Mr. Lehman's Mail Wagon, 1919

     On the day that we read the welcome news that no decision about closing small post offices would be made until May 2012, I received a Christmas card from Georgia from friends Nancy and Roger.  Tucked inside were two tiny snapshots – one taken in 1948 near the Oysterville Approach of the old wreck Solano, and one of Mr. Lehman and the mail wagon taken in 1919.  Nancy’s note said that she had found them while “weeding out” her pictures and thought they should come back to Oysterville.
     It was the mail wagon that interested me most.  First of all, imagine it arriving here on the very day of our reprieve!  Secondly, I had heard of the rattly mail wagon and of George Lehman and his red whiskers for most of my life.  This was the first glimpse I’d had of them.  Thirdly, Roger, himself, was the mail truck driver for several years here in Oysterville.  That’s how he met Nancy and, when he retired, carried her off (not in the mail truck) into the sunset.  How many serendipities is that in one envelope!?
     A notation on the back says that the photo was taken in “Oysterville Wn. 1919.”  That was a few years before my mother rode home from the Nahcotta School each day, catching a ride on the mail truck.  It was the 1923/1924 school year at the end of which she was to take the dreaded “eighth grade exam” and my grandparents didn’t trust the Oysterville teacher to get her ready.
     “I don’t know if they thought the teacher in Oysterville was particularly bad or that I was particularly stupid,” she would laugh.  “Anyway, they thought the Nahcotta teacher, Mrs. Brooks, was the best in the county.”
     Mom would ride her horse bareback to Nahcotta – my grandfather didn’t believe in saddles for children; thought they were dangerous.  Then, she’d take off the bridle, give the horse a slap to send it back home.  After school, bridle and books in hand, she would catch the mail wagon for the four mile return trip to Oysterville.     She remembered that the wagon was drawn by a mare and a mule.  I’ve been trying to determine if that was also the case in 1919, and I do believe it was.  Judging by the view of the legs, the animal on the far side looks to be smaller than the horse in the foreground.
     It was a lovely Christmas greeting, indeed!  Even lovelier because it came right to our post office box in Oysterville!  I’m hoping it all adds up to a good omen for the future of the Oysterville Post Office!.