Page 39 - Always Virginia

Always Virginia 27

Daddy would think I’d been bad in school as they were very strict,
though kind and loving.
If we were sick, Daddy would come up to our room after sup-
per and visit with us an hour or so. He was a US mail carrier and
we always wanted to go with him on his rural route, but couldn’t
unless he paid postage on us. That’s what he always said. On our
birthday we girls, Norine and I, got to go once. The boys, my older
brothers, John and Jimmie, were Daddy’s subs as was my cousin
Joe, so they were allowed to go with him. It wasn’t a very long mail
route, but in those days in bad weather, Daddy’d have to go by
horse and buggy. We had two horses, Snip and Topsy.
There were many creeks that would swell when it rained and
one day my Daddy and cousin Joe almost drowned when they were
swept away in a red Model T Ford in one of the smaller creeks. I can
remember Mom lighting candles at home and praying for Daddy
as maybe it’d be 6 P.M. in bad weather when Daddy would get
home. That night he got home much later, because it took awhile
for his Model T to float into the trees and get caught so he and
cousin Joe could climb out and save themselves. Sometimes he’d
get home at 8 or 9 and would always leave before 7 A.M., go to
post office, put up his mail, and leave. On good days he’d leave
at 7 and maybe be home at noon. One day he had an unexpected
piece of mail with him: my black bloomers. Mom and Norine and
I searched the house for them before I went to school, and much to
our surprise Daddy said he picked them up with some of his things.
Norine said my bloomers got to go on the postal route before I did.
At Christmastime Daddy would come home like Santa Claus
loaded down by his mail patrons with goodies like fresh country
sausage and all good farm things like that. We had so much we
shared them with the priest and sisters who lived in the St. Anselm
rectory and convent across the street from us.
Speaking of the priest, he had a housekeeper who had a daugh-
ter my age named Elizabeth. One day I was engrossed playing ball
out in front of my house and Elizabeth kept calling me. I told her