The Rural Voice, 2000-02, Page 30WJji
was important to the
rural community in times
past — especially in winter,
when the CNR "butter and egg
special" pulled into Brucefield and
the mail had to be delivered over
unploughed roads.
The route, stopping at the Varna
General Store and ending at Bayfield,
was about a 12-mile journey in horse
and cutter, making a buffalo robe
over the knees, heavy fur coats and
heated bricks necessary.
In Bayfield, the cutter was often
greeted by a crowd eager for their
mail. Ken Brandon of Bayfield
remembers the mail run when his
father Hal and uncle Abe did it.
"In the winter, if we could see
across the street, we'd go out.
Sometimes the big black team would
be covered in hoar frost by the time
we drove to the railroad station."
Mail service went twice a day from
the village to the train for years and
sometimes it would be late at night
by the time they got back.
Wide turns, ditches and deep drifts
sometimes prevented smooth
progress of the cutter and ended in
upsets.
"When I went out with my dad,
the Model-T car with a windshield
was comfortable by comparison to
the cutter. When I was young, if the
weather was good, 11',d go along,"
Brandon said.
Ken Brandon recalls that in the
country, mail carriers served their
entire lifetime. Ken's dad Hal drove
after his uncle Abe stopped doing it.
The Brandons took extra care with
the vehicles necessary for long
service. Carriers often had to give up
their route if they couldn't count on
the family vehicle.
Abe Brandon had a special auto-
sled to cope with snowy conditions
and drifts on the road during the
1930s.
The homemade snow car was a
1920s Model-T with ski-sleds on the
front and chains on the four back
wheels. Almost as popular as a
modern-day snowmobile, the snow-
car was used to get through the drifts
on country roads during the 1930s.
"The snow-car was a durable
machine which gave good service,
but we carried a bucket to refill the
radiator with alcohol used as
antifreeze, as it would boil out
26 THE RURAL VOICE
GETTING THE MAIL THROUGH
In the days before e-mail, faxes and even well-
maintained winter roads, getting the rural mail
through was essential — and a big challenge to
determination and ingenuity
By Sandra Orr
Ken Brandon (insert) remembers the
snow -car driven by his father Hal,
(top) to get the mail through. In the
great 1947 storm even that wasn't
enough as three locomotives at
Brucefield had to be dug out to get
the train through heavy drifts.
frequently," Ken pointed out. Despite
that care, the original motor had to be
replaced with a Model -A motor. This
primitive and durable snowmobile
was used in the area until the roads
were regularly ploughed in the 1940s.
The mail was regular whether
there was a full bag on the train or