32 MARCH 2022 By Mallory Gleich It started with an email – a “shout out” to Sandra Zanck’s Arcadia neighborhood mail carrier. Sandra shared a poem that Robert Emery had passed along to neighbors on his route over Christmas. She also shared that Robert had a handlebar mustache and used to work as a Tombstone cowboy in Cave Creek. With that, my interest was piqued, and I found myself sitting across from Robert for lunch. I wanted to know all there was to know about this “truly genuine and kind person” that Sandra spoke of. Emery was born in northern California and moved to Arizona in the third grade. He attended Apollo High School and has lived in the Arcadia area for over a decade. Growing up, Emery had a paper route and said he was “one of the last” before the job was turned over to grown-ups tossing papers out of their cars. He worked in retail, construction (helping build Piestewa Peak Parkway, among other local jobs) and eventually found himself at the post office. “Back then, you had to take a civil service test, get a score and register. Now, I guess you fill out an application, do a background test, and you’re in,” Emery said. He started as a clerk and worked up to a supervisor position. “I worked all over the state doing route inspections and stuff like that, worked in Sun City and around Phoenix, then decided I wanted to be a mailman. I should have started with that,” he laughed. Readers, you may be wondering why I mentioned the handlebar mustache. Allow me to explain: In 2017, his former wife’s favorite movie was Tombstone . “Val Kilmer was here, in Tombstone, at the time doing a lookalike contest. So we decided to go down there, and I entered the contest – and I won. I got a photo with Val and got to judge the next two years’ contests,” Emery said. He then became part of the Arizona Gunfighters, a group that reenacts the gunfight at the O.K. Corral at Frontier Town in Cave Creek and Wyatt Earp Days in Tombstone. Emery was hired to play Doc Holliday. “It was so fun, and I learned so much,” he said. Emery was part of the group for two years before hanging up his spurs to focus on other projects – and, of course, maintain friendships with those he meets on his postal route. His favorite part of being a mailman? The people. This is where the poem comes into play. “I started writing my Christmas poems back in 2013,” Emery said. “I was giving them to family and friends and wondered, ‘how can I put this out there more?’ I wanted to share it with people I’d met on my route.” The issue was how to write a poem with a different spin than “the reason for the season.” The inspiration for the first installment? Three neighbors – one whose wife had died, one whose husband had died, and one who had just gotten a divorce. “With this inspiration, I wrote a poem about them,” Emery said. “I put it in their mailboxes with a note that said ‘I hope this doesn’t offend you.’” The almost 300-word poem was called A Slice of Peace from a Pie of Sorrow. It focuses on how God’s love is there to help and lift our spirits even though bad things happen in life. “A couple of weeks after Christmas, I saw the 90-year-old gentleman on my route and stopped to chat. He said thank you for the poem and ‘this was the best present I got,’ and then…he pulled the poem out of his pocket. He still kept it with him, two weeks later,” Emery said. He’s continued to write a poem each year since. According to Emery, being a postman requires three things: exercise, socializing and fantasizing. Enter Drake and Dali. In 2020, Emery found himself with some time off work and decided to create a YouTube channel featuring aliens named Drake and Dali, who explore Earth during the pandemic. “This is my passion project. That the characters explore Earth and can’t understand what’s going on, but try to remain understanding and compassionate,” Emery said. The YouTube channel isn’t his only acting experience – Emery has had parts in nine independent films, with names like The Prototype and The Pleasant Valley War documentary. “I’m more of a storyteller. When my sons were younger, we would make home movies and skits, and it was just fun,” he said. He ended up making two movies where he plays all the characters and is currently working on a new character for Drake and Dali and another film that he said he “might put into a festival.” While Emery is a man who wears many hats, he said that his most important job is to be a good neighbor, a good human, and share his energy with all those he comes across – easy to do in his profession. The postman who wears many hats Robert as Doc Holliday. Drake and Dali in Tombstone. Robert Emery Halloween 2021 Robert and Luis in Tombstone. WE HAVE MOVED 4600 E Shea Blvd | Suite 100 | Phoenix, AZ 85028 NW corner Tatum and Shea | West of Trader Joes 602.955.8700 • FPSAZ.com IN PRACTICE CELEBRATING EXPERT DOCTORS AND PRACTITIONERS. CONVENIENT SERVICES. EXTENDED HOURS. Our Family Caring for Yours

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