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Rural mail carrier Teddy Pouncey spent 40 years delivering letters and packages to homes along dusty, damaged dirt roads in Dallas County. / ALVIN BENN/SPECIAL TO THE ADVERTISERSARDIS -- From a distance, he couldn't quite make out what it was, but it wasn't moving as his pickup rumbled down the middle of a pockmarked dirt road in Dallas County. The minute his front wheels hit it, Teddy Pouncey knew it was more than a black plastic garbage bag or a discarded piece of furniture. The last he saw of the alligator it was slowly crawling back toward the woods, trying to get away from a four-wheeled aggressor with a bite of its own. "I'm not sure if I killed it or not, but I hit it pretty hard," Pouncey said. "There wasn't a lot of water around, so I don't know how it wound up here and in the road." Relaxing Monday morning in the Sardis Post Office, 10 miles south of Selma, he talked about what it was like to travel over the same roads more than 12,000 times -- never knowing what conditions or critters he might find. To continue reading, click here. |
