Bio: VandeBerg, Russ (“Postal Poet” Retires - 1980)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: VandeBerg

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 2/14/1980

VandeBerg, Russ (“Postal Poet” Retires - 1980)

The Postal Poet, the Rural Route Rhymester, the Letter-carrying Lyricist has brought to a close a long and happy career.

Russ VandeBerg, the bard of the Neillsville Post Office, delivered his last letter this week, retiring after 30 years of postal service to the city of Neillsville.

It’s time again I took my pen To express my thanks and thoughts For so many years of good friends and deeds, This postal life has brought.

So many years and many things Have come and gone their way Which were the best or why was it so, I surely cannot say.

VandeBerg, who’s been working for the Post Office since 1951, has delivered mail on a rural route since ’62. He’s averaged about 98 miles per day, carrying about 2,000 pieces of mail to some 300 patrons for the last 18 years.

To while away time on the job, VandeBerg took up writing poetry, which, in spite of the difficulty of driving from the passenger side of a car, he could do while driving his car from delivery to delivery.

“It gets tiresome out there and you have to think of something to do,” he explained. He wrote poetry not only for a pastime but also as a method of thinking some of his patrons for Christmas gifts and other surprises left in their mailboxes for him.

“Some of those old patrons have hearts of gold,” he said. “Gifts he has received include such items as maple syrup, eggs, beef, pork, rabbits, ducks, strawberries, raspberries, vegetables and even an occasional poem.”

“A couple patrons wrote them really good,” said VandeBerg.

So, in gratitude for some of the gifts or favors from his patrons, VandeBerg wrote poems of “thanks” while delivering mail, which he would leave in the mailbox. He said he has a volume of about two inches thick of verses he’s written.

…One does his job as best fits the need, Of all those it concerns, And hopes it meets approval, Of Couse sometimes there are burns

But so it is with all of life, And we live with what we get. It’s this Rural route and you kind-hearted people, That makes this the best job yet…

VandeBerg had a few other tricks for passing time while out on the road. One game he would plan is try to memorize the names of all of his patrons children, “When you start to memorize the Opelts’ names you’ve done something,” he said proudly.

Another favorite pastime for VandeBerg was his “mailbox campaign,” which involved nothing more than taking colored pictures of the most interesting mailboxes on his route. He explained that some of his patrons be came caught up in the spirit of competition and vied with each other for the most unusual or attractive mailbox.

“Mrs. Terry Becker probably had the most beautiful one.” VandeBerg recalled fondly. It was a cement-slab with an old gold pump mounted on it, which supported the white mailbox, there was a branch mounted on the box with leaves and birds, VandeBerg said.

He added that the most unusual box on his route was a 12-quart chamber pot.

Although VandeBerg enjoyed his job, he admitted that it wasn’t all fun and games. For example, he went through nine or ten cars in the 18 years of delivering. He wore out three Volkswagens in his first nine years of delivering, two brand-new cars and about five used cars after that. “It’s hard on the transmissions,” he explained. He added that he discovered that used cars lasted as long as the new ones on his job; regardless of the car’s age, the transmission could only take two years at the most, he said.

Wintertime was always the worst season for delivering mail, VandeBerg said. He said the biggest problem is patrons who don’t keep ice and snow away from their mailboxes. “I get stuck a half a dozen times a year, but folks are really good—they stop and help you out,” he said.

He said that he tried using chains on his tires but broke 23 chains in one day. “I never used them since,” he said.

He said that a lot of times, the mail carriers would go out to deliver even when they knew the weather was too bad. “It’s a challenge—it’s the pride thing,” he explained. “Eventually, you hit the snowbank that you just can’t go through.

VandeBerg said that spring mud used to be the rural deliverer’s biggest problem, “It’s a challenge in the spring mud, you peel out about three muffler systems in the spring,” he said.

The Christmas season usually results in the most work for the rural carriers, according to VandeBerg, but he said that United Parcel and the catalog stores have been easing a lot of the burden. “We love ‘em,” VandeBerg said. “I give those guys a big wave of my hand every time I see ‘em.”

He's also had as many as three flat tires in one day. One of his patrons not only helped him with the tires but also gave him a free chicken dinner on that occasion.

…Your helping hand, kind thought or deed, When one is in a pinch, warms heart and soul and adds to the toll, of fond memories, built inch by inch. So I leave this route and Postal Serviced, with fond and heartfelt thanks, to all of you real fine people, And even to you cranks.

He was supposed to have been finished as of last Friday, February 8, but, as he explained, “The place would fall apart without me, so I had to come back for a couple of days.” VandeBerg will have worked Tuesday and Wednesday as his last days on the job.

“I never planned on going 30 years,” he said. He said he intended only to work long enough to pay off his farm, but somehow, he wound up staying.

“I really enjoyed the route—I don’t know of a better job in town,” he said. He also feels that the rural route is the best job at the post office. “If the postmaster works hard and stays with it, he might get a rural route someday,” he joked.

VandeBerg said that the office conditions on the job have been better now than they’ve ever been before, but he has still been a little tired of the job for the last 4-5 years. He said that he’s glad to get out of the business, though he isn’t sure how he’ll spend his time.

“I might walk around in circles for a while, wondering what to do,” he said.

Aside from completing some projects around the house, VandeBerg is planning a fishing trip to Great Bear Lake on the Artic Circle in Canada, with some other Neillsville men.

People in Rural Route 3, Neillsville, may be losing an old friend, but they can console themselves with the thought that, wherever he is, Russ VandeBerg will at least occasionally be thinking of them.

…Yes, there is a crank now and then, That gets into your hair. Yet when the cards are all played out, the understandings are quite square.

…So, thanks again for all those years Of Challenge, work and fun.
I now retire from a much-liked job, And I love you everyone!

Retirement Thoughts, written by Russ VandeBerg, 2-8-80.