This winter has been more like the ones I remember when I first moved to Maine from Colorado in the late 1970s – that is to say frigid, with lots of snow and ice. It took me pretty much all morning to shovel out following the colossal storm that barreled across the country Jan. 25. Oh, my aching back! The following morning, feeling greatly refreshed following a night's sleep (I went to bed at 7), I drove to Damariscotta taking Bo with me for the ride. The sun was shining brightly and the sky robin egg blue. Rather than take Route One, I went the back way, Route 218 through sparkling white countryside blanketed in fresh snow. Very pretty. I turned off on the Sheepscot Road in Alna recalling this was the same route I drove countless times when I delivered the mail years ago for the Wiscasset Post Office. 

I never had any ambitions of being a mailman, it just sort of happened. One morning, I was picking up my mail at the post office when Fred Snowdon, the postmaster, asked me if I might be interested in helping out in the office. "Working for the newspaper, you already know a lot of people in the area. That knowledge would be helpful and we could certainly use the help,” he said. 

Well, I needed the extra money so I took Fred up on his offer.  I worked Saturdays mostly and other days when I wasn’t busy with the newspaper. My routine went like this: I’d arrive early in the morning a couple hours before the post office opened and helped Blanche, Beverly and Joanie, the postal clerks.We’d start by unloading the morning’s mail emptying a dozen sacks onto a large table where we’d sort the letters and packages.This was during the summer of 1985. Wiscasset had four rural routes then; RR 1, 2 3 and 4 in addition to over 500 P.O. boxes in the post office lobby. The women were super-fast at sorting. They’d see a name on an envelope with an incomplete mailing address and know exactly where it was supposed to go.  Blanche might say something like – This package is for so and so, he lives in Alna off Route 218 but that part of town gets their mail delivered by us. In those days, Wiscasset Post Office served a large part of Alna, Woolwich and Westport. There were a few residents in Newcastle that got their mail from Wiscasset too, up near Russel’s General Store.

My job at the post office included sorting letters, newspapers and other mail into the P.O. boxes. Sometimes I'd run the machine that cancelled the outgoing mail. At the end of the day, one of us would unlock and collect the mail from the big blue mailbox in front of the post office and then walk downtown and empty the mailbox in front of Pendleton’s Market, the brick building that's now home to In the Clover. (That mailbox has since been removed; I think maybe it was taken away during the downtown construction project and never returned.)The last thing we’d do was bag up the day’s outgoing, “out of town” mail. We’d stack the mail bags onto an old-style nutting truck which was then rolled onto the loading dock for the USPS truck to pick up and carry to Portland for overnight processing.A nutting truck is a long, low-slung cart with two wheels in the center and a swiveling wheel at either end to steer it which believe me was quite a challenge. 

A few months later, I took a Civil Service test to become certified as a rural carrier associate, better known as an RCA, or substitute postal carrier. This required both a written test and training at the Portland Post Office off Forest Avenue.After that, I had to take a driving test in Rockland that I nearly failed for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. The driving instructor told me if I missed a mailbox, never back up!Go down the road, turn around and drive back to it.

In those days, rural postal carriers had to provide their own vehicles. Smaller post offices like Wiscasset didn’t provide their mail carriers with postal trucks, or vans as is the case today. I bought a secondhand, 1972 Chevrolet Chevette for $300 to deliver the mail. No, I’m not making this up. I delivered the mail mostly for RR1 which was 54 miles long if I remember correctly.  From the post office the route went down Federal Street, Wiscasset to Route 218 and from there to Old Sheepscot Road, Old County Road, North Newcastle Road, then reversing course back to Dyers Neck Road, Golden Ridge Road and other roads I can't remember. Eventually, the mail route circled back to West Alna Road in Alna heading southward past Wiscasset Speedway turning right onto Fowle Hill Road. The last leg of the route was Gardiner Road, Wiscasset, which was actually the hardest part because it included delivering the mail to two mobile home parks, Whippoorwill and Maplewood. 

I don’t recall how many mail customers there were. I’m sure there were over 500 mailboxes. I filled in for Nancy West of Newcastle, the regular mail carrier, who has since passed away. Wiscasset had three other regular mail carriers then, Joey Johnson, Barbara Potter and Jackie Reed. Later, Westport native Tim Cromwell joined the post office,  delivering the mail in his hometown.

Fred often reminded me when I was delivering the mail, the expectation was my vehicle was a “rolling post office.”That basically meant along with delivering the mail and collecting the outbound letters and packages, I had to carry a cash box along with me with a supply of stamps to sell to my customers. I was responsible too for collecting any needed postage when a letter or package was overweight. I was supposed to sell money orders, too, although I can’t remember ever selling any.

After the daily mail was pre-sorted by the office clerks the rural route carriers had to re-sort it for delivery. (Today a good deal of the incoming mail arrives pre-sorted and ready for delivery, or so I've been told.)  One of the biggest challenges both then and now is mail lacking a correct address.Another is when people move away and don’t leave a forwarding address. In the old days, after the rural route carrier “cased” (sorted his or her mail), it had to be packed in the order it was to be delivered.  The last part of the motor route was obviously at the bottom, the first part at the top.  I remember Joey Johnson packing his mail in three-foot plastic trays and carefully stacking his trays in order one top of one another.Joey delivered RR3’s mail; the route started in the southern part of Wiscasset and continued deep into Woolwich – Shaw Road, Old Stage Road, Murphy’s Corner and Montsweag Road. I didn’t have room for mail trays in the Chevette, so I packed my mail in plastic mail tubs.That Chevette actually proved to be a pretty good delivery vehicle. Because it was small, it was easy for me to reach from the driver’s seat out the passenger window to a customer’s mailbox.Rural mailboxes of course are on the righthand side of the road.

Around Christmastime when the mail volume was heaviest, it took me about 10 hours to finish my route.Some days when I was delivering mail I had to get out of the car to deliver a registered, or certified, letter.  When a rural carrier leaves their car, it’s called a “dismount,” which Joe told me went back to the time when postal carriers delivered the mail on horseback.

Delivering the mail was one of the hardest jobs I ever did.On a number of occasions, I didn’t get back to the post office until well after dark. The job could be rewarding, too, you know, getting to know the customers, I really enjoyed that part. I wasn’t the best mail carrier by a long shot but people knew I was just filling in and most were very patient and supportive.They appreciated and respected their mail carrier.There was one aged gentleman who watched for me every Saturday morning. He’d always meet me by his mailbox with buttered raisin toast wrapped in a napkin.  

These memories came back as I watched our mail carrier slide our mail into the mailbox the other day following the storm.  Naturally, I’d shoveled the snow away from it beforehand ... 

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset. Contact him at news@wiscassetnewspaper.com