Thus says the motto of the Pony Express riders!
The Chilcotin may be remote but not so isolated that mail is delivered by horse. For Big Creek folks, however, the motto holds true . . . with the exception of mode of transportation. Every Friday, for the past 50 years, 'snow, rain, heat or gloom of night', Brud Lee delivers mail to Big Creek.
Brud's wife, Anne, is the post mistress at Hanceville. She receives, sorts and mails out of a small room in the basement of her house. (When I first moved here five years ago, I thought it was pretty cool to drive the winding trail with cattle on each side to the "post office". I still do...) Mail is delivered to Anne three days a week; on Friday of each week, Brud delivers to Big Creek. He's been doing this for 50 years! And I don't believe he has missed one day. Once, since I was here, he could not make it up the icy hill after crossing the Chilcotin River. It bothered him so much thinking how much Big Creek people were counting on mail day that he tried again later in the day . . . and got there.
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| My great neighbours, Brud and Anne Lee (right) and Art and Dianne Joyce (left) on the occasion of Art's birthday. |
Friday mail days in Big Creek are a big deal. Besides getting that long-awaited letter or parcel, there is plenty of visiting and catching up. Veera, the 90+ matriarch of Big Creek community, always bakes something fabulous and everyone gathers around for coffee talk in her charming little house at Fletcher Lake. I visited Veera once a few years ago with friends of mine and we each purchased a copy of her book, Chilcotin: Preserving Pioneer Memories.
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| Veera Bonner (center) chatting with my friend and I in her house at Fletcher Lake |
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