Veteran Mannford mail carrier, John Scovil, last week received his 30 year service pin from the United States Postal Service. The pin was presented by Mannford Postmistress Ada Gay.
Scovil, who was born in Old Mannford, moved with his family to Orlando, Okla. at the age of 6 months. He returned here in 1956 after a tour of duty with the Navy in World War II, and several years working the oil fields as a toolpusher in Colorado. At the time he moved back to Mannford, he had been married about one year and was still working in the oil fields. Stating that "there had to be a better way to make a living," Scovil applied for the vacant mail carrier's job at Old Mannford. The previous carrier, Tommy Crane, had recently retired after 35 years of service, and Dave Clegg was serving as interim carrier. Scovill passed the carrier's exam and worked in the oil field up to the day he started carrying the mail.
One of the better changes he has seen in the past 30 years he said, is the improvements in the roads on his route. Being used to muddy "cow trails" used for oil field roads when he came here, Scovil stated, "I thought I could drive, but I got stuck so many times on my route, I was ashamed of myself." Another of the changes in the past 30 years is the incredible expansion of his route. When he started, Scovill had a 35 mile route and 67 boxes on his route. He started at 8:00 A.M. and finished at 10:30 A.M. Now he has about 500 boxes and approximately 3000 patrons and it take 9 to 10 hours to complete his route.
In addition to his service pin, Scovil also has been awarded safe driving pins for 27 years of accident free driving. He jokingly stated that at the beginning of his career, however, he didn't believe he would ever earn one. On his first day, almost at the end of his route, he was going up Hoot Owl Hollow road (a little east and north of Old Mannford) and the road was freshly gravled, and a car was coming toward him too fast, the other driver lost control and skidded into him.
Contrary to popular opinion, he said, his job isn't all boredom, he said one of the more exiciting events on his route happened one icy winter day. He was parked about halfway up on a hill and had walked down to the bottom to assist a motorist. Hearing a noise, he suddenly watched his pickup heading straight toward him. It finally ended up going into a ditch, leaving him stranded. Someone loaned him a set of chains, and several others picked up the front of his pick-up out of the ditch. He then gave back the chains and went on his way.
Another incident also occured on icy roads. He was going down the East Basin road after a nine inch snowfall and suddenly found his truck hung up on high center. Apparently the snowplow had gone up the road earlier and left a ridge of snow and sand in the center of the road and then the additional snowfall had hidden it from sight. He had to set for three hours then walked to a house and got assistance to push his truck out.
When asked if there was any part of his job he didn't enjoy, Scovil stated, "there isn't any part of my job I don't enjoy. Besides I think mail carrying was my destiny." His grandmother, Ada Thompson, was Postmistress at Old Mannford for several years and his father, Charles Scovil, was a mail carrier in Orlando, Okla. for 33 years.
Mr. Scovil's father, now 92 years old, resides in a Tulsa nursing home. Scovil remembers accompanying his father many times on his route and said that in the back of his mind he always knew he would be a mail carrier despite the hardships his father endured. One incident he remembers happened when he was riding with his father on his route. It had recently rained and the red clay roads were very muddy. The mud had accumulated under the fenderwells to the point where it was packed over the wheels and prevented them from turning. He and his father then had to scrape the mud out by hand to resume the route.
Scovill lives in Mannford with his wife Helen, and daughter Libby, a junior at Mannford High School. His oldest daughter, LeAnne Alcorn, also lives in Mannford with her husband Brad. He stated that his good health was due to the fresh air and sunshine he gets every day at work. He hasn't made any decision on when he plans to retire, stating he might retire when Libby graduates, so he can spend more time hunting. He has hunted deer for 40 years and seldom fails to bag one each yar. He stated that he just hasn't decided yet, but Postmistress Ada Gay stated, "it will be a while before we let him go."
The first day on the job can be a rough one, trying to remember a complete new set of "do's", "don'ts", "where's", "whys" and "how's."
But for John Scovil, Mannford's genial rural mail carrier of 30 years' standing, his first day was unusually rough. He started it with a wreck.
"I had a collision in Hoot Owl Hollow east and north of the old town," explains Scovil. "It didn't hurt my car at all but it knocked the anti-freeze out. I stopped and he (the other motorist) had almost stopped. They'd just graded the road and had fresh gravel on it and he couldn't stop."
Scovil's only other traffic mishap in the 30-year tenure as rural mail carrier came on the heels of a good Samaritan deed.
He had parked on an icy hill near the water tower north of town, in order to assist a lady whose vehicle had slid crosswise in the road.
After he helped get her car straightened out, he started back up the hill to his pickup, which was "brand new," having purchased it only five days previous. To his horror, before he reached it, the pickup started sliding down the hill toward him.
"I tried to run to it and get in but couldn't and it was coming at me so I jumped across the ditch to avoid being hit. The truck went into the ditch. In no time at all four or five other vehicles had come along and one of them pulled me out with chains. The only scratch was on my bumper. But then I was trying to do a good deed."
In all those 30 years, Scovil has had to have help only once because of impassable road conditions.
"One year there came a 9-inch snow. Some two or three weeks before that, they had graded the road and left lots of sand down the middle. Loose snow had piled up around that sand. I got in that loose snow and was stuck for three hours. It was south of where John and Norma Ross live and just around the curve.
