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Barbara Dellenback: From KLCC media, this is The Oregon Grapevine. I'm Barbara Dellenback. The Oregon Grapevine highlights fresh-pressed conversations with people who are actively and passionately creating the present and future in which they wish to live. Don Smythe works for the U.S. Post Office, and in the interest of full disclosure, I see him regularly because I am a post office addict. I've seen his customer service relationships and just who he is as a person, so I wanted to bring him in and get some of his background. Thank you so much for being on The Oregon Grapevine. Let's start here: Kids say they want to grow up and be a plumber or a doctor. I don't think you probably grew up saying you wanted to work at the post office.
Don Smythe: No, to be honest, I really wasn't sure. When I was younger, I started going down the wrong path, but luckily I had a very determined father who had also brought me into search and rescue since I was a small child. He retired from the Monterey County Sheriff's Department and was head of the mountain and dive rescue team, so whenever his pager would go off, he'd wake me up: "You want to go on a rescue?" Sure. I'd sit in his truck while they dropped him out of a helicopter somewhere out in Big Sur, California. That's what kind of brought me back. And then I went into search and rescue myself.
Dellenback: And with, I think, the Coast Guard. Any stories that come to mind, any visions as you think about your life as a Coast Guard person? How long was that?
Smythe: I was in for just about nine years in the Coast Guard. Loved every minute of it. Quite a few stories: being dropped into pools of sharks in Puerto Rico, you name it, all sorts of things. I broke my back and had my arm basically torn off pulling somebody out of the water, and that's part of the reason I'm not in anymore. It does take a toll on your body, for sure, but I miss it all the time.
Dellenback: Do you miss it? It sounds partly thrilling, but I imagine there were also parts that were not so much.
Smythe: There always are. The biggest thing about it is knowing what to do when the time comes. I've been out since July 2000, and I've still had to use my training. There was a little girl in Springfield named Maddie. She got hit by a car, thrown about 30 feet, and I was called to the scene because I lived right around the corner. I was able to bring her back before the medics arrived. She's still a huge part of my life. It's situations like that. I do regret not being in the Coast Guard anymore. However, my training is still there, and it does not die.
Dellenback: To backtrack for a second: you were called. So somehow, even though you're not in the Coast Guard, you're on some kind of a list, or people knew to call you?
Smythe: No, a friend of mine was two cars ahead of the girl who got hit and witnessed it and called me, knowing I was right around the corner. So while everybody else was calling 911, they called me, and I jumped up, didn't even put shoes on, and took off.
Dellenback: So you went from the Coast Guard, and I know I've heard a backstory because we have a mutual acquaintance in town who mentioned you being a bodyguard. What's that story? For whom were you a bodyguard, and how did that happen?
Smythe: My dad, being in law enforcement, has several connections. One of them had a business down in California and brought me in for major events. So I was running bodyguard for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ray Romano, and the CEO of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Bentley. That was basically for events. I had actually started with the post office down there and was still doing the bodyguard work on my time off. So when an event came in, I'd take some time off from the post office and drive around in a Bentley with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Dellenback: Did you talk to him much? Is he a nice guy?
Smythe: Oh, yeah, he's a great guy, actually really nice. I did have one incident with him where we were walking downtown Carmel and he was looking for a cashmere shop of some sort. As he walked from shop to shop, I was with him. At the first store, people were like, "Oh my gosh, I think that's him." By the next door, people started to get braver and walk in. By the third store, they were all trying to bump up against him, and that's when I started picking people up and throwing them out of the store, including the owner. I did put her back. But it was kind of funny when Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "Well, nobody's gonna mess with me with my bodyguard around." And I said, "Really? Because your bicep is the size of my head. I don't think you really need me, but thank you."
Dellenback: And it sounds like you got to drive some cool cars.
Smythe: Oh, yeah. In fact, one of my co-workers at the Carmel post office started calling me "Easy Money," because I would pull up in a Lamborghini to swing in and pick up my paycheck and then head back out to the car show. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Dellenback: So, the post office. There's a lot of conversation about the post office dying, about rural ones closing. And at the same time, a lot of mail and a lot of documents still depend on the post office. From an employee's point of view, how does that angst work? People come in frustrated, mailboxes get wrecked, and you have to deal with the question of whether there's even a future. How does that work?
Smythe: I can't comment too much on what the potential for the post office is going to be. I do see a lot of changes, and it's hard, because when you're in an environment that is changing, of course it's going to be intimidating and worrisome. Is my job okay? I feel my job is fine. Does the post office need to go through some changes? Absolutely. I hear stories all the time about a company that put all its eggs in one basket and that basket collapsed. If you don't change and you don't migrate, you die. I think that's what they're trying to do right now. It's hard to say, because I do my job and I take care of my customers, and that's what I love most, and that's why I've been in that same exact spot for so long.
Dellenback: Customer service is an art, and some people are good at it and some learn to be. You're pretty amazing at the South Eugene post office. A lot of people know who you are, and you seem to know a bunch of people. Is that something that came naturally, or have you grown into it?
