Challenges of deliveriescome to end

Elochoman Valley resident Bob Hake has retired after working 30 years as a driver for United Paracel Service, a tenure in which he became known around the county for his humor and dedication. Photo by Sunny Manary. It has been said that all good things must come to an end. For Wahkiakum County, it is the retirement of a very familiar face. Bob Hake is hanging up his brown jacket after 30 years with the United Parcel Service (UPS).

Things are different than they were three decades ago. When Bob started with the company, he said they would hire anyone.

“They would take you to Seattle, you would jump into the package car they had and they drove you around town," Bob said. "That was it.”

To get on with the company now, applicants need to attend a special school for about a week of training.

“They were just looking for bodies, I think,” he said.

Bob said he would travel anywhere from 180-250 miles a day. His route was all of Wahkiakum County with the exception of those on the west side of Deep River. “Those folks have a Naselle mailing address,” he said, adding, however, that he would deliver to Rosburg.

Bob, 65, didn’t always work for UPS. In his younger years, he was a teacher in Port Townsend at a youth camp much like the one in Naselle. After five years of teaching, he worked for the government as an air pollution inspector for Olympic Air Pollution Control for seven years.

“Then I came to work here and been here ever since," Bob said.

In 1993, the maximum weight limit for a package was 70 pounds. “Then they jumped that up to 150 pounds.” Some of the large companies in town will get the heavier packages, he said.

“They don’t give you a test," he said. "They don’t make you lift up something before you go to work, but that’s a known fact you have to be able to do that.”

There are tools available on the truck to assist drivers with the packages. Hand trucks are available but they don’t always work because sometimes deliveries will be made to apartments with no way to get up to higher floors other than stairs.

“That’s why you don’t see too many old UPS people," Bob said. "I think to my knowledge I’m the oldest one that has come out of Kelso Center.”

In the beginning of Bob’s route career, there were no specified street names or house numbers as there are today. Finding homes was difficult because a lot of people didn’t put numbers on their mailboxes.

“That has all changed over the years. Now all the roads are named and the addresses are numbered,” he said.

Local residents were always helpful, Bob said. “I’d ask somebody and eventually find where this person was, where you could find them.” Everybody knows everybody and their relatives where they worked.

From 1978 until 2007, Bob would commute from his home in Tenino to Kelso so he wouldn’t have to uproot his kids. They were involved in 4-H, had animals and other activities and they were doing well in school.

“We liked where we were at. We were out on 17 acres,” he said.

Mornings at UPS would start early because the trucks need to be loaded. In the beginning, drivers would load their own trucks, but eventually part-timers were hired to do the loading.

The length of the workday would depend on a whole variant of conditions, Bob explained. “We are guaranteed eight hours of work, whether we work it or not.” He said the various storms or floods over the years would sometimes hamper deliveries.

For instance, the rock slide that closed SR4 in 2006 made getting from Kelso to Cathlamet difficult. Bob said he found it easier to drive around to Astoria than to take the ferry.

“We will do everything we can to make the delivery,” he said.

One of the joys of the job was all of the pranks. He said he remembers driving by the Wahkiakum PUD crews and hearing a ‘thump-thump’ as he would drive under their utility buckets. Finally he figured they were throwing objects at the truck as he would drive under.

“Anything they could get their hands on; they’d pitch it at me. I had to be real careful of those guys,” he said with a laugh. “Stuff like this, you know, that made the job fun and interesting.

“I want to especially thank the crew at Dandy Digger for all the interesting poems on the back of my truck over the years.”

In retirement, Bob says he plans to spend time hunting, fishing, traveling and playing with his grandkids. He has no plans to leave Wahkiakum County. “We built our retirement home down here.”

A retirement party/roast for Bob will take place on Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Elochoman Slough Marina covered area. The event is potluck. Everyone in the community is invited to attend.