Rural mail carriers’ stories become book
RURAL VIRGINIA – From mail-order calves in the back seat to slogging through icy roads to get to customers’ mailboxes, rural mail carriers in Virginia have been through it all.
And Salem author Ethel Born has relived and enjoyed scores of their experiences, which the 86-year-old turned into her latest book, “From Horse ‘n Buggy to High-Tech.”
The 174-page soft-cover book is subtitled, “Carrying the Mail in Rural Virginia.”
Salem author Ethel Born signs books at the official presentation of her book about the Virginia Rural Letter Carriers at their association convention on June 25 in Winchester.
The book made its debut in June at the Virginia Rural Letter Carriers’ State Convention, where Born happily signed copies for carriers, many of whose stories appeared on the book’s pages.
Autographed copies of her book are also being presented to top officials at the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Convention in Spokane, Wash., this week. Her books are going, but Born isn’t.
“The book is getting around,” she said, pointing out pictures in the Virginia Rural Letter Carriers’ newspaper that came out earlier this month.
Born didn’t start out to write a book. It came about through her work as parliamentarian for the Virginia Rural Letter Carriers’ Association annual convention which she has done for years.
“It all started with the red-neck turtle,” she said. Born explained that during break time during one of the conventions, one of the carriers told a story about a red-neck turtle that carrier Cindy Chatneuff found in a mailbox. Chatneuff is past VARLCA president.
“It was a steamy, hot June day when I turned down Pike Lane. I didn’t think too much of the young boy running down the dirt road until I pulled up to a mailbox with a flag up,” Chatneuff related.
Anna Rock Rayhill, an early woman rural carrier who also sold Raleigh products, lived in Craig County. The New Castle Record file photo
She went on to say that hundreds of times a day rural letter carriers lower a mailbox flag, open the mailbox doors and retrieve letters “in a single, efficient, smooth motion.” But that day when she opened a particular mailbox, “there was a very large, very red box turtle glaring at me with yellow and red eyes! Needless to say, the letters stayed put and the door was slammed shut!”
But then she became concerned as she drove down the lane, she said, because the temperature was in the upper 90s and it was a metal mailbox in the sun.
“Never before had I seen a red turtle. I came to the conclusion that he would become a dead red turtle if he remained in that mailbox.”
So when Chatneuff came back up Pike Lane, she said she used an umbrella’s curved handle to slide him out – being mindful of the turtle’s snapping at her fingers, which he had already done once, she said – then scooped him onto a package and set him in the grassy ditch behind the box before retrieving the outgoing letters and continuing on her appointed rounds.
Carl Stewart sits at his "case" where mail is sorted. Courtesy VARLCA archives
Other carriers chimed in with their own tales of critters of all descriptions they had encountered in mailboxes over the years. Born was hooked.
She traveled all over the state to get rural letter carriers’ favorite stories, and collect photographs of them in Model T automobiles that faithfully carried them on paved byways, across mountains and along muddy, rutted lanes.
She interviewed more than 50 carriers, and captured their stories word-for-word on CDs, she said. Born presented the recorded interviews to the Virginia Rural Letter Carriers’ Association archives, along with her notes.
One of Born’s favorite stories comes early in the book, David Parker’s account of how he saved a woman from being assaulted by an intruder in her home.
In his entry on pages 54-56, Parker explained when he started out on his delivery on Rt. 1, Abingdon, one day, he noticed a particular mailbox was blocked by a car he didn’t recognize, ad the hood was up.
“I asked the man if he had a problem getting his car started. He said he didn’t and appeared not to want to enter into conversation. I noticed he had on orange sweat pants and orange socks. You don’t see those kinds of things around these. It sort of aroused suspicion.”
Parker went on to say he knew the man didn’t belong in the neighborhood. “When you’ve been doing the route for 10 years you know everybody…I had a gut feeling that this wasn’t right…”
He continued with his deliveries and when he came back by, the car was still parked in front of that house. None of the neighbors had called 911, he found, and Parker couldn’t get cell phone reception.
Just then he was a deputy sheriff go by, he said in the interview. “I deviated from my route,” he said, following the deputy and catching up with her at the next intersection where Parker told her of his concerns.
The deputy called for backup, entered the house and found the man inside.
“He had broken through the back door. There was a young college girl who had come home in the middle of the day to take a nap. He had broken into the house while she was asleep,” Parker told Born.
Authorities figured the man had been watching the college student and found out where she lived. The intruder was ultimately charged with breaking and entering with intent to assault, Born wrote, was convicted and died about eight months later while serving his jail sentence.
The sheriff’s office presented Parker with a plaque for his service, which he displays in his home.
Parker didn’t want any special attention, though. “You get a feel for the neighborhood,” he told Born. “If something unusual comes up you just check it out. It’s going that extra mile.”
The high-tech stories in Born’s book include one about “the $6-million Income Tax Service check being lost in the Charlottesville Post Office for 20 days,” Born said, smiling.
Along her travels and in her interviews, Born came across dozens of intriguing names of little post offices that used to dot the Virginia countryside. Those names include: Hustle, Tight Squeeze, Greasy Creek where bears were skinned, Smart and Ego.
One of her favorite names is “Moon” in Matthews County. “The story is when the community applied for a post office, there were two suggestions for a name,” she said. “One was Jeff, the middle name of the postmaster, and the other was Noon, because the mail arrived at noon. Noon was submitted, but misread by the person in Washington, and so the post office was named Moon,” Born said.
In 1902 when the post office got its name, no one in the community had any idea how popular that postmark would be when man first walked on the moon, she added.
Many country stores also served as post offices, Born said. “They were the heart of the community.”
Today, people are more accustomed to the larger geographical-area postal names, such as that in the Salem zip code which encompasses thousands of residences and businesses in Roanoke County all the way to the Montgomery County Line.
“At one time, 94 small post offices were closed in Floyd County alone,” Born pointed out.
“From Horse ‘n Buggy to High-tech” is available for $19 including postage from Rural Heritage Books, c/o Cindy Chatneuff, 1743, White Rock Rd., Floyd, VA 24091-3617.
Meg – thanks for this article (and all the others) in this week’s STR. Perfect gift for Joseph’s upcoming birthday!
I had not read the current paper when I talked with you this morning at the Farmer’s Market. Good publication this week!
You’re amazing.
Thanks!