Before He Picks Up Mail, Atlanta Postman Picks Up His Guitar
If you’re ever around the Pryor Street post office in downtown Atlanta around the hours of 3 and 4 a.m., you’ll discover an unusual sight: a postman in the middle of a dark parking lot strumming along to smooth jazz on an electric guitar.
Meet Leroy Glover, a postman for Atlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood. Each morning he wakes up extra early so that he can practice guitar before his 5:30 a.m. shift.
Glover has been a musician since he was a kid growing up in Manhattan. Back in the 80s, he says he joined a number of bands, including the all-woman funk group E.S.G. – with whom he still plays occasional shows today.
These days, though, he doesn’t have much time to organize a band of his own. So playing along with a playlist, he says, is the next best thing.
Since he started his early morning routine back in 2013, he’s become something of a celebrity among the pre-dawn downtown crowd. Police officers in the area know him and drivers at the Pryor Street stoplight regularly honk and wave to him.
Glover admits that some people might think his morning ritual is a little strange. But he says it actually puts him in an energized mindset that keeps him going as he delivers mail throughout the rest of the day.
“It’s something that I guess I’m going to be doing forever now,” he says.
A 30-second version of this audio story.
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