What’s next for Modesto letter carrier who’s delivered the mail — and more — for 56 years?

In his more than half century of delivering the mail in Modesto, Dave Costa always has had a joke at the ready. Some are corny but they’re sure to get a laugh from a customer or ease a co-worker’s stress during a hectic day.

Here’s one: A letter carrier walks up to a porch and then stomps on a snail. The bewildered homeowner asks the carrier why he did that. “Cause that damn thing has been following me all day.”

“I can tell you a joke from sunrise to sunset and not say the same one,” Costa, 76, said. “Everything reminds me of a joke.”

While the jokes aren’t ending, Costa’s days of telling them to his customers on route 50 in central Modesto are. He is retiring Jan. 3 after delivering the mail for more than 56 years.

“My mind says, ‘Do it (keep working),’” Costa said. “But my back says, ‘Don’t.’”

He’ll miss his co-workers and customers, he said. Over the decades, Costa has watched customers’ children grow up and have their own children. His customers are family to him, he said.

“It’s a real privilege to be part of people’s lives, and Dave has been part of so many people’s lives,” said Terri Bertolosso Parker, who has worked at the Kearney Avenue Post Office for 23 years. She turns 60 on New Year’s Eve and has known Costa since at least junior high because her dad was a letter carrier in Modesto.

Costa’s longevity is unusual for the postal service.

Modesto Postmaster LaTanya Degraffenreed said her office in 2021 asked the USPS historian how many employees had been on the job for at least 50 years. Degraffenreed said the historian’s answer was about 400 out of 600,000 employees, or less than one 10th of 1%.

“It’s pretty rare,” she said, “especially since most employees can retire after 30 years of service.”

Delivered mail on a bicycle

Degraffenreed said Costa takes pride in his work but is funny and down to earth. And she said he’s adapted as the postal service has evolved over the last half century. “He’s seen so much transition ... and when you talk with him, he’s not missed a bit,” she said. “He’s delivered mail on bicycles. He’s seen it all.”

Costa said he started with the postal service in October 1967 at the Ceres post office and delivered the mail on a brown bicycle without gears and a huge basket for the mail. He stopped at collection boxes along his route to refill his basket.

Costa transferred to Modesto’s Kearney Avenue post office in December 1967 and has been there ever since.

He said he had three different walking routes until 1992 when he severely hurt his back trying to lift a big tub filled with magazines. He had physical therapy for four months and was assigned a driving route — route 50 in central Modesto, which he’s had for 32 years.

The route includes the McHenry Village shopping center. On foot and using a push cart, he delivers the mail, jokes and cheer to about 40 businesses in the shopping center’s interior.

He uses his truck to deliver the mail to the businesses on the shopping center’s exterior and the other addresses on his route. While he knows these customers, too, he does not see them as often as the ones at the 40 businesses.

“He is the nicest person we know,” said Anabella Badalian, who owns Bianca’s Bridal Couture in the village and has known Costa for the 32 years he’s been delivering mail there. “He’s friendly, funny. ... He always lifts us up. He comes in and says a joke and makes us happy. I’m really sad that he is leaving.”

His McHenry Village customers are recognizing his retirement. The staff at Great Clips on Wednesday gave him a gift basket that included two joke books: ”Exceptionally Bad Dad Jokes” and “Seriously Sick Jokes.”

Costa has a knack for knowing what type of joke to tell. Some are corny, others are not. “He knows when he can push it ... and we enjoy it,” said Lauren Morris, producing branch manager at Directions Home Loan. “He knows his audience.”

Morris told Costa on Wednesday that he has to stop by her business on his last day because she and the other village businesses have a surprise for him. “I think it’s pretty amazing that after 56 years he still has a positive outlook and always come in here with a smile and a joke,” she said.

Costa said he can start his day feeling a little down when his back is acting up (he sees a chiropractor on a regular basis) but once he sees his co-workers and customers he said his day brightens.

Costa said he graduated from Modesto’s Davis High in 1966 and got a job delivering furniture from the McMahon’s Furniture Store on 10th Street. The father of the woman who’d become his first wife suggested Costa take the test to join the postal service. It was better pay and benefits and offered a solid middle-class life. His future father-in-law was a clerk at the Kearney Avenue post office.

He met his second and current wife on the job (she was a postal clerk) and they have been married 32 years. But Denise Costa went on disability in 1997 after getting hurt on the job.

Bitten five times by dogs

Costa has five children, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. And no, none work for the postal service. He said he encouraged his kids to pursue their own interests.

The job comes with its hazards, said Costa, who’s been bitten five times by dogs — mostly little ones. “They get you before you know it,” he said.

Letter carriers also have to be careful about slips, trips and falls. Costa said his worst was when he slipped, causing him to bang his hand on a car and dislocate a finger.

Costa said he’s never had a traffic accident on the job, for which he received an award from the postal service. That’s quite a feat given Modesto’s notorious traffic, which includes drivers who don’t bother to stop at red lights or stop signs.

“The traffic in this town is just nuts,” he said. “No one stops.”

And as much as Costa will miss his customers — “The route is my family besides my wife and kids. I talk to them every day” — he won’t miss the wear and tear on his body.

He said letter carriers with walking routes carry bags weighing as much as 35 pounds and walk 15 to 16 miles a day. The job can take its toll on the back, hips, knees, feet and shoulders.

Costa’s co-workers held a potluck for him Friday and there will be a party noon to 3 p.m. Jan. 7 at Diamond Billiards. Costa’s youngest son owns the business. The party is open to anyone who wants to say goodbye to Costa.

He won’t become a couch potato in retirement, Costa said. He plans to rejoin the gym (he had stopped going a couple years ago after going three times a week for a quarter century), do more bass fishing, tackle some projects for his home and yard and help his wife.

And he’s not going to forget his customers. “I’ll come by once a week and say high to the people at the village,” Costa said. “I won’t be a stranger.”