The Mail Carrier Through Powelton Village

My grandfather on my mother's side, her father, was a mail carrier through West Philadelphia's Powelton Village for years. Walking through the neighborhood, he delivered mail and met many along the way. Those in the community he delivered mail to were those who made national and international headlines. One person he delivered mail to was Ira Einhorn, known as the unicorn killer who murdered his girlfriend Holly Maddux. From what I was told, he saw Maddux often and him sometimes. He found Maddux to be kind and him to be strange. It must of shocked him to hear of her death.

Another group, he delivered mail to was the radical group MOVE. They were about living a lifestyle of back to nature wearing dreadlocks and containing a diet of raw foods promoting radical messages. In the house, they would raise children to not wear clothes and eat food from trash cans. It would concern my grandfather over them playing outdoors nude during cold weather seasons. On his mail route, he questioned one of the MOVE members about it and their response was that they adapted well to playing outdoors to different weather seasons not wearing clothes. He made an effort to not judge and proceeded to deliver mail as he did. The piece reflects the worker he was supporting his wife and nine children. He worked two jobs and saw all his children were put through catholic school. My grandfather's everyday presence in the community lead a University of Pennsylvania student to take his photograph. That photo stood framed on his mantel for years in the home, himself and my grandmother shared not in the best health. Later, my aunt made copies of the photo giving them out as Christmas gifts. He was a man who seen many things from bodies during the world war in Nazi Germany concentration camps at 19 years old to having to sit through a federal trial explaining to lawyers about how his superiors at the US postal service ordered him not to deliver welfare checks to the radical group MOVE on his route due to the city wanting to force them out of their home over violations by preventing them access to public assistance. The group made headlines over confrontations with the city over their radical message. Eventually, the city had a stand off with the group in 1978 and 8 members were arrested over the death of a police officer. The group moved to the Cobbs Creek section in West Philadelphia a few minutes from where my grandfather and grandmother lived. Unfortunately, they continued to have confrontations with the city and residents on the block over numerous violations. On May 13, 1985, the city made the decision to drop a bomb on the MOVE house killing 11 people that consisted of five children as a way to get them as they tried doing years earlier out their home. The mail carrier in the piece represents a person who values hard work. My grandfather honored it. He is featured in an old archival clip within a documentary aired on HBO tilted 40 years A Prisoner telling the story of the 1978 shoot out with the MOVE organization and police. It was the first time, I saw him like that and it appeared strange to me watching him walk in his uniform delivering mail within the neighborhood. I was use to seeing him struggle to walk and breath hard due to obesity, then later hooked to oxygen. He shown himself to be the person who was about work and passed the ethic on.

Mail Carrier Through Powelton Village. Collage and Mixed Media. 2021