Singing Postman remembers his route fondly

The singing postman
Hennessey remembers his route fondly

For a greater part of four decades, even a stranger could tell the ethnic makeup of a neighborhood along Bayonne’s east side just by listening to James Hennessey sing. He would sing or whistle along his route, often reflecting the neighborhood he was in by singing songs connected to the ethnicity of the people living there.From the late 1940s to the early 1980s, Hennessey traveled along Avenue F and Prospect Avenue delivering people’s mail.He lived up to the old United States Postal Service motto because he never let the weather stop him.“If it was a Polish neighborhood, I sang Polish songs. If it was Irish, I sang Irish,” he recalled during an interview earlier this summer after he was honored for celebrating his 60th year as a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers Union.Sitting in the post office with former colleagues last June, Hennessey recounted many of his adventures, exploits with strange pets, and the one time he got so wet from trying to “walk between the rain drops” that one local cleaner dried his clothing for him.But what he remembers best are the people, still able to associate an address with a name. Many of them were public figures that became councilmen, mayors, or even congressmen. But most of the people he met on his route were ordinary people, and most of them were glad to see him when he came. Many recognized his voice and the songs he sang as he walked those long blocks.
Source-newsreporter