AFTER 125 YEARS, STAMPS STILL GET LICKINGS IN FROHNA

FROHNA -- Customers get all the services of a big-city post office at the tiny Frohna post office and sometimes a little extra.

"We even lick stamps here," said Linda Wyman, officer in charge of the post office.

Frohna is celebrating the 125 anniversary of its post office today at 12:45 p.m. The mayor will attend and a German pastry called platzcoogan will be served.

"The turnout will be terrific,' Wyman predicted. "People here are so proud of their history. I imagine the whole street will be lined with people."

It is true: Wyman often licks stamps and places them on letters for her customers at Frohna. In return, her customers bring farm-fresh eggs and flowers cut from their gardens.

Frohna has a population of 246. "We interact with almost everyone on a daily basis," Wyman said.

The Frohna post office was established May 5, 1870, under President Ulysses S. Grant. Back then postmasters were political appointees. When Democrats like Grant were in power the Frohna postmaster was named Palisch. When Republicans were in power, the Frohna post office moved across the street, and the postmaster was named Lueders.

About the turn of the century, politics were taken out of the post office.

The Frohna post office has been at its present site since the building was constructed in 1901. At that time the post office was in the E. Goehring and Son Mercantile Co., a furniture store. Eventually the post office took over. It now shares the white, two-story building with a beauty shop and an upstairs apartment.

Most of Frohna's population descends from German immigrants who founded the town in 1839. Many residents speak with a German accent.

On Wednesday, a customer buying 3-cent stamps admired a newspaper clipping of an old photograph of the Palisch building, where the post office was first housed. He pointed out his uncle in the photograph.

Part of the Palisch building still stands across the street from the post office.

The post office has 55 antique post office boxes and a waiting list despite the boxes being so old they don't open. Customers must ask for their mail at the window.

Wyman said the antique boxes are to be removed. The lobby will be remodeled and new, working post office boxes installed. The renovation is needed, Wyman explained, so the lobby can be open 24-hours a day.

She learned about the 125th anniversary a week ago when a stamp collector from Fort Collins, Colo., wrote asking for a cancellation commemorating Frohna's 125th year.

"I asked people in town and they said the post office would be about that old," Wyman said.

An official with the U.S. Postal Service confirmed it and Wyman rounded up townsfolk to plan today's celebration.

Wyman was named officer in charge at Frohna March 1. Prior to that she was a supervisor at the processing center in Cape Girardeau.

She said working at the Frohna post office is delightful. "This will be one of my best memories," she said. "People here are so hospitable and friendly. It's a nice step back in time."