Get To Know Arlene Blair

Among the friendly faces at the in Kensington is Arlene Blair.  She has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 17 years.

Blair began her career at the Suburban plant in the computer-forwarding system. She was responsible for forwarding mail to a new address. After working there part time for a year, she transferred to the Brentwood station and continued to forward mail for a couple more years.  

Then, she moved onto the Kensington station and has been here ever since. She is one of the sales services associates who help customers mail their packages based on their needs.

Blair said that the best part of her job is her co-workers and meeting different people. 

“We get a variety of customers from a lot of areas,” she said.  “They come as far from Virginia and Washington, D.C., for business.  Even residents from Chevy Chase pick up their mail here.”

When she began doing her job, she said that the technology was not as advanced. She was required to manually imprint on money orders and fill out a lot of forms. She relied a lot on her memory before the advent of reliable computer systems.

For Blair, cold weather is still difficult to handle. She grew up in Jamaica and immigrated to Silver Spring when she was 21. She has two sons: Ricardo, 29, and Melik, 10. During her spare time, she enjoys going to church and bringing Melik to his activities — Cub Scouts, basketball, soccer, and swimming.