Mailing without waiting

BURFORDVILLE, Mo. -- It's hard to find a crowd at the Burfordville post office even during the holidays.

Most days, postmaster David Enderle can find time after waiting on customers to sit in an old wooden rocking chair and chat. It's a comfortable routine for Enderle, who hands out lollipops to the children who visit. Adults can have the lollipops too.

Tucked into a corner of the Old Mill antique store, the post office is a quiet place even in the middle of the Christmas rush to send packages and cards by mail.

In contrast to the Cape Girardeau post office, where customers often must shuffle through long lines to get to the counter this time of year, customers at rural post offices like Burfordville's don't have to take a number or wait in line.

Customers count on mailing cards, letters and packages in a matter of minutes. If they linger, it's for conversation, not necessity.

There's never more than three people lined up at one time at the small counter in Burfordville.

But Enderle said his one-man post office still does its share of business.

Between 200 to 300 customers dropped off holiday mail throughout the day on Monday, he said. Some came from as far away as Jackson and Cape Girardeau just to avoid long lines at the busier post offices, he said.

"I had a full tub of letters," said Enderle. "It was a lot of lick and stick."

There's no stamp machine in the post office. Enderle said he spends a lot of time putting stamps on customers' mail.

"In a little post office, you get service," said Mardell Amelunke of Burfordville, who owns the building housing the post office and the antique furniture, dolls and other items that take up much of the space inside. She said she occasionally sells something. Even the rocking chair where Enderle sits is for sale for $75.

The building has no bathroom. Amelunke, who lives next to the post office, lets Enderle use her bathroom.

At mid-morning Wednesday, Amelunke was the only customer at the post office.

"I had to buy some stamps," said Amelunke, who still has Christmas cards to mail.

Things weren't any busier several miles away at the Millersville post office.

The post office is in a small, brown modular building that does include a bathroom and also has candy on the counter for customers. The post office has a tiny lobby that can handle only a few people at a time without being overcrowded.

But no one has to worry about waiting in line. Postmaster Junior Baker said he's lucky if he sees 25 people a day. On a busy holiday mailing day such as Monday, as many as 45 might stop by to pick up their mail, send off letters and packages and buy stamps. Baker handled more than 1,900 letters and 39 packages on Monday.

Linda Gill of Millersville was the first customer in the post office after it reopened at 1 p.m. following Baker's hourlong lunch break. She is pleased with Baker's service.

"I get in and get out quickly," said Miller, who makes frequent stops at the post office.

Baker said he does more than man the counter. He also has to sort the mail by hand for the 415 customers who are on the post office's rural delivery route.

"When you are a one-man post office, you do it all," Baker said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123