Retiring Carrier Delivered More Than The Mail

The envelope in Larry Strobel’s hand had nothing more than “Mill Street, Coeur d’Alene” written on it. But Larry had delivered mail in the neighborhood for more than 10 years.

“I took it to the door and the woman said, ‘That’s from my mom,”’ he says. It’s clear from his smile this story is a favorite of his. “Her mother was elderly, had forgotten to write the name. But she’d written to her for years. I recognized the handwriting.”

Larry’s neighborhood west of Lincoln Way is mourning his retirement from the post office today. He’s helped install storm windows and chased bees from their homes.

He’s plodded through snow so deep his deliveries to them once took three extra hours. Larry even finished delivering their mail after a collie bit him midday and doctors stitched his lip together.

“I never thought of not finishing,” the 58-year-old carrier says, as if such an idea was postal sacrilege.

Larry began delivering mail shortly after his graduation from Coeur d’Alene High 40 years ago. The city and surrounding area was divided into 13 routes then. There are 40 routes now.

From the start, he liked the excitement his arrival caused.

“I’ve always felt the arrival of the mail should be an event in capital letters,” he says. “When you hand someone something they really want - a check, glasses, false teeth - they’re so appreciative. It feels so good.”

The winters were the toughest.

“I was a young fellow full of zip before the winter of 1968-69,” Larry says, shaking his head. “That one took something out of me I never got back.”

But he never considered quitting. The pay was decent, the personal rewards abundant.

“I’ll never forget one April 1. I went up on the porch of a group home for the elderly and put the mail in the box,” he says. He greeted a woman, about 85, in a rocking chair on the porch and left.

“When I reached the street, I heard, ‘Yoohoo, mailman,”’ he says in his highest old woman voice. “‘You left a letter up here.’ I didn’t think I had, but I went back to the porch and when I got there, she said, ‘April fools.”’ Larry laughs, then takes a deep, sobering breath.

“I’m happy to go, but it’s hard.”

Great grandma

Post Falls’ Ashley Rouse recently discovered the Post Falls Public Library is full of treasure. Ashley, who’s 10, found an application for World Book Education Products’ Grandparent of the Year contest, wrote about her grandmother, Barbara Frei in Lewiston, and won.

Barbara didn’t know anything about the contest until she read in her local newspaper that she’d won at the state level. Then she thought it was a sales promotion. But when she received a gift certificate for educational products, a portrait package and other gifts, she knew it was for real.

Which just shows how far a little reading can take you…

Talk to me

There are people so eager to listen to a lifetime of memories about Post Falls that they’re advertising for talkers. They won’t yawn in your face once you get going on the good ol’ days or look wildly around for any reason to bolt.

Tell your stories to Kim Brown, Donna Rae Sweeney or Don Kamps at the Post Falls Historic Preservation Commission. They want to tell the story of Post Falls from the perspective of the people who live there.

Spruce up a little before meeting Kim, Donna or Don. They’re planning to videotape their storytellers. Call 773-4681 and start talking.

Panhandle’s best

What’s the best product to come out of North Idaho? Huckleberry beer? Lentil soup? Pique the interest of Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd. Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo