PANAMA CITY — For decades, Sammy Scott brought a smile to fellow Bay County employees as he delivered inter-office mail. Always upbeat with an entertaining story to tell, he loved to water the plants in county buildings.
County employees on Friday returned the favor, bringing a smile to Scott’s face by surprising him with a 2006 Dodge Dakota truck in a retirement party.
Scott, who started working for Bay County in 1976, walked to work several miles each day as he let his wife use the family car. County staff donated $3,000 toward the truck, and County Commissioner George Gainer, who owns a car dealership, matched the amount.
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The commission recently passed a resolution declaring all future inter-office mail as “Sammy Mail.”
“I’m going to miss you all,” he said to the crowd of clapping employees outside of the Government Center, where the truck was parked with a large red ribbon in the front. People on the third floor of the building waved down to him behind the glass.
Gainer said Scott was always a very dependable employee.
“He had a nice smile and a kind word for everybody,” he said. “I never heard him complain about anything. He is one of those guys that you go through your life that is going to be missed.”
Commissioner Bill Dozier said Scott did a great job.
“He was always pleasant,” Dozier said. “He’s going to joke with you about something. He’ll tell you a story about something. It’s always been ‘Sammy Mail’ to everybody who has worked with him. But now that Sammy is retiring, from here on in, we’ll continue to call it ‘Sammy Mail.’ It will be known forever and ever as ‘Sammy Mail.’ ”
Scott was hired by the county in 1976 as a laborer, doing work such as cleaning ditches. He also did custodial work. He said he started the inter-office mail delivery using a county vehicle about 15 years ago.
Scott quipped he enjoyed “the flirting with the ladies” as he delivered mail.
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“You get a smile, you know. They can stay mad at somebody else,” Scott said. “You can feel when somebody isn’t feeling good. I’m also like a computer inside I’ve been around so long.”
He said it’s going to be tough getting used to not having to walk to work several miles each day. His first official day no longer being employed by the county is Monday.
“They’ve already got a $100 bet on me that I’ll be getting up” and walking to work, Scott said.
Getting up early and walking to work had become such an automatic habit that there were several holidays when he walked to work only to find out it was his day off, he said.
Scott said over the years he would take a cab to work when there was a stormy day, but there was more than once where he caught in pop-up thunder showers.
“One day the lightning caught me off guard and I ran home the rest of the way,” he said.
Scott also works a part-time job in custodial work at the Panama City Mall, where he has worked since 1989. He said he also is retiring from that job. Scott, a native of Panama City, said his first job was busing tables on the Beach.
In his retirement, he plans to do a lot of fishing.
“That’s my other hobby,” he said.
Scott’s wife, Emma, said she expects her husband will be taking care of plants at their home. “He’ll rest a little bit and then get out in the yard and play with plants,” she said.
Sherri Hardy, who works in administration for the county, said Scott had a nickname for all of the employees. “He knows what we drive,” she said. “He just knows everything about everybody. He called me, ‘hippy chick,’ and ‘flower child.’ Sammy always cheers everybody up.”
Scott always had a story to tell, county employee Vonda Hester said.
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“He’s our local horticulturist,” she said. “He used to water all the plants.”
Hester said she doesn’t know who is going to do that job any more.
“There are going to be a lot of dead plants around here,” she said.