Mr and Mrs Nalls

I was a timekeeper at the Atlanta Post Office for about a dozen years.  One of my duties was to make a record of people late and have them sign a form recognizing they were late.

On Uncle John's Bathroom Calendar for the 13th of this month had a list of actual excuses people told for being late.  One of them was, "My husband thinks it's funny to hide my keys before he goes for work."

That reminded me of Mrs. Nalls.  She was late fairly often and each time on her slip she had to sign the reason she was late was some antic her husband pulled on her.  The excuse that stands out in my mind is one time, just as she got ready for work her husband slipped up and poured a bucket of water on her.

It was not my job to judge workers with attendance problems.  I just recorded them.  But to myself I thought her husband was getting a lot of blame she wa making up.

That was before one day her supervisor noticed a stranger working in his area and didn't know what he was doing.  He was rolling hampers of mail backward and forward and placing the tubs someplace else which caused a mass confustion.  After the supervisor questioned the stranger he learned that it was Mr. Nalls, who didn't work at the post office.

After that I beleived her excuses.  However, after months of tardiness problems they let her go.  Sad.