Now & Then 

By Laura Cullen

Every now and then I find myself comparing the job I have now, delivering the mail, to the job I had when I helped in the search for oil more than twenty years ago. There are many similarities between the two, but there are also some strong differences. The first thing that comes to mind is the degree of difficulty in performing the two jobs. Picking up and laying out 100 pound cables, and geophones in all kinds of terrain took a lot of strength, but there were days where the terrain was easy and there were days when we were able to sleep, eat, play hacky-sack, or smoke for several hours, and those oh so wonderful weather days when we didn’t have to work at all. Delivering the mail can be very trying depending on the type and total volume of mail to be delivered on any given day. I do get a half hour paid lunch break and two ten minute breaks. There ain’t no such thing as down time, the USPS wants us to be as productive as possible at all times. Weather days? Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, etc, etc. Rain is the worst; it soaks everything and just makes delivering the mail miserable. I still hear and see helicopters every day. My route is near State Street and I-15, so there are helicopters flying around checking on traffic conditions and sometimes LifeFlite helicopters fly over too. I haven’t been on a helicopter ride in almost ten years.

The next thing that comes to mind is the age difference. I did seismic in my mid to late twenties; I started at the post office when I was 38. I am now 51 and I feel way more aches and pains than I ever felt doing seismic. Two of the more noticeable pains are in my neck and in my lower back. I have what is called degenerative disc disease; it is a kind of arthritis where the discs that cushion the vertebrae weaken and compress due to age, heredity, and it turns out that plopping 100 pound cables on my neck has also contributed to the compression of the discs supporting the vertebrae in my spinal column. I can remember joking about how I would be lucky to get out of seismic without being paralyzed from the neck down. I think the fact that I was either stoned or intoxicated most of the time I laid cables and stomped phones helped ease a lot of the pain I should have been feeling. These days all I have is one glass of red wine at night, plus one cold beer immediately after a day of delivering mail in the summer, and two or three ibuprofens per day. I also lift weights to keep all my postural muscles strong.

How about money? I thought I was living pretty high on the hog when I was looking for fossil fuels. All the hours we would work plus bonus miles and hotshot added up nicely; especially when I lived in a tent most of the time and had very few bills to pay. These days I make 20 + an hour, but I am also a homeowner with every little bill that comes with paying for, maintaining, and improving a home.  I also have a newer model car instead of the 58” Chevy pickup that I paid cash for with a couple of hefty bonus paychecks. I buy nice clothes and pay more attention to my looks in general than I did back then too. Here’s a funny little topic; boots. Back in my seismic days I wore big heavy duty hiking boots all year long. I still do! It’s not that the yards and sidewalks that I walk on are gnarly terrain; I just feel more comfortable with sturdy footwear. I can’t forget to mention how I would hang out with crewmembers at titty bars in small oil boomtowns like Kemmerer Wyoming. The comparison here is that now I deliver mail to a titty bar (with pasties of course) on State Street!