By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

When Raymond Perez started carrying letters in Benicia, there was no Southampton subdivision. And the days started much earlier.

Perez, who has spent 45 years as a postal carrier, started delivering letters in the city’s Highlands area, off Rose Drive. His next route would be to homes that were in the vicinity of the Taco Bell at 700 Military West.

Back then, Benicia had just four delivery routes.

His career has let him walk many of the city’s streets, and ride on others, toting satchels of mail that took several hours to sort before the carriers could begin making deliveries.

But Tuesday was his last day on duty. Instead of carrying letters, magazines and packages, Perez became a tour guide for his family, showing them places in the Benicia Post Office, 290 East L St., that few customers get to see.

For Perez, that building is still the “new” post office that replaced a much smaller site on East Second Street that now houses a church.

“It took us two hours to get ready,” he described to his grandchildren, who accompanied the adults on Perez’s last-day tour.

Checking the posted route numbers — as if he didn’t know them by heart — he described the associated routes to the youngsters and their parents, Perez’s son, Daniel, and Daniel’s wife, Karina, of Danville, as well as his own wife, Colleen. All were seeing the back operations for the first time.

“This is the loudest,” he said about the area where mail for routes 9, 10 and 11 are sorted and prepared for delivery. Farther down, he promised, the noise level would become quiet.

“That one’s a long walk,” he said about one route. “Nobody wants to do that!” Others were less desirable routes because they involved going up and down multiple steps. What’s more, “Magazines are heavy!” he said with a grin.

He spoke of other changes he’s seen through the years, such as the construction of buildings, primarily at the Benicia Industrial Park, which also became one of his routes — once business owners no longer were required to come downtown to pick up their mail.

As a letter carrier, Perez not only has seen the move to the much larger East L Street post office — twice the size of the old building — he’s also seen long-awaited mechanization that has made postal operations more efficient.

“The letters are ready to go, and we haven’t touched them,” he said. “They’re trying to do the same with magazines.”

Coworkers on Tuesday came up to give Perez a hug or a friendly slap on the back, teasing him that they wanted to take over his route No. 15, in the neighborhood of the upper Rose Drive area.

He teased back — “I feel sorry for you guys!” he told one.

Perez joined the postal service after working with McDonnell-Douglas and as a contractor for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

“This was the best job,” he said of his long-term career in public service, which, with his time in the military, was a combined 47 years. Even in the military, he carried mail, he added.

Perez may have been bitten nine times by dogs — not just a stereotype danger for letter carriers — but he mostly received warm welcomes from his customers during his years in Benicia.

He said he always looked forward to getting out of the post office building and making his rounds. “It’s great. You get used to the customers, and get to talk to them. It’s not stressful,” he said.

Early in his career, he had to be on duty by 6 a.m., but those starting times drifted closer to 7:30 a.m. as trucks carrying Benicia mail themselves began arriving here later and later.

As Perez made his final round of the post office, Nancy Andaya, who formerly lived on Oahu island in Hawaii, placed a candy lei with a butterfly accent made out of money around his neck as he stopped at her station.

Lorna Lualhati gave him a card and contributions from his fellow employees; Oscar Munoz, manager of postal operations, presented him a proclamation; and Daisy Pacas, union president, gave him a plaque and check from Local 1111 of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

Perez, who soon will be 71, said he finally decided to leave his career so he could spend more time with his grandchildren, cheering them as they compete in swimming and soccer.

“He thought he was just going to retire,” Daniel Perez said about his father. “They said, ‘You have to come in on your last day!’”

That’s because Postmaster Crystal Jones had planned a reception for the man who had been on duty for many years before she was assigned to Benicia in 2008.

Like most at the post office, Jones calls Perez by his nickname, Bert. And during his last day at the post office, she spoke of his service with pride, and called him “a great employee.”

She nodded to his wife and family, thanking them for “lending” him to her and the Benicia Post Office.

She told how Perez would be on duty at 7:30 a.m., and when he finished his own deliveries he would check in to see if anyone needed help. “Bert is one of those employees,” she said. “When he finishes his route, he’ll ask, “’Do you need me to go help?’”

Jones reminded the postal employees, “That’s what we’re losing today,” and promised Perez, “You will be missed.”