Smythe: I've always been pretty much an extrovert. I used to work for Schwan's, the home delivery food company. They'd come to your house once every two weeks, and I had five minutes to sit there, take your order, get to know you, say hi, see how the kids were doing, know what ice cream they liked so I could suggest it next time. All of that kind of built up to how I am now. And with the post office, it gives me that same ability. I know you don't want to stand there and talk to me all day, but I know a lot about you, Barb, and I know a lot about a lot of my customers. We don't stand there and chat for an hour. It's just about making that connection, getting you what you need, and letting you leave with a smile on your face.
Dellenback: I'm more demanding than some, so thank you. How about in terms of mailing unusual things? Have you had to deal with someone coming in and mailing something that wasn't the easiest thing to mail?
Smythe: I've had a few. I'm not a fan personally of people who like to mail bees. When you get a box that's buzzing and humming, I know there's one hole I missed on that box. We've had a baby peacock get loose and fly through the lobby while all of us were trying to catch it. One of the little kids wanted to pop open the window and feed it some mealworms, and it shot right out of there. We've had all sorts of crazy things. When you get a coconut with a stamp on it, it's just one of the many interesting ones.
Dellenback: This is a personal anecdote, but I have a large ceramic elephant my father brought back from Vietnam. At the time, he just slapped a label on the thing and it got there completely safely, instead of being put in a box where it might have broken. So you can just stamp things and send them?
Smythe: You could, but times have changed so much. You used to be able to just put stamps on something and drop it in the mail. The problem is too many people over time have learned to use the Postal Service for bad purposes, so the rules have had to slowly evolve. We're coming into a lot of that right now, with some of the things that have been mailed to political figures. So now you have to bring it in so we can pre-investigate the package and make sure we deem it safe to go in the mail.
Dellenback: I'd like to delve a little more into customer service and how that works. Some people are naturally good at it, some aren't. How does that work in terms of you and your co-workers? Is there an emphasis from management, or is it something employees bring to the job themselves?
Smythe: To be honest, it's all us. What you see at the window counter, nobody is pushing us to do that. If we get a complaint, they come and talk to us about it, but they really don't mess with us much at the windows. Their main focus is about the carriers and getting them out the door. As long as we don't upset too many people, they're fine with what we do.
Dellenback: Have you had to kind of be a counselor for some people who've shown up and really been over the edge?
Smythe: Oh, gosh, yes. I've been through many situations where I've been there through people's births, deaths, divorces, you name it. You end up basically trying whatever you can to make that person's day a little brighter. Sometimes you can't. Sometimes it's just a piece of candy that I have on the counter, but you can see it lifts somebody up. Yeah, there's a lot of counseling that goes on.
Dellenback: It's amazing to me that you can put a little piece of paper in a box and it's going to end up somewhere far away. To me, that is just the best.
Smythe: It still amazes me. It really does. And that's part of the reason I feel I'm good at my job, because I love my job, and I'm still astounded by what the Postal Service can do. For 80 cents, you can get a piece of mail from here to New York in three days. That's pretty epic. And then I get to deal with my customers and all their stuff throughout the day. That sounds like a great day for anybody.
Dellenback: What inspires you to keep going, to say, I haven't had enough, I love it, I want to keep going?
Smythe: I love what I do. I honestly do. I love my customers, even the difficult ones. I have no problem throwing you out of the post office today and then chatting you up and handing you a lollipop tomorrow. Part of the thing is, I don't know what you're going through that day, so none of it is taken personally. I've had so many people come in the next day or two days later and say, "Hey, I'm really sorry, I was in a bad space." And I say, "It's all right, no big deal. It made my day a little more exciting. I'm glad you're doing better." So that's the drive. Whether you have the good and the bad, none of it is really bad. It's just something else that happened today. And I love my job and I love showing up to it.
Dellenback: What else do you do in your life that you love?
Smythe: I'm big into building, design and gardening, working in the yard. Right now, my wife and I are working on building a boulder garden for our front yard, which is fun. We built and designed our house ourselves. Anything with building design, I love getting my hands dirty. We love going to sporting events. We're season ticket holders for Duck football as well as women's volleyball. One of my wife's favorite things is what I call goat trails: just getting in the truck, and when you see a dirt road, you turn. I don't know where it goes, I don't know where it's going to come out, but we'll see. We call it turning left. What are you doing? I don't know, I'm turning left. See where it takes me.
Dellenback: Awesome. Well, I really appreciate what you're doing, and the fact that there are people out there who get to experience you at the post office. And if you need a stamp, I recommend going to South Eugene and looking Don up.
Smythe: I do have the best stamps in town. I'm not going to lie.
Dellenback: You do have good stamps. Thank you, Don.
Smythe: Thank you, Barb. Absolutely.
Dellenback: You've been listening to KLCC Media's The Oregon Grapevine, fresh-pressed conversations with people who are actively and passionately creating the present and future in which they wish to live.
