Roanoke, VA - He may not look that old, but Tommy Muse has achieved something that very few people in the US Postal Service achieves and that's recording 50 years of service.
One district manager said he has only seen it three times in his career.
"In our society dedication... faithfulness... to see it over that extended period of time is truly amazing," said Shayne Hensley of the U.S. Postal Service.
"The part I like about it... if the machine breaks trouble shooting it (and) figuring out what went wrong and fixing it. That's the challenge. That's the best part of it," said Muse.
Muse started at the Vinton post office in 1962 when first class stamps were just 4 cents.
By 1974, Muse was tapped as an electronic technician for Roanoke's new processing facility and has been there ever since.
"It did go quick, I guess. Didn't seem like it sometimes but it did go pretty quick," said Muse.
On Wednesday, all of those years of service were recognized by family and friends at the Roanoke processing center where the soft spoken Muse humbly accepted the attention.
"I was senior man for a while, I reckon. A lot of people have come and gone since then," said Muse.
Before heading back to work making sure everything was good to go for the next processing shift, a routine that won't last much longer.
"She's been looking forward to that for a long time now. I'm going to make her happy by doing that," said Muse as he spoke about his wife of more than 40 years.
Muse says he envisions finishing out the year before hitting the road with his wife to get in some much overdue traveling.
First he plans on completing, what he calls, his 50th "Holiday Panic" that will start picking up steam over the next month or so.
