Earlier this month, Mount Airy Postmaster Joy Barlow retired after 33 years on the job.

Barlow’s father worked in the United States Postal Service and wanted her to take the test for a job right out of high school.

“My dad had worked there and when I graduated from high school, he suggested that I take the test to work there, but I wanted to go to college. I ended up not going to school right then, so when I was offered a job, I went ahead and took it,” Barlow said.

She started out working in Mount Airy and stayed here for 13 years. She went to work as an account representative, which is a liaison with customers who mail more than $1 million a year. She worked in Winston-Salem for four years while in that position.

She eventually came back closer to home when she became the Toast postmaster from 1993 to 1995.

“My brother used to joke and call me the ‘Toast Posty,’” she said with a laugh.

From there, she went to work at the Rural Hall Post Office. She also worked in Yadkinville until 2003, when she came back to Mount Airy on a permanent basis.

Her husband, Wayne, was a city carrier in Mount Airy. She said it just happened that he retired just as former Postmaster Jim Littleton retired. She said as a married couple she would not have been allowed to be his supervisor.

Looking back on her years with the post office, she enjoyed working at the Yadkinville Post Office because of its diversity.

“Probably one of the most interesting places I worked was Yadkinville, because we had a really diverse workforce. We had a lady who worked there who was an American citizen, but she was from China. It was interesting the cultural differences. One year she asked me why everybody wanted to know if we were going to be closed for Easter and I said, ‘Some businesses close for Easter, but we don’t.’ And she said, ‘What Easter? Is that where Jesus and those 12 guys had dinner?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s it.’”

Over the course of her career, she has seen many changes in the way the postal service does business.

“It’s really interesting in seeing the changes in how the postal service has evolved because of the Internet. The volumes have decreased greatly, but there is still a lot of business mail, magazines and catalogs and such. The first-class mail has dwindled down tremendously,” Barlow said.

“When I started, we had eight people who sorted the mail manually. There were like 18 routes then and now there are 26 routes in Mount Airy. So you know there are more people in Mount Airy and all of it’s done by machines now. Well, 90 percent of it is sorted by machines,” she said.

She said the postal service has not been posting open jobs lately because there is a lot of downsizing. Judy Hughes is filling in as postmaster until a permanent one is named.

“It was an easy transition for her,” she said of Hughes.

She said the one thing that she finds odd about retirement is the method in which she gets stamps.

“It’s odd going in and buying stamps. I mean I always had to buy stamps, but it was usually from the backside,” Barlow said.

Barlow said although the USPS has seen many changes through the years, it has still managed to keep up with the competition by offering a unique service.

“It’s been around for 225 years, so you would hope that as an organization it would make the changes it needs to make to be able to stay in business because companies like FedEX and UPS have the cream of the crop as far as the most profitable mail. But if you have someone that lives on the backside of a mountain in Lowgap and they can get a letter from their child who lives in California for 44 cents, you know that private business is not going to provide that service,” Barlow said.

She and her husband, Wayne, have been together for 30 years. Her son, Andrew, is 27 and is going to school to get his bachelor’s degree in biology.

Barlow said she thought she would miss working at the post office, but it is getting easier every day.

“I really thought I would (miss it). I would always get up at 6:30 every morning and find out what the situation was by calling in to see if we had any call-ins or if we had any transports. So that first morning it was so hard to get up and not make that phone call. But it’s a whole lot easier now,” she said with a laugh.

In her free time, she is looking forward to working in her yard more.

“I really enjoy gardening, so I’m looking forward to having more time to devote to that. I’ve completed the Master Gardener volunteer program this year. I want to learn more about gardening. As a volunteer, I will be able to answer questions and participate in 4-H programs.”

Her husband went back to work for RBC Bank in Pilot Mountain after he retired from the post office. She said he enjoys being around people, so he went back to work part-time at the bank.

“He wanted me to get used to retiring and then he said he would consider retirement again as well.”

Barlow said while she is enjoying retirement, she is going to miss the people the most.

“Over the years, I’ve built up a network of friends. Most of the people that started when I did have retired, all but one and he’s retiring in January. I do miss them. One thing that I enjoyed the most was working with employees that wanted to move on in their career in management. There’s a lot of those who have gone on to other jobs. That to me was real rewarding to me to be able to help them. If somebody never reaches back to help you, you can’t do it.”

Barlow trained all of the postmasters at Siloam, Lowgap, Pilot Mountain, Rural Hall and Tobaccoville.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.