Robert Combs says he couldn’t wait to leave home after high school in Owen County in the 1980s.
He eventually wound up as a mail carrier familiar to thousands in Frankfort.
Combs was the youngest of seven children, and college wasn’t an option, “because I couldn’t afford it.”
So his choices were to stay in Owen County and work on farms or join the Army. He says he made the right decision.
While serving in the military for six years, he went to Japan, Honduras, Panama, “and all over the U.S.”
He was in Santa Cruz, Calif. – pondering whether to re-enlist for another three years – when he saw a U.S. Postal Service advertisement.
“They were going to give a test (for post office work) and I could go to the library and get a book to study for it,” Robert recalls.
Shortly after he took the exam he was offered a job at the Santa Cruz Post Office.
“My first months in the job, I just loved it and knew I had made the right decision, and I’ve stuck with it,” he says. “Being a mail carrier wasn’t anything I had planned to do. I kind of just fell upon it.”
He loved the weather and the beach at Santa Cruz, “but it was extremely crowded and expensive,” he says. “I was paying $800 a month for a studio apartment in 1992, and now it’s probably two or three times that.”
After three years at Santa Cruz, he worked two years at Chico, Calif., before transferring to the Frankfort Post Office in 1995.
He’s never regretted leaving the Army and California and coming home to carry mail for a career.
“I plan to work at least another 10 years, possibly 11, so I will get full retirement,” says Robert, who will turn 45 later this month.
Brian Napier, carrier supervisor at the Frankfort Post Office, says Robert “is probably one of the best carriers I’ve got. He’s pretty well known around here.
“He has a good rapport with customers, and he never misses work. In rain, sleet or snow, he’s always here.”
When he first came to Frankfort, his walking route was the Tanglewood area, South Frankfort, and the Capitol. Then after eight years, a utility route came open with three days of walking and two days of vehicle delivery.
“I decided to switch over and get off those hills in South Frankfort and the marble stairs in the Capitol and save my knees,” he says.
Since returning to Kentucky, he spent one year as a supervisor in Lexington, but soon returned to Frankfort.
“I take pride in serving the community and doing a good job.”
On his route in Indian Hills last year, Robert found an elderly woman who’d fallen in her yard. He stayed with her until a relative was notified and emergency medical personnel arrived.
The workweek is Monday through Saturday, and carriers normally work five days a week. As a utility carrier, Robert fills in for other carriers on their day off during the week.
He likes his rotating schedule, especially the occasional three-day weekends.
Besides fishing, one of his favorite recreational pastimes is hiking, especially at Natural Bridge State Park. He’s a strong hiker because he gets a lot of on-the-job training.
Robert gets in six to 12 miles a day on his pedestrian routes, and he sets a brisk pace.
“You’re supposed to keep a pace of at least 70 to 80 steps a minute,” he says. “I do about 120 a minute. I’m faster than most. I’m just a normal fast walker.”
In his 20 years as a carrier, Robert says he’s been dog bitten about six times.
“That’s when a dog bite actually broke the skin,” he says. “I’ve been attacked many more times. But with the satchel and pepper spray I was able to fight most of them off. Dogs are the biggest hazard to mail carriers on a walking route.”
Robert says he likes dogs and owns a dog.
“But a lot of people just don’t understand that no matter how much you love your dog, and how good the dog is, all dogs bite,” he says. “We train all carriers that all dogs bite.
“You can startle them, or they can smell another dog on you. We have to be careful about that.”
Robert says he also gets stung by insects, “mainly wasps about a half-dozen times every summer.”
A mail carrier’s job can also be treacherous in snow, ice and thunderstorms, he says.
He keeps going even during severe lightning storms.
“If you are afraid of dogs, lightning or bad weather, you’d better find another job, because this one’s not for you,” Robert says. “Walking in snow, especially after ice storms like this past winter, is extremely hazardous and hard. You have to slow down and dress warm and just fight it. It’s tough. In ice storms, that’s when I miss California.”
He says he’s sustained a few sprained ankles over the years but no serious injuries.
Robert starts to work at the post office at 7:30 a.m. A lot of the mail has been sorted when he arrives, and after putting it all in delivery order, he carts it to a mail truck and heads for a city neighborhood.
“Our mail volume is down dramatically, an average of about 40 percent over last year. That hurts a lot. Hours are way down. I used to average 20 overtime hours a month. Now I’m lucky if I get eight hours overtime.”
He says the U.S. Postal Service is a “nonprofit, self-sustaining agency. We take no tax money from anybody at all. By law the post office is supposed to break even.
“We’re not supposed to make a huge profit and we’re not supposed to lose money. But between gas prices and the economy right now, I think it’s the worst it’s ever been. Right now we’re just fighting for survival.”
First class mail started dropping with the creation of the Internet, he says.
“What was keeping us going in past years was unendorsed bulk business mail (once known as junk mail). But with the big drop in the economy last year, a lot of companies quit mailing the big catalogs.
“The biggest thing that hit us is the banking, credit card and mortgage industries, which used to send bulk mail constantly. But they’re no longer doing that. Companies are using the electronic industry and the Internet to save money.”
Since he’s been in Frankfort, the number of mail routes has dropped from 31 to 28.
“I don’t think it will ever come back to the level it was. I think we will have a much smaller post office in the future. I think we will always be here and have a place in the community. But we will definitely have to be creative.”
Over the years, Robert has collected a few commemorative stamps but in no organized way.
“They go into a big jar,” he says.
He expects to see a Michael Jackson stamp issued quickly.
“It will probably be out in 90 days to six months, but that’s just guessing,” Robert says. “It will definitely be a big seller, so they’ll try to get it out quick.”
Robert is married to Carla Claypool-Combs, a Midway College graduate, and has a 13-year-old stepdaughter, Emily. They live in Dove Creek Estates.
After he retires and Emily is out of college, “I’m hoping we can downsize and travel and become snowbirds,” Robert says. “I’d like to go to a different state each year and rent during the winter and visit a lot of places.”
“Frankfort Faces” is a series that highlights people from within the Frankfort and Franklin County community. Each feature follows one of the city’s most unique personalities and includes a story, photos and video, which can be found by clicking the TV icon attached to the story online at state-journal.com.