Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502130007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GOLDBOND LENGTH: Long
That's true of this Giles County community of trailers, small frame houses and television satellite dishes wedged into the narrow Big Stony Creek valley.
For the past half-century, the information epicenter has been the Mosers' house, where family members have passed the postmaster's cancellation stamp along like a royal scepter since 1929.
However, the dynasty ended last week when Tyree Moser abdicated due to health concerns. Now Goldbond residents will have to break their daily appointed rounds of picking up mail at the doublewide trailer on State Route 635 that doubles as domicile and post office.
"I think it's time to rest," said Irene Moser, who followed her husband's aunt and mother and preceded him as postmaster. "Fifty years is a long time."
Feeling more relieved than nostalgic, the Mosers watched the dismantling of their small office Jan. 31. Postal employees carried off the mail scales, the meter machine and carted the operation about a mile down the road.
At the end of their tenure, the Goldbond post office received a small stack of daily mail, which the Mosers sorted, stuck in postal boxes or handed to the Ripplemead carrier for home delivery. There were 26 active post boxes at the office and 82 customers on the route.
Henceforth, mail addressed to "Goldbond, VA 24094" will go to the new location inside Horton's Store. Regular postal services will be offered, yet no postmaster will preside over the office.
That's unfortunate, the Mosers believe, particularly for a community that has already seen its elementary school and voting precinct moved elsewhere.
Once, mail was delivered by railroad trains that steamed up the valley hauling lumber or crushed stone.
No one owned an automobile, which was no problem, since State Route 635 wasn't paved very far anyway. Now more people than ever live in the valley between the towering ridges of Peters and Butt mountains - and they drive to work elsewhere.
Two large limestone mines dominate the Goldbond area these days. The Moser's trailer sits beside huge, manmade mountains of minerals excavated from the APG Lime Co.'s plant.
A powder that shares the color of the gray winter horizon dusts State Route 635. Irene Moser says after dark, illuminated by the porch light, the lime dust falls like snow.
Unless it's deer-hunting season or opening day for trout fishing in Big Stony Creek, Goldbond is left alone for folks Tyree Moser calls "mountain people" who "get to like the country."
Both Tyree, 73, and Irene 70, grew up within hailing distance of the post office. Tyree says he first saw Irene when she was four days old. Married 51 years, they've raised five sons and a daughter.
When Tyree's aunt, Lottie Wells, became postmaster, the area was called Kerns. His mother, Tennie Moser, succeeded her sister and moved the office upstream.
Kerns became Goldbond in the mid-1940s when the National Gypsum Co. - owners and operators of the big limestone mine - decided the community should be stamped with the brand name of its products: Gold Bond.
Never mind that the sign of the present-day APG Lime Mine identifies its location as "Kimballton." Or that folks on the other side of Big Stony Creek have a mailing address of "Ripplemead." Tyree Moser says he's confused by all the overlapping jurisdictions, too.
Slightly less complicated is the Moser family's professional family tree, which must be a post oak. Irene Moser was her mother-in-law's assistant until she took over as postmaster in 1959. Tyree was her assistant until Irene retired two years ago. Then he took over as postmaster, with son Edgar as his assistant. Another son carries mail in Nashville.
Customers, too, have been like family to the Mosers. "You listen. Everybody comes in, tells you their troubles, or the good things. And you listen," Irene said. "You do a lot of little things for people."
Throughout, the Mosers recall only one day when the mail wasn't delivered - during one of last year's ice storms.
Asked to characterize changes over the years in the postal service, Tyree Moser smiles as his wife cautions, "Don't be biting the hand that fed you."
"It's changed considerable," he says, diplomatically. "Everybody's got a much longer title these days."
Now Tyree Moser, a soft-spoken man who likes to wear a maroon Virginia Tech cap, is set to enjoy his second retirement, having already worked 41 years for Hoescht-Celanese.
"As far as going on a vacation, we never did, really," he said. "All our children have been telling us to take a cruise," Irene added.
Hereafter, their time and their trailer will be their own. The Mosers already owned the flag pole and the postal people left the handicapped access ramp still attached. What was the post office will become an expanded living room.
"We're going to miss the people," said Irene. "I feel like they'll still be calling."
by CNB