s finally given me permission [to retire].”
This memento was given to Temple for “attaining 1,000,000 miles or 30 years of safe driving without a preventable incident.” He surpassed the term by two years. His mother, Vangie Temple, was a Fulton, IL, Rural Carrier; she suggested the job to her son 32 years ago. Temple’s mother-in-law, Sandy Grau, also was a Morrison Rural Carrier, making two generations and four Rural–or City–Carriers in his family.
He began employment June 8, 1985. For five years Temple served as a Rural Carrier Associate. The last 27 years he worked full-time.
He drove “100 miles each day, just a nice, little ride out there! You eat a lot of dust on gravel roads. I’ve driven 550,000 miles in all.” he said. “It’s a good job. It’s a good place to work. Your customers appreciate it when you do a good job. I will miss them, all my good customers,” Randy Temple concluded.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stayed Temple from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.
