CBD & Poetry
CBD & Poetry
Larry Mayfield: The Mailman Cometh, Season of Sheltering in Place
Retired mailman Larry Mayfield shares how walking his 14-mi postal route for 26 years contributed to foot pain.
Resources
Teresa Y. Roberson is a writer, visual artist, producer and Zilis Independent Ambassador (#7161976). Zilis does not endorse the CBD & Poetry podcast nor any material presented as a result. Statements made in CBD & Poetry podcast have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Non-prescription CBD is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or medical conditions. The CBD & Poetry discussion is not intended as medical advice and should not substitute advice from a healthcare professional.
Music
- Intro Music: "Green Magic" Cabrini Green, Green Magic Album.
- Outro Music: "Bumpin That Real Shit"Cabrini Green, This Is Ghettostep Album
- cabrinigreenenterprises.com
The Mailman Cometh
Curiosity doesn’t always kill the cat
It’s usually where the adventure begins
One step at a time
14 miles a day
For several years in a row
So, batter’s up!
Knock it out of the ballpark
Anything can be a playing field
When you’re a child
Especially playing with kid rules
Just don’t get distracted by the blackberries
The barefooted boy playing outside every summer
Grew into the man paid to be outside all year long
Teresa Roberson
Tell me what led you to first try CBD?
Larry
Hmm. Well, actually because I know you and I know your interest and it further my initial times that I've seen it around here and there so it seemed like a good opportunity.
Teresa Roberson
So, you just tried it because you know me?
Larry
Well, um, because you were talking about it and because I'm noticing these stores here and there where we sell CBD CBD oil.
Teresa Roberson
Uh huh.
Larry
I see it at the flea markets and people are talking about it. And a lot of people are curious about it, and I was curious about it.
Teresa Roberson
Mm hmm. Okay. And what did you think it would do for you?
Larry
Well, that's where the curiosity, the best thing to do is to just try it rather than just be curious. I don't know. I think it's been hailed as a little bit of a miracle for pain, aches and pains and I have aches and pains.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. And usually when people had aches and pains, that means they led an interesting life. What were you doing to get those aches and pains?
Larry
Um, let's see about the time I started this, which you know, this part is a refresher to pain, an old ankle injury. And so that was then while I was mowing the yard, fractured ankle. The first time was just walking in, fractured the same ankle. So that's that's one of the aches and pains.
Teresa Roberson
Wait, you fracture, you fractured your ankle just by walking?
Larry
Well stepping off the porch.
Teresa Roberson
Okay.
Larry
Because I was a mailman at one point.
Teresa Roberson
How long were you a mailman?
Larry
Huh 26 years.
Teresa Roberson
I thought they called them “letter carriers” or “mail carriers.” Now is that the PC way of saying it?
Larry
Postman mailman, letter carrier. To all the kids in the neighborhood, Mr. Mailman.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Okay. Did you do a lot walking I mean, most letter carriers they just have to drive up to a mailbox put. Well, I guess if the mailbox is on the street.
Larry
That's, that's to the point things have progressed at this point, but when I first started, I had an all-walking route. It was 100% walking with no vehicle, and I walked about 14 miles a day for 15 years.
Teresa Roberson
Wow. Now, was this in the city or outside the city? Suburbs?
Larry
Yeah.
Teresa Roberson
Trying to get a picture here.
Larry
Yes, a city carrier. So, I would walk out of the post office, walk to a relay box, replenish my mail bag, and do that all day long, and then wind back around to the post office. And it was a wonderful way to be outdoors, which I'm an outdoor person. And so, this was a really good job for me.
Teresa Roberson
And the old slogan through rain, sleet or snow, you would
Larry
Yeah, I think that originally came from Herodotus. It's uh, I don't, I can't quote it offhand. But if you look up Herodotus, that's where the original quote came from.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, I didn't know that.
Larry
Yeah, it's time where you by the time you get to the end of the quote, you'll realize oh, yeah, that's the postal quote, you know,
Teresa Roberson
I didn't realize that. I thought some PR person made that up.
Larry
Now, this is ancient history. That's where that quote came from.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Hmm. Well, thanks, I learned something. I'm learning something unexpectedly new. Uh huh.
