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Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

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Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#91

Post by lrem »

kissickas wrote: post #56
kasey_junk wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story takes place in Atlanta. The metro area has something like 6 million people in it. Not a 'mega city' but also not a small town. Perhaps it's not the city that is causing the lack of community with neighbors?

It's not exactly fair to throw out the population like that with no context - Atlanta is similar to LA in that it is very spread out, a bunch of "suburbs in search of a city." Friendly communities like this are rare in apartment buildings, as far as I've seen. I would love to know why or if there are any notable counterexamples - I would consider moving there!

Zurich, Switzerland. There's only one family in my building I'm not really chatting with somewhat regularly. Everyone says I'll get to know them once the weather is right for hanging out in the common grassy area anyways. And that's despite the Swiss having an opinion for being like Germans, but without the openness and legendary sense of humour ;)

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#92

Post by learc83 »

mcflibbles wrote: post #78
decebalus1 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, your comment reminded me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVyQNNFobA

My 2nd ever comment on hacker news, and already someone has managed to segue from my innoncuous comment into an attack on feminism. And further more, they've done so by using a video of someone with schizophrenia, or some other serious psychological problem. People can downvote this all they like, I'm gone.

Like the other poster I enjoyed your comment. For what it's worth, the offending comment has been flag killed by the community.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#93

Post by claudiulodro »

snarf21 wrote: post #38
nemo1618 wrote: post #4

Stories like this make you question whether it's worth being paid all this money to spend your life staring at a screen in a climate-controlled cube solving abstract problems that provide approximately zero benefit to your family, friends, and neighbors.

You need to separate your work from your purpose. Think of work as merely collecting resources to maintain life. Get a hobby or volunteer at a charity and find purpose there. I've been much happier with putting my "self" into designing and testing board games. I forget about the dumpster fire after I leave and focus my energy on something I enjoy creating.

https://www.theonion.com/find-the-thing-youre-most-passionat...

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#96

Post by GauntletWizard »

cortesoft wrote: post #60
wpasc wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, having lived in large cities, everything always feels so impermanent and impersonal. Connections that should be easy to make with neighbors down the hall can feel more difficult than connections with neighbors down a driveway. I'm not sure what causes this phenomenon, but many people report feeling this way. No sources, but I've seen this notion circulate in articles and other forums.

I wonder if it is because YOU are at an impermanent phase in your life. I live in Los Angeles, and would have said the same thing five years ago. However, in the last five years I have gotten married, had two kids, and bought a house. I feel much more connected to my location now. I have met my neighbors more than I ever did before buying a house, and have met many who have lived in the neighborhood for multiple gene…

You bought a house. That implies you moved to a suburban area. Having owned a house in a suburban area in a transitory time of my life, and lived in a city for what I thought was settled down - no, there's no question, it was the suburban lifestyle that allowed meaningful connections.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#97

Post by phjesusthatguy3 »

rafaelvasco wrote: post #53
mcflibbles wrote: post #49

I worked as a postman for a bit. I'd wake up at 0430, make a short commute, then sort letters into street/house number order for something like 3 hours. After the first few days this became mindnumbingly dull. It was obvious 90% of what I was about to deliver would go straight in the bin so all this drudgery wad largely pointless. For a while I worked in a pretty rough area (by UK standards, admittedly nowhere in the…

Absolutely that's the lesson here. Spread love wherever you go, to everybody, anytime.

>Spread love wherever you go, to everybody, anytime.

Sometimes that really fucking hard. And I know I'm part of the problem. But if that's not what we're all working for, we might as well just give up now.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#98

Post by xeromal »

kasey_junk wrote: post #52
vowelless wrote: post #24

Unlike other commentators, this doesn’t make me feel bad about my cubicle job working on abstract problems. It does make me sad about living in a sterile mega city with no form of community with my neighbors. It makes me miss the days I used to live in a much smaller town, in my home land, where everyone knew each other, and we had shared festivals, feasts and fasts together. Thanks for sharing the twitter thread.

This story takes place in Atlanta. The metro area has something like 6 million people in it. Not a 'mega city' but also not a small town. Perhaps it's not the city that is causing the lack of community with neighbors?

This happens in Marietta which is a sizeable city but not Atlanta. It's outside of Atlanta like how Irvine is outside of LA.

My family lives in Acworth an hour a way and there are chickens wandering people's yards. GA is a bit different in that regard.

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#99

Post by therealdrag0 »

nemo1618 wrote: post #4

Stories like this make you question whether it's worth being paid all this money to spend your life staring at a screen in a climate-controlled cube solving abstract problems that provide approximately zero benefit to your family, friends, and neighbors.

I have worked with people in tech who have this guys personality/attitude. They are friendly and personable with everyone they meet in the office.

It's lazy/wrong to think that it's the jobs fault that you don't have rich connections with those around you. If we want this we need to help be like this. We need to be the change we want to see :)

Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow

#100

Post by colechristensen »

Responses to stories like this make me uncomfortable.

I grew up on a small family farm in Iowa. Along with farming my father also took a substitute job as a rural mail carrier mostly for health insurance.

I can't find a better word than fetishizing to describe how – what I would call city people – think and talk about the world I grew up in.

Talking about where I came from and reading how people respond to this makes me uncomfortable at times, and moreso it is incredibly difficult to actually communicate to people without context how life was because of their pre-existing impressions.

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