The “Ritz Route”
Photo submitted
From left are Dusty Hernandez, Jordan Ritz, Delta Hernandez, Nedra Ritz, Dreama Ritz and Dillon Hernandez beside what Delta calls her “marshmallow,” which has taken her many miles along the “Ritz Route.”
Delta (Ritz) Hernandez will be retiring from her contract route with the United States Post Office at the end of September. This will end an era of over 50-years of what we’re going to call the “Ritz Route.”
Delta’s grandmother, Marie Ritz, began as a substitute driver in the 1960s on the route which, a few years later (ca. 1973), she took over full time. The mail route was a contract route, which meant Marie didn’t work directly for the post office. Helping Marie on the route as substitute drivers were her husband, Walter Ritz; her daughter, Nedra; who went on to take a clerk position at the Rolla Post Office, from which she eventually retired; her son, Stanley Ritz (Delta’s father); and eventually, in 1995, her granddaughter, Delta, making three generations of their family on the route.
Delta took over the route full time in 1997 or 1998, after her grandmother retired. She says she dreaded doing the route at first, but ended up loving it. She’s been at it for over 31-years now, but is ready to let the six-day-per-week job go to spend more time with her children. The job has changed a lot over the years, she explained, with more packages delivered now, taking a toll on the body. At Christmas time, route drivers may come back to the post office up to five times in a day to reload their vehicles with packages.
During Delta’s tenure on the route, she added more family members and another generation to the substitute driver list. Her husband, Dusty Hernandez, son Dillon, and sister-in-law Dreama have also made the rounds of the route.
Delta’s nephew, Jordan Ritz, has recently become a Rural Carrier Associate (RCA) at the Licking Post Office and though he doesn’t have a regular route yet, he is substituting for other carriers and delivering mail on Saturdays. He is not a driver on a contract route, so although the family legacy of postal work will continue, the family connection to the “Ritz Route” will come to an end.
After decades of Ritzes delivering the mail, a new driver will assume the duties on October 1. Delta wishes them all the best with the route, and will leave the Ritz connection to the post office to Jordan.
“She will be greatly missed and will leave some big shoes to fill,” said Licking Post Office Postmaster Melissa Beasley.