"After working back and forth and only going about three inches at a time, I finally decided I wasn't going to make it by myself and walked down to a fellow's who came and helped me out of that spot. I continued the rest of the route without any trouble."
Scovil was presented his 30-year pin Friday morning by Postmaster Ada Gay. The day, except for the pin presentation, was like most other days. He began around 7 a.m. by taking the bags of mail for his rural route and sorting the mail going to his rural patrons into wooden slots, placed in sequence according to his stops along the route. After all were sorted, the mail was stacked on a small table top space and part of it immediately slid to one side.
"That's the reason mail sometimes gets mixed up," he noted. "There's nothing to stack it on."
He hopes that problem will be solved when the post office moves into its new building now under construction to the northwest in the Shopping Center.
Scovil expected to complete the sorting and stacking operation on or before 11 a.m., after which he would start for the Salt Creek Addition, deliver there, come back through town, catch the roads on the north side out towards SH 48, go north on SH 48, then retrace and go west to where the old Miller ranch started, then come back to Varnell's store and go south three miles, retrace a half mile north on SH 48 and then return to the post office.
Does he pick up much outgoing mail along his route?
"The first of the month I usually pick up from a peck to half a bushel of return mail. Yes, I still carry stamps," Scovil said.
His busiest days of the month are the first five, when government and other checks are in the mail and advertisers are sending out more sales sheets and catalogs.
"During the first of the month, it's terrible," he agreed. "In addition to everything else, there's usually a boxholder (free advertisement addressed 'boxholder' or 'postal patron') for every box."
Another busy time is around Christmas, when, in addition to catalogs and directories, he usually delivers between 40 to 50 packages per day.
Before becoming the rural mail carrier, succeeeding Tommy Crane, Scovil worked in the oil fields as a tool dresser.
"The pay was good but I could see the oil fields around here going down. If a guy needed a well drilled, we went out to work. If not, we stayed home. I hadn't been married very long and I wanted steady work. This is surprisingly hard work, although a lot of people wouldn't think so, but it is steady," he laughed.
Scovil didn't enter the employment of the US Post Office Department (now Postal Service) blindly. His grandmother, the late Ada Thompson, had served as Mannford's postmaster for many years. She was succeeded by the late Lester Rhoades. She was still postmaster when he entered oilfield work where he remained for 10 years.
Scovil recalls that in addition to having a traffic mishap his first day on the job, he began the job without much preliminary training. He was working at his oilfield job one day and at the post office the next. But he has enjoyed his work.
Before the lake went in during the early '60's, his route wasn't as long and he also carried the Keystone rural mail. He could complete both routes early in the day and have the rest of the day off for such activities as hunting arrowheads and spearpoints, one of his favorite hobbies. Now, despite the fact that his route has been divided twice, he still has little time for that sort of thing.
Other activities not related to his job include serving as an elder at the Lakeview Christian Church and he was recently re-elected president of the Keystone Crossroads Historical Society.
As rural mail carrier Scovil provides his own pickup. In the earlier years he says he could drive a vehicle for almost three years but with today's vehicles and the additional stops, he must purchase new trucks every two years in order to insure adequate transportation -- a prerequisite of his job.
In the earlier years of his career as a rural mail carrier, he sometimes had requests from his patrons to bring them groceries or other small articles from town. His arrival often highlighted the day for some of the elderly awaiting word from loved ones.
Scovil has noted many changes and much progress in the rural area surrounding Mannford since the lake was put in.
"We've had tremendous growth," he affirms.
And as far as mail delivery differences are concerned, among the big changes are the proliferation of magazines and similar material -- the bane of rural mailmen, which, because of their slick finish, cause the neatly stacked mail to become unstacked and thus slow down its delivery.
"I used to put a single tie around the bundle and it would stay put. Now I have to strap it both ways," he explained.
Another change is in the number of "strangers" he serves.
"I used to know everybody on my route but now, they move out here and both husband and wife work. I seldom see them to get to know them. However, they usually know who I am and when they see me, tell me I am their mail carrier."
Being a rural carrier also has its hazards. He has found a variety of unexpected things in the mail boxes, some of them seeking shelter from the elements or protection from enemies.
"I've found dead possums, snakes and tarantulas in the mailboxes. One year, the mail boxes were filled with stinging scorpions. It was a wet year and they crawled into the boxes trying to find a dry place."
John Scovil was born in Mannford, Oklahoma in the home of his Grandmother, Mrs. Ada Thompson. Mrs. Thompson was the postmaster in the early 1900's for many years. John's Grandfather, A. A. Thompson, was the town marshal of Mannford.
John's parents, Cherry and Charles Scovil, raised him in Orlando, Oklahoma, where his father served as a rural-mail-carrier until his retirement in 1957.
John, after two years at Oklahoma State University, enlisted in the Naval Air Force, where he served three years.
He married Helen Sissom on October 2, 1955. They have two daughters, Leanne and Libbie.
John began his rural-mail-carrier route Nov. 1, 1956 and for several years he carried both the Mannford and Keystone routes.
John will retire from the Post Office on August 27, 1988. He plans to spend alot of time with hobbies which include arrowhead hunting and deer and elk hunting. (He especially enjoys Colorado where he plans to spend his time.)
He is active in the Keystone Corssroads Historical Society and the Tulsa Archaeological Society. He serves in the Lakeview Christian Church.
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