Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

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"Rags" waitingfor mailman. Frank Brady.
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Frank Brady. letter carrier.
comes out and calls him and takes him home in the car.
“There are times when Frank takes part of the
aftemoon route and postpones lunch. then goes home
after taking part of the route. This confuses Rags
considerably. Here again Rags is taken home in the
Brady car.
“What does Rags do on Sundays and Frank's days
off‘? Mrs. Gorius says. "There is probably so much
activity and attention here he doesn't think about the
route." There are four Gorius children. including three
teen-agers. Stuart. Rhonda and Glenda. and Roger. age
6.
“When Frank has the full day off. Rags waits on the
corner. but when another carrier shows up. Rags
simply trots back home.
“During the summer months. a city ordinance
confines all dogs. including a dejected Rags. to their
homes. But the rest of the year chances are very good
that you will find Rags on the route with Frank."
Veteran Mailman Don Robertson
Served nearly 40 years
compiled by Bertha Finn
Perhaps other mail carriers may have saved the
pennies the postal patrons along the route gave for
change. but we know 39-year-veteran mailman Don
Robertson did. We all read about it in the local paper.
Don. whose sense of humor surpasses all
understanding. kept his pennies in his locker at the
post office. He didn't save them for all of his nearly 40
years as a mailman. but he did for 26 of those years.
and when he retired at the end of I983. he wheeled
them. lst class. out of the post office — in a wheel
barrow. He needed the conveyance: there were between
70.000 and 100.000 ofthe one-centers.
He quipped. “l didn't steal them from the U.S.
government. Rural carriers own their own stock of
stamps and I kept the pennies I received in change."
After he was hired as a postal employee he was
assigned to route I. on the north side of the city. for 14
years. He spent the next 24 years as a rural carrier on
routes 2 and 3. which took in the area south of
Anamosa. and included Fairview and Morley. Amber
and as far east as the Olin Comers. He saw route 3 grow
from 174 boxes to 462. That's a lot of pennies!
Some of Don's humor was brought to the fore. in the
Journal-Eureka article written by then Editor John G.
Adney. For instance. "One time I drove up to a mailbox
and found a live cat in it. It jumped through the window
and out the other window. It had track shoes on. I
looked down the road and saw three little heads pop out
of the ditch."
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Don Robertson collected penniesfor 26 years. He is
shown above. hauling his collection out of the
Anamosa Post Office in a wheelbarrow. His pennies
were contained in plastic bags. coffee cans and glass
jars and were all kept in his locker at the post office.
until his retirement. (Photo submitted by Don
Robertson)
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