NIGHT OWLS: LATE-NIGHT WORKERS ADJUST TO UNSUAL SLEEP SCHEDULES

Rob Bohnert has worked at Schnucks Food & Drug and says he prefers working the late night hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Della Shuffit loaded her newspapers after midnight to begin her Scott City paper route while Jackson carrier Bill Probst, right, and Whitewater, Marble Hill and Leopold carrier Andy Reddick waited for their newspapers.

An ancient fairy tale tells the story of an old shoemaker who found it difficult to complete his work during the day. During the night, so the story goes, the shoemaker's workshop was visited by elves, who did the cobbling work while the shoemaker slept.

Though the tale is fanciful, even magical, in its depiction of the industrious elves, it is not so different than a vast contingent of workers who do labor while most people are fast asleep.

For Ron Huckabee, the day begins at 1:30 a.m. when he rolls out of bed and heads for work, while most of his friends, family and neighbors turn comfortably in their beds.

Huckabee, a route salesman for Bunny Bread, arrives at work by two in the morning and will work till at least two in the afternoon every day. On Mondays and Thursdays, his routes keep him out until five in the evening.

"The work's not that hard. The most difficult part is the hours. You get burnt out if you're not careful," he said.

He begins by loading his truck, then making stops at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Then it's back to reload the truck before making runs through Cape Girardeau and then out in neighboring communities both in Missouri and southern Illinois.

As an overnight route salesman for 25 years, Huckabee says he has missed out on a lot of his children's lives growing up. His son played football and his daughters softball. But he didn't get to see them play too much because he had to go home and get some sleep.

Even now, when he goes to bed at 8:00 at night, his wife will still be up watching TV while he sleeps.

"She's got used to it. She's been doing it for 25 years," he said.

Ron Bohnert's wife still hasn't gotten used to it, even though Bohnert has been working the night shift at Schnucks for most of the nearly 11 years they have been married.

When they first started dating, Bohnert said, he worked on the day shift in the produce department of Schnucks. But shortly after they were married, he was transferred to the grocery department and started working nights. His 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift is nearly opposite to her 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday.

"We kind of pass each other going to and from work," he said.

His job, as the night crew leader in the grocery department, is to make sure that the store's shelves are stocked and ready to go for the shoppers who come in for groceries during the next day.

Bohnert insists that even though he misses time he could spend with his wife, he actually prefers the night shift because there are not as many customers in the store, which allows him to get his work done. He also enjoys the time he gets to spend in the mornings by himself.

"If you work 8 to 5, the day is almost gone when you get home. I feel like I have more time, more daylight when I get home," he said.

He usually gets home shortly after his shift ends at 6 a.m. He stays up working around the house or going fishing until noon. Then he sleeps for eight hours, giving himself a couple hours to wake up and get ready for his all-night shift.

Even on his days off -- he usually gets two consecutive days off per week -- he finds himself waking up at about 2:00 in the morning. Only when he takes two weeks vacation does he find his body slipping back into the routine of sleeping at night and staying awake during the day.

The adjustment to sleeping during the day and working at night is not always an easy one.

"It's difficult to adjust to it. I'm still adjusting to it. I don't think anyone ever gets used to it," said Andy Reddick, an independent newspaper carrier, who delivers "The Southeast Missourian" throughout Whitewater and the Bollinger County area.

Reddick, who just began working nights this past year, used to be a school teacher at the alternative school in Cape Girardeau until funding ran out for the position. That's when he began delivering papers.

He begins picking up the newspapers around 1:30 a.m. and, after they're loaded into one of three vehicles, he begins driving his 170 mile route. It takes him between five and five and a half hours on a good day. But if it's raining or the visibility is low because of fog, he can get slowed down considerably. It rained so hard last Wednesday that many of the rural roads he travels were flooded. He finished the route at 10 in the morning.

Though he tries to deliver the paper on time so that people will have it when they get up in the morning, he admits that sometimes the road conditions slow him down.

The job isn't always easy. He has to roll the papers by hand and put a rubber band around each of them or place each one in a plastic bag while he is driving. It isn't easy, especially since one of his vehicles is a straight shift.

"I don't get bored on the route even though it's the same over and over again," he said.

Because he loves nature, especially in the early morning, he says he never grows tired of seeing the foliage and wildlife in the area.

Still, he finds the hours difficult and finds himself only able to sleep in bits and pieces -- a couple of hours in the morning, a couple in the afternoon and a couple every evening.

"Time becomes meaningless when you work at night. Days run into night until you finally scratch your head trying to figure out what day it is," he said.