Postal worker retires after 41 years

Jimmy Bragwell and his grandson, Alex Bragwell, took time to ride four-wheelers this week. Bragwell will be retiring from the U.S. Postal Service this month after 41 years on the job, without missing a day of work. | Nathan Strickland/FCT

Postal work can be one of the most demanding jobs in the country because no matter what, people expect to receive their mail everyday except for Sundays.

Jimmy Bragwell, who has been working for the postal service for 41 years, has seemed to avoid sickness and has never missed a day of work other than vacation.

“I had to have day surgery for kidney stones at one point in time, but I still had to work because people were counting on me,” he said.

Bragwell, 70, will soon be punching the clock for the last time as he heads into retirement at the end of the month.

Bragwell said there are people who are trying to talk him out of hanging it up.

“I think some of my customers believe that when I’m gone, the postal service won’t get their mail to them at the same time as to when I carried it to them,” he said. “But I know the boy who is going to take my spot and I believe he will be a good one.”

Bragwell attended Russellville High school and graduated in 1958. In 1969, he was playing golf at Twin Pines Country club and was approached by a person offering him the job as mail carrier. By the end of the year, Bragwell was delivering the mail and claims there’s not many people I don’t know because I’ve lived in Franklin County my whole life.”

Bragwell currently runs the rural routes and admits he would have hated to run the city route because he believes it is more physically demanding.

“I may have to get out my car a couple of times and carry a package up to the door, but I’m in my car most of the time,” he said. “In the city they have to park and walk to all the houses on the block then get back in the car and go to their next stop. I wouldn’t have liked that at all.”

Bragwell said the only perk about working in the city that he might have liked to have was the furnishing of transportation.

Bragwell has gone through eight to ten vehicles during his 41 years of service.

Bragwell’s wife, Alice, said they have four of those cars still hanging around on their property.

“We have went through the cars,” she said. “When you’re in that line of work, cars don’t last long, especially the brake shoes. There is no telling how many brake shoes we have had to replace on his cars.”

Bragwell and his wife both agree that the worst time to have the mail job is when the roads get icy.

“Sometime in the 1980s there was a terrible ice storm and it stayed blistering cold for what seemed like a long period of time,” Bragwell said. “When weather like that occurs, you have to put chains on your tires and still go to work because people had to get their mail.”

Alice Bragwell said that was probably the worst experience while her husband was working.

“Every evening when he got home we had to take the chains off the tires, spread them out on the kitchen floor and fix them,” she said. “I believe we had to do that everyday during that storm because the chains would be loose or have broken places in the links every time when he got home. It was exhausting.”

The Bragwells have been lucky enough to snag a prime spot at Slickrock campgrounds for the past two years and, now that Jimmy is stepping into retirement, the couple plans to hit that spot more often.

Bragwell said he would miss the people, but not the job.

“I’ll always be doing something. I’m not just going to sit and waste away,” he said. “I’ll have to keep the grass up, repair some things on the house, take my grandkids to ball practice and stuff like that so retirement isn’t going to be boring. I look forward to getting down to the camper we have set up at the lake and spending more time with my wife.”

Bragwell said he also looks forward to football season.

“I have a friend of mine who is a season ticket holder for the University of Alabama and he lives in Atlanta so there are times to where he can’t make it to the home games so he shares them with me,” he said. “I’m a huge Alabama fan and I can’t wait to just go to the games and not have to worry about work at all.”

Bragwell said he is just going to enjoy life and believes he deserves the time off because of the time put in.