As evidenced by the bulging FedEx trucks, Valentine’s Day was about as robust as in previous years. This despite a recession so crippling and wide-sweeping that the marketplace threatens to collapse upon itself. At the FedEx station in Forest Park, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, boxes full of love – including flowers, assorted candy and other gifts – still piled high in front of FedEx trucks even as the number of unemployed, home foreclosures and corporate shutdowns continues to pile to unprecedented levels.
Dennis Slocum, a nine-year FedEx home delivery driver, delivered Valentine’s Day gifts with love and care as recipients eagerly await their package from loved ones. Slocum says expressions of love have not yet been affected by the times. “Not as of yet. Not on my route. It’s falling a little on my route. It is some difference. But it’s not a whole lot of difference right now. Right now everything seems the same. I don’t see a real big change yet. I feel it’s coming, but I don’t see it yet.”
Slocum says Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest times of the year to deliver, behind Mother’s Day and of course the Christmas holiday season. “During the holiday season, I have to run four trucks during the holiday season. Most of the peak season, you have to have other trucks. You get you a driver and rent a truck, train the driver and he delivers in a certain section.”
Despite being mired in an economically depressed condition, the packed FedEx trucks showed that the nation is still exemplifying prosperity of love. – terry shropshire
