| Mail carrier delivers for 35 years |
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| News | |||
| Written by Aaron Cedeño | |||
| Wednesday, 25 November 2009 08:00 | |||
Almost a decade ago, Kim Silance was starting her first day on the job as the Stilwell Post Office’s newly-minted postmaster.  A native of the area, she felt like she had a pretty good handle on things as she began sorting mail for the day. But then, a name would pop up that she didn’t recognize, or maybe an incorrect address. Fortunately, in mail carrier Steve Knop she had the ultimate information authority at hand. “He said ‘Just holler the name,’” Silance recalled. “And I’d be over here sorting and holler a name, and he’d say ‘Town’ or ‘That’s mine.’” Knop has been that steady hand for postal workers in Bucyrus and Stilwell for more than three decades, and on Monday, Silance honored the Louisburg resident for 35 dedicated years with the United States Postal Service. Knop got his first taste of life as a mail carrier at the tender age of four, when his father – a carrier himself for more than 40 years – would bring him along as he drove the delivery route in Bucyrus. As the years passed, Knop grew to know the route like the back of his hand, and when his dad suggested that he take the civil servant exam in 1974, it seemed like a natural fit. “He was a regular carrier and I was a young punk,” Knop said of his father, with a smile. “He made me go take the civil service test because he needed a sub. And that’s how I got the job.” Thirty-five years later, he can’t see himself doing anything else. As a country boy at heart, life in an office simply wasn’t for him, Knop said. Though the mail is now sorted in the Stilwell post office, he drives the same route along which his father took him when he was a child. It’s afforded him an unprecedented level of familiarity with the region. For example, Knop has known Silance – now his postmaster – since her birth. He’s seen family trees grow and flourish, and new ones take root. It’s rare to see anyone stay in a single career for so long anymore, Knop admitted, but the signs of his love for the work are everywhere. Silance cited one story, in which an intoxicated driver rear-ended Knop’s truck while out on delivery. Though the vehicle was badly damaged, it ran fine otherwise. Knop, of course, finished the route. “I worked all these years and never used a day of sick leave,” he said, proudly. “I’ve got over a year of sick leave (built up), and I’ve never used a day in 25 years of full-time.” He’s been known to leave packages in unconventional locations to make sure they reach their intended destination, Silance said, and the people along his route have come to know him as a friend. Those relationships, with both the families along his route and his coworkers, are one of the elements of the job that he enjoys the most. Knop knows that there is an end in sight. In fact, he said, he could retire tomorrow if he so chose. But though he tells himself every winter that it will be his last on the job, he always seems to find a reason to keep firing up his truck. “But what else are you going to do?’” Knop asked. “You’ve gotta do something, and the people on my route are almost like family.”
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