Dear readers I have returned. It's been some time since posting about our beloved community post office but I am back and with news.
Last night we held a town meeting in which representatives from the United States Postal Service were present to inform the community of what's happening, what's being done, and what needs to be done in order to make a good battle for our post office.
Also present at this meeting were representatives from the county commissioners office, Congressman Scott Tipton's office, Senator Michael F. Bennet's office, and Senator Udall's office, as well as a reporter for the ValleyCourier. Before the meeting everyone was given a tour of the facility considered for closure, pictures were taken, notes were jotted down, you know - all that good stuff. During the meeting residents of the community - JAROSO - were given the information we'd need in order to continue our fight to keep our post office. Once the information was given the community was given the floor to offer their questions and opinions. If the tour of the post office wasn't impressive enough the way in which members of my home town - that's right! THIS IS MY TOWN!!! - voiced their opinions, asked their questions, and supported what is theirs to support certainly took the cake.
We were told to write more letters to those making the decisions. Do as much as possible to make people aware that we want it to remain open. It was suggested that we point out what makes our post office unique and special. We were to list stats, percentages, distance from civilization, road conditions, demographics, etc. Sell the place, so to speak. We are to prove that this post office is worth keeping.
Unique eh?
Yeah, I'd say the post office in Jaroso is pretty unique. Walking in the front door should leave all doubts that it's conformed aside. However, just in case the public display of local artists ALL over the walls, the antique mail boxes - still in use, the antique counter brought from the bank in Jaroso years and years ago, the bench where people can sit and visit while they wait for their mail to be sorted, the old Conoco sign outside the door, the warmth that is found even on the coldest of days because of the homelike feel of the place ... yeah, just in case all of the a fore mentioned didn't make it known this office is not replicable (though it wouldn't hurt if it were copied - once or twice) the people that filled the room to support the office reminded us of a few more unique qualities that this rural office holds for its patrons.
Patrons - people. PEOPLE, living breathing people. The reason we need a post office here in the first place. It's the way people connect. People are gregarious - we must see other people no matter how much a hermit we claim to be. In this modern day and age so many of us communicate less and less in person. In our small post office we communicate with the post master if with no one else. Excuse me, I should say post mistress. She knows everyone in the town and she's a voice when no one else can be heard. She's an ear when no one else is there to listen.
Last night the concerns were mentioned. Among those was the distance to the nearest post office, the inconvenience of cluster boxes, the risk of perishables in the mail (many of the businesses here in Jaroso deliver such products around the world), the fact that FedEx hates this part of the world because most of us aren't locatable with their GPS. However, there was something else mentioned last night, something that makes us not just a town (a dot on the map) but a community (a family). One community member stated that should the post office close we'd lose a limb, a vital component to the community. And it wasn't the post office that member was speaking of but the post mistress. Patrons were concerned about her job, her well being, and her position in our chain of communication.
Another patron mentioned how valuable the post mistress was, how she protected the people more than anyone could imagine. Did you know that patient/doctor confidentiality thing goes also between post master/mistress and postal patron? I'm sure I knew it but just took that valuable little tidbit of information for granted all this time.
So unique? Yeah, I'd say the Jaroso post office was unique. It's one of a kind in its museum like quality. It's one of a kind in that walking into our post office is like walking into our own home - each is welcome there. It's one of a kind because it's located in the heart of a community, a community that cares for each other, a community that is filled with people not related to each other but coming together as a family to protect and serve that which is ours.
Yeah, that's MY TOWN!!! er...COMMUNITY!!!
