02/13/2026
. SWEET MAIL
Compiled by Faith McClenny
(also shared in the February 12, 2026 Selkirk Sun Newspaper)
Candy, flowers and sweet notes are all part of Valentines Day. This family story by Andy Berg in the 1970 Big Smoke didn’t
happen around Valentines Day however, but it did have a lot of “sweet mail”
The Big Smoke, the annual publication of the Pend Oreille County Historic Society, is a treasure of early pioneer history of our
County. It has been published since 1969 and that includes a "1923" edition.
Andy Berg, whose parents were early homesteaders, wrote an entertaining story, when he was a teenager about the picking-up-the-mail for some rural neighbor's mail.
He wrote, "I had permission to ride our old sorrel mare to Locke, small community, for a few groceries and whatever mail I could load in a gunny sack. When I got ready to go home, I put the mail in the narrow end of the sack and tied a cord in the center for a divider and put the few groceries including an eight pound pail of Karo syrup in the other end, and threw it over the saddle blanket, tying it to the belly strap, not having the luxury of a saddle.
Everything went just dandy till I got up near the first bridge on the Tacoma Creek Road. Suddenly around the bend of the road our old mare spied the most "god awful beast” she’d ever seen. It was all black with two big glass eyes with name Overland on its forehead, and it roared and howled like a banshee. Our old mare was having any part of any company with that kind of animal and she reared up and took off for the tall timber, raking me and the gunny sack off on the brush like we didn’t even count. After the sound of the car died away, I was able to catch the old nag, patted her and calmed her down.
I led her back to the road and tied her up and went looking for my crudely made saddle bag. I found the bag all right but “jeez man,” what a mess. Tearing through the timber had broken the divider string and the fall to the ground had opened the lid on the syrup pail. There we had it! What a mixture: mail and groceries completely creamed with Karo corn syrup. What to do?....... Good Grief!
The first thing I did was to go to the creek, pull everything out of the sack, wash it but I had to go easy when I got to the handful pieces of mail because the ink started fading on the letters. I sat by the creek for some time wondering how much hell was in store for me when I got home. Oh well, I thought surely someone else has been in a bind at some time in his or her life so there was nothing to do but go home and face the music.
To my surprise when I got home everyone was real nice. The next day a dozen neighbors that had a claim on the mail came to our house and sorted it out bit by bit, once in a while licking their fingers or wiping them on a towel. Within minutes, the house was full of laughing and visiting.
Mother quickly heated up coffee and even found some cookies. It ended up a family story retold for years. So ended one of the dark days of my boyhood.”
Credit: Big Smoke Berg, Andy
