Letter Carriers Band
My uncle Don Watson recalled watching as his father and sister
would gather their band instruments and go off to play or practice with their Mail Carriers Band. My grandfather was a mail carrier for over forty years. He worked out of the Summerfield
office located on Cross St. just
west of Main. That's him second from the left. He played the bass drum and his daughter Edna the trumpet.
One of the earliest examples of postal worker camaraderie after hours is the creation of letter carriers’ bands through the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). The NALC was organized in 1889 and letter carriers’ bands arrived soon after.
The letter carriers’ bands began playing first at National Association of Letter Carrier conventions, where many of the bands would join the letter carrier parade at the beginning of the convention, to help increase union solidarity and excitement. However, each band also had local engagements—most often to celebrate members of the post office. For example, the New York Letter Carriers’ Band escorted newly married couples, with the groom usually a letter carrier himself, from the church to the reception, playing celebratory music along the way.
Letter carriers’ bands were well known during their prime. Participation in letter carriers’ bands was important and impressive enough that many obituaries of the period mentioned deceased letter carriers’ positions and commitment.
Source: “Postal Employees After Hours”
