Bishop - Post Office bids farewell to beloved mainstay

Almost exactly 40 years from the day he started at the Bishop Post Office, Steve Jennings stepped away from the counter and into retirement.
Jennings first braved snow, sleet and hail to deliver the mail on Sept. 6, 1969, and he hung up the mail bag Aug. 28, 2009.
“I was within a week,” Jennings said, “I almost made my 40 years.”
Former Post Master Howard Frost said Jennings’ 40 years at the Bishop Post Office is unprecedented.
“As a former co-worker I know that his 40 years as a Bishop mail clerk is the longest unbroken stretch of service in that particular office in its history,” Frost said. “A few reached the 30 years mark to my knowledge. Others have reached that milestone with what I consider ‘broken service,’ meaning they transferred into Bishop after employment in other branches of the Postal Service and/or served in the military with their jobs waiting for them when they were discharged.”
Jennings and his family moved from Southern California at a young age. His dad, Jim Jennings, was a postal clerk who transferred to Bishop and eventually served a hitch as the Bishop post master.
“I have known Steve Jennings since he was 5 years old,” Frost said. “He was a member of the only Bishop baseball team that to this day is the only CIF champion in that sport.”
Jennings began work at the Post Office shortly after graduating from Bishop Union High School. Back then, one could get a job with the U.S. Postal Service at 17 years old if he or she obtained a high school diploma and had a passing score in the required written test for eligibility.
Upon being hired, Jennings took up the mail bag for two years and worked as a courier before earning a position at the counter, which he kept for the next 38 years.

After 40 years with the U.S. Postal Service, Steve Jennings is settling into a life of leisure. Though he doesn’t miss the work, Jennings said he will miss the social aspect of his job as a Bishop Post Office clerk. Photo submitted

Jennings said his career spanned five decades, from the ’60s to the 2000s, and over the years he’s seen a lot change, made a lot of friends, and even seen some odd packages in the post.
“We once mailed a decorated cake,” Jennings said. “That’s the oddest thing that comes to mind. It came in one of those clear packages and we mailed it. I don’t know what happened when they received it on the other end, though.”
As the years went on, however, counter workers at the post office knew less and less about what they were shipping.
With the advent of the Internet, Jennings said things picked up for the U.S. Postal Service.
“The Internet has been the biggest in-road into our postal business since my time,” Jennings said.
But it’s not the work that Jennings is going to miss, it’s the people he worked with and served as a postal clerk.
“I like to say that I know everybody in the community and their pets’ names,” said Jennings, adding that over the years he has really gotten to know a lot of people in the community. “Everybody in the community, no matter who you are, has to come into their local post office eventually.”
And that’s been the hard part for Jennings. “It’s the social aspect,” he said, “just in the last week since I retired, I’ve really missed speaking with everyone and knowing what’s going on in the community.”
But that doesn’t mean Jennings is regretting his retirement. In fact, he’s settling in and looking forward to working on some relaxation.
“I’ve been retired now for a week, and it just feels like a vacation, but it’s also been nice to not have to set the alarm,” Jennings said. “I’m definitely going to stay here in the community. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I’m going to do what retired people do, work on the house, do some traveling and just relax.”