Larry
So, but the thing about aches and pains, if you walk 14 miles a day, five or six days a week for that, that long time period, my ankles and feet would be so tired that they would feel like lead. You know, lying in bed, they would feel like lead. They felt that heavy and back to the CBD oil. Those are the type of aches that I was coping with, you know, they there would be some benefits.
Teresa Roberson
Mm hmm. What were other remedies that you tried before trying CBD?
Larry
Hmm, gosh, I don't know if I've tried any more remedies. I can't think of any offhand.
Teresa Roberson
But you’re, you’re, I don't even know what to say now, a postman for over 20 years, surely you did something. Was it just stay off your feet or prop your legs up?
Larry
The normal process was in the waking hours to stretch my feet for usually about 30 minutes before I could put any weight on them.
Teresa Roberson
Wow, that's after you came home?
Larry
Yeah, they were there. You know, the next day I would have to stretch my feet. If you've ever seen a dog get up from its nap, it will stretch. Well I had to do my feet that way and then I could put, you know, then I was okay for the day but yes, stretching is, stretching is beneficial for, for, you know those joints.
Teresa Roberson
Now, did you ever use any type of or like yoga techniques or something?
Larry
That was always on my wish I would do yoga because I think it also would be beneficial from those aches and pains that you say where you get your aches and pains, several different areas not just walking, but yeah, I think yoga would be a benefit at this point too.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Now what else do you do? I mean, certainly, it wasn't all working no play.
Larry
Well on the play part for about 10 years, I coached youth baseball. And if you, you know they do pitch counts now in pro games and it's funny because they're counting, "Okay, he's pitched at 80-90 pitches. He's, they need to take him out." Well, my shoulder aches, because I've coached the kids until I was the smallest one on the team.
Teresa Roberson
Okay.
Larry
And I was the pitcher for batting practice. And every kid would get a bucket of balls for them every practice, which was 40 to 50 balls, times 12 players times two practices per per week. Plus, on game day, we did batting practice, too. So that's hundreds and hundreds of balls thrown per week. And the last time I threw a baseball, something in my shoulder popped, and that was the end of it. I was, you know, I was able to throw good enough batting practice for an adult to swing at fast balls.
Teresa Roberson
Mm hmm. So when you were growing up, you played baseball and then as an adult, you were a coach?
Larry
Right. My, my dad was a played semi-pro baseball in his youth and so he was, you know, he was very athletic. And he taught me to play baseball and I didn't quite have the body to go along with it, but I had I had
Teresa Roberson
What do you mean by that?
Larry
Well, my talents were such that I could hit anything thrown at me, but I just was not much of a runner. And so, I lacked in that area.
Teresa Roberson
Now, I'm not very athletic myself. However, I thought if you had a good arm, it didn't matter with anything else if you could be the pitcher. Is that true?
Larry
I think they call it five points of baseball: hit, run, hit for power, field and throw.
Teresa Roberson
Mm hmm.
Larry
Those are the five checkboxes for baseball.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, okay.
Larry
And I coached a lot of kids. And it was a rarity that any kid had checks and in all 5 boxes. Four maybe?
Teresa Roberson
So, four out of five is pretty good?
Larry
Oh yeah. You can get by with four out of five. You can get up to the minor leagues on four out of five.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, wow. And how many boxes would you, if you did a self-assessment, would you say you checked off?
Larry
On who?
Teresa Roberson
On yourself!
Larry
Oh myself.
Teresa Roberson
Yeah.
Larry
One, one.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, come on!
Larry
I had the highest batting average on the team. I could hit, but the rest of it was not a checkbox.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, wow. Okay, that's, that's really good eye-hand coordination.
Larry
Coordination helps. Yeah, yeah, that's not a checkbox. But coordination is. People, some people come across coordination naturally and flow when they move and it's you know, like you've heard runs like a deer. Those are, yeah, those those athletes are wonderful to watch whatever sport it is.
Teresa Roberson
Now was soccer popular when you were a child?
Larry
No, I've never even heard of it except for what they reported in Sports Illustrated.
