Neither rain nor sleet nor going into labor with her son kept Sharon Stettler from her job at the United States Post Office.

“My water broke while I was behind the counter in Whitehall,” she says with a laugh.Stettler has worked for the Walnutport Post Office for 24 years, but her service in the postal system dates back to 1980 when she began as a carrier in the Catasauqua station. Today she is retiring.“I was 21 when I started. I had to take a civil service test with a lot of memorization and common knowledge questions,” she said.Stettler applied for the job after taking a few classes at Kutztown University for arts education. Her mother gave her a nudge toward the delivery career.“She heard they were hiring so I took the test. I was working at the mall in Wanamaker’s when I got called in two years later,” she said.When she was interviewed for the position Stettler says there was an initiative to hire more women. Stettler said the mail business then was mainly a man’s job.“They were pushing to hire women at the time. The guy who interviewed me said, ‘you know you have to be able to lift 75 pounds,’ and tried to talk me out of it, but I was determined. There weren’t that many women carriers in 1980.”The civil service career has seen changes in machinery, but the daily operations and uniforms remain mostly untouched by modern influence.“When I started we drove Jeeps and there wasn’t much technology, and every piece of mail was sorted by hand.”It was while driving the company vehicle during a severe winter that Stettler decided she needed a change within the government organization.“It was a bad winter, and it kind of got me thinking that I wanted an inside job. I was working seven days a week sometimes since we would have to collect the mail from the mailboxes on Sunday,” she said.Along with downpours and sleet, Stettler recalls being chased by dogs on her route.“The one house had these two Dobermans. They wouldn’t chase you but they would stare you down,” she said.Stettler moved to the Whitehall location, where she worked for 10 years as a carrier and behind the counter. It was in that location where she met her husband, David.“He was a mail carrier in Whitehall, too, but worked in a different office,” she said.The couple have been married 30 years.After their nuptials, they began the search for their first home. That’s when they found the borough of Walnutport.“We liked this area. We live on the outskirts now. It’s a nice community,” she said.Civil service careers allow for retirement after 30 years, but Stettler continued on for an extra six years.“I could have retired at 55 but I just didn’t feel ready. Now I do,” she said.“It’s a good job. I truly do feel blessed. It was a tough job, but I am able to retire at this age and have good health care.”Stettler said she has witnessed the Post Office slow down, but she isn’t worried about the future for the employees.“It’s a little scary because the mail has diminished over the years, but Christmastime is very busy. We’re stretched pretty thin then.“There’s a lot of mail around the holidays and tax time is busy at the counter,” she said.After her last official punch-out today, the couple plan to begin traveling.“We have plans to go to the Canadian Rockies to Glacier National Park. It’s a bucket list trip, I’ve been wanting to take a trip there for a long time,” she said.Stettler has had a packed work schedule for so long she is unsure what she will do with her extra time.“I never had time to develop hobbies because of working so much. But now I’m going to have to find out what I like.”Though she is ready to enjoy her upcoming leisure time, she will miss her co-workers and regular customers.“It’s nice to have that daily interaction with people,” she said. “But I’m looking forward to not having to get up at 5 a.m.”