Letter carrier, 72, among growing number in U.S. working well past 65

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: The longer route: Letter carrier, 72, among growing number in U.S. working well past 65

He's on County Road 1680 moving like a blacktailed jack rabbit under the big-bowl Oklahoma sky, a tiny dot in his Ford Ranger out on the edge of the world when the flying red stinger ants show up.

Other on-the-job nuisances include hail, mud, diamondback rattlers, wild boars, coyotes, bobcats, porcupines and skunks. Jim Ed Bull keeps on driving.

Fifty, 55, 60 mph. Turning up a driveway, he reaches out the window and, snap, the mailbox opens. Bull is a letter carrier with the longest postal route in the United States, 187.6 miles across some of the loneliest territory in the country. He's 72 and part of the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. labor force – those who work past their 65th birthdays./quote]