Maggie Poston is lastly able to retire — at age 90.
Since 1978, the widowed mother-of-two has been a crossing guard at PS 282 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, at sixth Avenue and Lincoln Place —- which locals usually seek advice from as “Miss Maggie’s nook.”
“She’s all the time on her publish, by no means sitting,” Poston’s supervisor, Faculty Crossing Coordinator Ida Ripo-Ramos, advised The Put up.
Poston was 44 when she first began the job. Jimmy Carter was president, Ed Koch was mayor, the Bee Gees had been on the prime of the charts and “Grease” had simply hit theaters.
She had been working a retail job at Montgomery Ward, however the division retailer closed the situation she was at.
A good friend advised her concerning the open crossing guard place, and she or he jumped on the probability.
“I used to be on the lookout for a job,” she recalled. “I really like children.”
Each morning at 9:30 a.m. after which once more at midday, the petite fixture is stationed at her nook.
On a spring day, a lady pushed a stroller previous Poston, then turned again to declare, “She’s superior!”
The crossing guard acknowledged the praise humbly, saying with a smile “All people is aware of me.”
Within the winter, she typically stands on the college’s aspect of the road. In the summertime, she crosses over to benefit from the shade of the bushes on the opposite aspect.
Poston doesn’t thoughts snow a lot, however on “wet days, it’s horrible,” she stated.
In over 45 years on the job, she’s rarely taken a time off.
“She’s received, like, I don’t even know, possibly 1,000 hours sick depart piled up. She don’t take it,” stated Ripo-Ramos, who’s identified her for 18 years. “She amazes me.”
In between shifts, she walks almost a mile again to her lease managed fourth-floor walkup in Prospect Heights, the place she bides the time in varied methods however by no means naps in between shift — lest she be late getting again to work.
On the weekends, she goes to church and spends time together with her two youngsters and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In additional than 4 many years guarding the identical intersection, she’s seen little change.
“It’s good, quiet. All people minds their very own enterprise,” she stated.
She conceded that there’s “extra visitors now,” however stated everybody nonetheless “obeys” her.
“I’ve no drawback,” she stated of the rising variety of vehicles and drivers. “I inform them cease, they cease. I inform them go, they go.”
When Poston turned 90 in January, colleagues had been stunned.
“I believed she was 83,” stated Ripo-Ramos.
Later this month, on the finish of the college yr, she’ll hold up her yellow-reflector vest. In retirement, she’s hoping to see extra of the world and make a journey to Jamaica
“I’ve been working all my life. All my life,” she stated. “It’s time to journey.”
Supply hyperlink
