Growing up in a family grocery business, Pam Wever never imagined she’d be taking or delivering mail for the U.S. Postal Service.
In November, Wever retired after 29 years as a postal clerk and mail delivery worker for West Liberty’s U.S. Postal Office and says she has no regrets, calling it a “great experience” servicing customers the past nearly three decades.
The daughter of Jim and Marilyn Conrey, who owned Jim’s Foodland in West Liberty for decades, Wever started work as a cashier for her parents in 1974 at the age of 14 and even stocked shelves and performed other duties in the store with her brother, Jim P., after her parents opened the store in 1968.
She was a star employee, not only working as a cashier, but getting involved in pricing, trouble-shooting and even helping set up a new scanner system. But in 1992, her parents sold the store and she set out to find something new.
Encouraged to become a postal clerk by postmaster Zeta Barnett, Wever applied and tested with about 250 other applicants for postal jobs in Davenport, beating out a couple other applicants for the West Liberty position of postal clerk, which also could include some door-to-door mail delivery.
Her first five years, she walked about five miles a day delivering mail to households and businesses on the west side of Columbus Street and north of downtown, taking about three hours after about an hour of sorting.
The hard work paid off into an inside position as postal clerk, but there were still times she could have to deliver mail or packages, sometimes seven days a week. She said it all depended on the volume of mail.
Keeping with the postal creed of “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” Wever said there were definitely great days to deliver mail as well as terrible days.
She recalls her first year as a courier in 1995 being the hottest summer she can remember and it was followed in January by a snowstorm that packed snow “up past my knees.” Still, Weaver kept the position, making sure items was delivered “safely and quickly.”
She said there were a number of people on her route that would leave drinks or treats and others that would ask if she wanted to stop in and warm up, but she said, “It was always hard to do because you had to get back by a certain time.”
She said the position isn’t easy, noting, “it’s not you regular 9 to 5 job.” She said there were a lot of plusses in the position, noting she was “never bored” and had “some of the best customers.”
She’s rarely worked outside the West Liberty area but has played a role as “officer in charge” at facilities in Nichols and Letts, filling in for the postmaster. She said at one time she thought about applying for a postmaster position, but said she liked the flexibility of a postal clerk. She’s also been involved in a lot of training for the postal service, having worked with new employees who job shadowed her position and has helped coach employees through new programs, including working on a special retail department project.
The mother of two grown boys including Devin Wever of Marion, and Jake Burroughs of West Liberty, she has four grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
In her retirement, she’s joined the Rotary Club of West Liberty and plans to take some time with her family, work on the family genealogy and do more traveling, setting up a family vacation to Disneyworld in the future.
Wever said a public retirement party would be held sometime after the first of the year, with details pending.