Mail Delivery, First Class

The U.S. Postal Service's Northern Virginia District received a five-star customer service rating for the 10th consecutive quarter. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
Buy Photo

"Customers in Northern Virginia expect excellent service because they're demanding, and our employees understand that and deliver," Northern Virginia district manager Michael Furey said.

Indeed, customers at several branch offices spoke of their local carriers in reverential terms. When the letter carrier in Nancy Raines's North Arlington neighborhood retired a few years ago, she and several of her neighbors bought him cards and paid tribute. His name was Love -- Herb Love, she said -- and he carried dog biscuits along his route to appease the barkers, biters and other growling sentries of the neighborhood.

"My kids made signs for him saying, 'Thank you so much for liking my dog,' " Raines recalled. "He was really a part of the street."

Charles Lantz was once that kind of carrier. When he retired in 1978, he'd been delivering mail in the same North Arlington neighborhood for 28 years. "I knew everyone by name," he said. "Even when they moved away, I'd memorize the new address so I could just write it in."

Lantz, now 84, has had the same post office box at the North George Mason Drive station since 1951. Back then, it was box number 711, but now it's 7111, after the branch had to add a fourth digit.

Lantz is hardly ready to hand out five stars to today's postal carriers, whom he considers a bit soft. "These carriers don't get on the street until 11 a.m.," he said. "I used to be out at 8:30."

Of course, back then there were no post offices that remained open until midnight, like the one Falls Church resident John Johnson frequents in Merrifield. He's thrilled with the round-the-clock service. "If you want to get stamps or send a package at midnight, there'll be somebody in there at that counter," he said.

As for the Postal Service itself, Johnson, a construction worker, called it "a necessary evil."

Why's that?

"It brings my bills to me," he said.