The Rural Voice, 2000-02, Page 31not. Ken noted that sometimes the
mail was only a red and white striped
bag with a block of wood and a pink
slip in it. But the mails had to go,
whether there was any or not, or if
the weather was good or not.
The one -cent mail would be
sorted on the "Butter and Egg
Special." In the forties, you
could send a letter a few miles down
the line and get an answer in the
afternoon.
The mail would be dropped off for
delivery along the country
concessions. Some carriers had a 20 -
mile route with many boxholders.
One man delivered his route (about
six or eight miles) with toboggan and
snowshoes, if he had to in stormy
weather. Another
man had a black
closed -in buggy
with a sliding door
to protect the mail
bags from the
weather.
Now retired, Ken
Brandon didn't
continue his father's
contract. He recalls
many a storm with
chagrin. "If there
was a snowflake in
the air, we'd walk
miles in drifts up to
our waist."
Back then people
could get a ride to
and fro with the mail carrier in his
stage, cutter or car. Stopping at
Varna, the passengers would come
into the general store or the other
shops such as the cooper's. Thomas
McAsh and family had the post office
in their general store from 1901 until
1978. Grandsons Floyd McAsh and
his brother William McAsh, both
born in the store, remember when the
tracks and roads would be blockaded
with snow and they'd be out with
shovels digging for days. They cut
meat by hand and got other orders
ready for the mail cutter's
passengers.
In Bayfield, the post office was in
Hovey's General Store which at first
had gas pumps, wooden floors, a pot-
bellied stove that burned wood and
coal, an ancient clock and goods of
all kinds. Earlier locations were Dr.
Wood's residence and other
buildings. Les Elliott took turns with
Hal Brandon driving the night route
to Brucefield for many years. The
facade of these stores remained the
same for decades and were
patronized by most of the folk in the
area for tools or food. The post office
was a good place to wait to talk about
politics or local news.
To the people working in the
general stores, the glass doors were
thin in the winter time. hardly
keeping the winter wind out at all.
The mail carrier was a means of
transportation for decades to these
out-of-the-way villages. Often taking
special orders, they delivered bread to
the village with the mail. or if
supplies for the bakeshop were
running low, yeast would be
be delivered to the area was as high
as the drifts that reached the eaves on
the houses and to the eaves of the
wooden station in Brucetield.
The storm of 1947 was remarkable
in that everywhere there seemed to be
narrow tunnels high above
everybody's head dug for the
vehicles to get through. For weeks
everyone was using a shovel.
Fortunately storms like the 1947
blow didn't happen too often.
Another storm where travel was
blocked for days was in 1971.
Despite such unusual occurrences
most of the time the trains were
punctual in the 90 or so years the
station surrounded by coal yards and
an elevator operated. Ken Brandon
remembers trying to
catch the train. "It we
were late. we'd come
over the top of the hill
and see the train
leaving without waiting
for their mail and their
travellers." They'd have
to wait at the station tor
the next train, coming
in perhaps tour hours or
more later.
"If a storm blew in,
we'd find the travellers
fur coats and hoots to
put on to ride to the
village on the horse and
cutter."
Almost every winter
brings a storm but winters aren't like
they used to be, Brandon points out.
"Back then we'd reach the corner on
the outskirts of the village and have
to turn back. If it was worse out in the
country. we'd turn back. No matter
what the conditions were, we found
the postmaster was a hard taskmaster
who often didn't understand the
excuse of weather.
"No one understands weather like
we do, especially ones that work
inside all day." Ken chuckles as he
remembers his boyhood. "Almost
everybody would have a buffalo rug
but they were glad to see a Model -T
come along." Even in stormy
weather, the mail went through twice
a day.
A dairy farmer with eight kids.
Hal Brandon drove this route for 45
years. Ken says driving with the mail
route was more fun to remember than
it was to complete every day.0
People line the porch of Varna
General Store in early days —
perhaps awaiting the mail?
to
delivered by cutter or by plane on
rare occasions.
In the winter, the "butter and egg
special" would have two or three
engines to get through the drifts. In
the big storm of March 1947, after a
three-day blow, huge drifts
enveloping the train were more than
eight feet high and many miles long.
Section men with shovels as well as
the engine plough powered by two
locomotives worked to free the train
while the Air Force rotary plow
worked to clear the highway.
Everywhere people who lived
nearby were digging. People would
leave what they were doing and join
crews with shovels and help dig. The
train buried in 10 and 20 -foot drifts
was stalled days.
After a big dig of fourteen days,
the train finally snorted and puffed
into Brucefield covered with snow.
The mountainous pile of mailbags to
FEBRUARY 2000 27