Teresa Roberson
Uh huh.
Larry
When I was growing up, the neighborhood kids, one of them, they subscribed to Sports Illustrated. So, whatever the sport, we followed it. We were all avid sports fans. And yet, out of the four or five of us that were grew up together, none of us made it very far in the actual athlete part, but we love sports. Our our heart was in it.
Teresa Roberson
Right, right. I can imagine though being young and full of energy, didn't really matter how good you were you were just out moving.
Larry
Yeah. Have we had a we had a baseball field with the backstop. Back then last last last year's license plates became the bases.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, okay. What they change license plates every year?
Larry
Yeah, they were. Well in Texas, for example, 1966 were black with white letters. 1965 was white with black letters. They would alternate on. And they became the bases. And so we had a wonderful baseball field. And we also created a golf course around the biggest house in the neighborhood and chipped balls for you know, a par two or three for and play golf.
Teresa Roberson
Which part of Texas?
Larry
Central Texas. Hmm. Not not a city, just a small town, just Central Texas.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Okay. I'm just amazed because nowadays kids feel like they have to go to an already built place to play a sport and it sounds like you guys made your own playing fields.
Larry
We did. And back then because there were usually be four of us playing. Most of the time, a tree became an extra fielder. So, if the ball got caught up in the in delayed in the tree and you could still catch it that was legal. We had kids' rules. A bush if you could if the bush caught it and you caught it before it hit the ground, that's an out. So, the bush was a fielder.
Teresa Roberson
You guys have specialized rules, depending on where you were playing.
Larry
We had specialized rules. We had ghost runners. Do you know what that is?
Teresa Roberson
Not at all.
Larry
A ghost runner is when you only have four players and one player is on base and the second player gets on base also. You have to have someone bat. So they would say an imaginary person, on one of the bases that ran as fast. Oh,
Teresa Roberson
Well, that ran as fast? What?
Larry
Yeah, the the ghost player, the ghost runner was an imaginary player. When you went into bat that that imaginary runner ran as fast as the batter. So if you were not quite to first base and they tagged for force out at a different base, that was an out because the ghost runner ran as fast as the batter.
Teresa Roberson
So, you and the ghost runner would both be out?
Larry
No, but we both ran the same speed. So if the ghost runner was on first base
Teresa Roberson
Uh huh.
Larry
When you went to bat when you hit the ball, if the fielder touch second base before you got to first base that was an out.
Teresa Roberson
For the ghost runner?
Larry
Yeah, for the ghost runner.
Teresa Roberson
Wow, y'all really had to pay attention then.
Larry
Yeah. And we had, we had automatic outs, crazy rules, kids' rules where, if you hit a ball foul ball over the fence where it took a long time to jump that fence and go get the ball, we decided that was an automatic out to try to keep players the more attune to try not to hit it over in that area. Of course, when you went over in that area, there were some there were blackberries and pears that we could get easily distracted from our game and take a break.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, but I thought in baseball, if you hit it so far, that was a home run.
Larry
Right.
Teresa Roberson
So ya'll were discouraging home runs?
Larry
Well, no a home run in this wonderful field we had, in left field, it was kind of like the green monster in Boston. It was a gray house and if you hit it over but it was it was very close. So, if you hit it over the two storey, Victorian-style gray house, that was a home run and it took a mighty blast to go over that short, tall wall and to right field it was a long fence. So, it was a different type of challenge in centerfield was guarded by trees that that that hung down low and it took a very strong line drive for a centerfield homerun. It was a, it was a uniquely designed baseball field and I've been talking with one of the other players, kids now you know of course, we're much older and we'll have decided to write up a story about that at some point. It is such a fond memory.
Teresa Roberson
It sounds like it. So you spent most of your childhood outside it sounds like.
Larry
Summertime. We spent lots of time outdoors barefooted, running down to the store barefooted, any kind of outdoor game, what was what was going on. And you know, at dusk, we would hear our names called from the moms across the way, you know, calling us in for supper time.
Teresa Roberson
Mm hmm. So it's no a surprise that you grew up wanting to have a career that helped you stay outside.
