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Wilson recognized for years of service
Wilson went to work at the Grove Hill Post Office in March of 1980 after serving three years in the army. "I had just finished accounting courses at Hobson State when I got called for an interview. Mr. B.K. Bennert hired me. I started out as a clerk in the post office. For the first couple of years I would work on the routes some. I like working in the office better. When you work on the routes you're constantly having to work on your car after you get off work," he said. He has worked in the Grove Hill office for all but four months of the 27 years he has been there. "I worked in Repton and was supposed to come back to Grove Hill in April. I was supposed to get married in June and when they hadn't found a replacement for me by May, I started to get a little worried. They finally sent someone two weeks before I was supposed to get married," he laughed. Wilson said he has seen the postal service go "from the stone age to the computer age." When he first began working they used a hand cranked adding machine. Then came the electric adding machine, then calculators and then computers. "We got our first computers in 1990 and it made things much simpler. A few years ago we got the POS system and it does all the thinking for you. We have fewer mistakes and it makes things easier. When we make a mistake it comes out of our pockets," he said. For many years the majority of complaints he heard were because social security checks, The Clarke County Democrat or The Shopper's Guide were late. "I had one lady call me at home one night because her Democrat wasn't in her post office box on Wednesday night. I think there had been problems with the press or something, but I couldn't convince her that we hadn't gotten the papers yet. She finally got so mad she hung up on me." Today customers complain about the cost of postage and about the stamp machine being removed. Twenty-seven years ago stamps were 15 cents, post office boxes were $5 a year and there were 400 boxes rented. Back then there were two full time and one part time route carriers. Now stamps are 41 cents. Post office boxes are $36 and there are over 900 rented and there are three full time route carriers that serve 500 boxes each. "Even with email we send out more mail now than we did then. When I first started we had to sort mail by hand. Now we have the DPS in Montgomery and we get the mail out a lot quicker." Wilson has seen a lot over the years. "One lady came in and took her shoe off. I didn't know if she was going to throw it at me or what. Then she poured change out of it on the counter and said she wanted to buy a stamp. "Another morning a lady came in just after I opened and told me she needed a favor. She was on her way to a meeting and needed someone to zip her dress for her. I zipped her dress and she left," he laughed. Wilson said the most unusual item to be sent through the mail is the urns containing a deceased person's cremated remains. "The first time we got an urn we had no idea we were handling dead people. "Sometimes this job goes way beyond selling stamps."
Wayne and his wife, Ginger, live in Grove Hill with their two children, Graham and Sara. He also has a daughter, Kristen and two grandchildren, Cameron and Andrew, who live in Gulf Shores.
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