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Lifelong Horsham resident Denny Matlack spent most of his work delivering mail and getting to know the community.

During his nearly 40-year career as a mail carrier, Denny Matlack has seen people come and go.

Envelopes bearing forwarding labels. New names on packages. Fresh faces in doorways.

But, Matlack, 60, a lifelong Horsham resident, has remained. He and his high school sweetheart-turned wife of 41 years, Eileen, live in the same house they raised their three children in. The same house that Denny grew up in and the same house his parents paid $12,500 to build after buying the ground for $600 from his grandparents in the late 1940s.

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“I promised my wife we’d only be here six months,” Denny said with a knowing smile.

Now, the cozy residence is home to a whole new generation as the pitter-patter of little feet tap through the house on days when Eileen is caring for Anna Marie Willing, 1, one of the couple's four grandchildren.

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Following his residence in Horsham and his marriage, Denny's career as a United States Postal Office mail carrier had been the next longest constant. Since 1986, Denny had traveled the same route delivering mail to the same 285 to 325 residential and business customers. For a man who dressed as Santa Claus every Christmas Eve to deliver mail, it wasn’t just about getting the job done. 

“You see people,” he said. “You build a camaraderie.”

Now, a few weeks after retiring from the post office, Matlack said he misses seeing and interacting with people on his route. Denny recalls the Horsham folks that he has shared in the excitement of pregnancies, new babies and kids growing up. He laughs while remembering the surprised looks he used to get when greeting his mail route customers at the grocery store.

But, much like his time living in the couple’s current residence, Denny said he didn’t think his mail carrier job would become a career. In fact, upon returning from a four-year stint in the Air Force, Denny went to the Horsham police department in search of work. 

“I really wanted to be a police officer,” he said.

But, he lost the application and asked Eileen to call and get him another.

“He said, ‘if he really wanted the job, he would have filled out the form and not lost it,’ ” Eileen recalled of her conversation with the police. “We did end up finding the form, but he had already started at the post office.”

Accepting a salary of $3.25 an hour in 1973, Denny traded his short-lived post at Slaughter Motors in Lansdale for a job delivering mail in Elkins Park. After six months, Denny said he got a 25-cent per hour raise.

“I was ecstatic,” he said.

Denny remained on that route until 1979. From there, he worked in Willow Grove for a year and then Southampton for 2 ½ weeks before picking up routes in Horsham in 1981. 

“I loved the job most of the time,” he said. “I looked forward to going to work.”

With his postal work behind him, Denny said he’s looking forward to his other passions: spending time with family, riding his motorcycle and enjoying the 1963 Corvette that he spent $40,000 restoring over an 18-month time period.

“He has lots of toys,” Eileen said. “Now he has more time to play with them.”

An auto mechanic in the Air Force, Denny said he’s spent time – and money – restoring quite a few Corvettes and is a member of the Willow Grove-based Corvette Club of Delaware Valley.

But, like his mail route, everything, including car restoration, comes to an end sooner or later.

“I was also informed that that’s the last one,” Denny said of the countless hours he has spent hunkered over cars and Eileen’s willingness to support him, even when it’s cut into their time. “She put up with a lot.”

For a man who’s stuck close to home most of his life, Denny said he’s looking forward to spontaneous trips to the shore or Williamsburg this fall.

“I don’t have to worry about taking time from the post office,” he said. “I just go.”

 


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