Larry
I have no idea what it would be. I just knew I loved to be outdoors. And then it came came this unique opportunity. I was thinking, "Oh, this guy gets to walk outside." Of course, it's not as good as it seems whenever you're walking in, whether it's a downpour or extremely hot, or you know once in a while in this area, the cold. So there were
Teresa Roberson
When did you make that connection though? How old were you? Do you remember the day when you thought hey, I could do this and they'll pay me to be outside.
Larry
Yeah, I was in my 20s and for me being naturally lazy to be able to get paid for walking seemed like
Teresa Roberson
But those two things don't go together, being naturally lazy and you're gonna walk. That's active.
Larry
Yeah, but they they paid good enough it was that gave me plenty of reason to, to get up every morning and walk as long as I could. That's what it is.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, what were you doing before you became a mailman?
Larry
Before that I was a plumber for a few years.
Teresa Roberson
Hmm.
Larry
And so that also involved being outside. So I did that for a few years but that was
Teresa Roberson
Really as soon as you said "plumbing," my mind went to like a dark, dank place inside a house and it to me, it seemed the exact opposite of being outside.
Larry
I was a new construction plumber so there were three phases. There was the the rough-in phase, which you you're out in the weather putting in the pipe underneath the house. There's the second stage is running the pipes up the wall and out the roof where you know they don't have the outside walls on yet so you're you're pretty much outside with the roof sometimes. And then the third phase was inside putting the fixtures in.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, but you were never the plumber when people would panic and say, “We need to call the plumber”?
Larry
Hmm. Only when a stream freezes in the the, that plumber would be on overload and need some help and you know once in a while, but it's a mostly new construction.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Okay.
Larry
And sometimes houses and sometimes commercial.
Teresa Roberson
All right. So I take it from that are you are you still good with your hands and building things or whatever?
Larry
Yeah, one of my, I like home remodel stuff. You know, nothing is too big of a job, to as far as you know, tearing a wall out, putting bracing in, and, you know, relocating the wall or relocating plumbing or adding a wall, adding a room on the back of a house, any of those types of things are it's just something I'm familiar with. So it doesn't faze me to tackle those projects.
Teresa Roberson
So, is that something you also learned working on construction sites when you were doing plumbing or you pick that up
Larry
Well, my dad was also a carpenter. So I was around it. And then becoming a plumber. You know, you just get to actually get a broad scope of what the other construction people are doing the carpenters, the sheet rock people, the electricians,the roofers. There's there's a lot of different people involved. You know, one person doesn't normally build a house. So you become aware of when do I need to do my part? I don't, I can't put this in until another person does their full part. And so you get a broad scope really of how it all works together.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. So I'm gathering from this that your father was a really big influence because he was a minor league baseball player. He was also a carpenter, but he was never a mailman, right?
Larry
No.
Teresa Roberson
So that was that was something independent of your father?
Larry
Right?
Teresa Roberson
Were you the first one in the family?
Larry
No, I was the last one in the family.
Teresa Roberson
Oh, to be a letter carrier?
Larry
Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, the first one to be a letter carrier.
Teresa Roberson
Yeah.
Larry
Um, I had an uncle that was that worked for the Postal Service service, but that would be the closest.
Teresa Roberson
Okay. Okay.
Larry
In fact, he was my boss for a while and people gave me a hard time because, oh, yeah, your boss is gonna favor you know, not necessarily.
Teresa Roberson
He was just as hard on you as everyone else?
Larry
That's what should be.
Teresa Roberson
I'm not disagreeing. I was just asking. You know. Larry, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me about your CBD journey and your life.
Larry
Well, can I touch base on the CBD one more time?
Teresa Roberson
Sure.
Larry
The time that I tried it
Teresa Roberson
Uh huh.
Larry
I tried a little test portion.
Teresa Roberson
Okay.
Larry
There was a lot of anticipation of this seems to be good for me on these these aches and then ran out. But it left me with the desire to try it again. It was it was it had a favorable effect on me as far as wanting to go ahead and try it again. I just haven't at this point but expected.
Teresa Roberson
Okay, fantastic. You have a great evening.
Larry
Okay. Thank you. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai