SEPTEMBER 1998 PMCC BULLETIN PAGES 5 & 10

The Appalachian Trail

The Postmark Adventures of Kelvin Kindahl, Part 8

May 15 -- Carlisle Barracks, branch of Carlisle, is located at the Army War College. It turned out to be a very easy military base to get into. The guard booth was empty. Fortunately, a clerk at the man office had already told me where it was.

Wormsleyburg, a branch of Lemoyne, turned out to be located at a furrier. Didn't seem like the kind of business that would get many impulse purchases from post office customers. Another first for a type of business housing a postal contract station.

Before Wormsleyburg, I had gone up the Susquehanna River to Duncannon to pick up mail from home. Duncannon is a trail town in that the trail walks right down the main street. Duncannon has seen better days, but the bar at the Hotel Doyle is a popular stop for all the young guys on the trail. My friend Steve, from when I lived in Boston, hiked the trail in 1985. He used to talk about the Hotel Doyle. The trail goes through Duncannon because it has the only bridge over the Susquehanna for a number of miles in either direction.

 

May 16 -- Started the day in Boiling Springs. Boiling Springs became a trail town just about half a dozen years ago when a major trail relocation was completed. Periodically, sections of the trail are moved, most often to put it on public land, and to take it off roads.

When I came into Peach Glen, and saw not much town, but a huge Knause Food processing plant, I remembered that John Gallagher had once told me about this CPO which is inside the Knause Foods company. It is inside, upstairs, down the hall, off the cafeteria. Exactly why Knause Foods needs a post office, and why it is located off the cafeteria wasn't obvious, but there it was. The young clerk was quite helpful and seemed pleased that a collector would make the effort to find Peach Glen.

Station No. 1 of Gettysburg, at Gettysburg College, is now using a "Gettysburg, PA College Sta. No. 1" postmark. The new Station No. 1 in Hanover is at a package shipping store, but doesn't have a postmark of it own.

At Grantham, home of Messiah College, the main post office was right on the edge of the campus. When I got to the campus, I found graduation was in progress. Fortunately I was able to get in and out before the ceremonies were over. The post office was right outside the auditorium where the ceremonies were taking place. The window was shut, but the door was open and two people were working inside. I stuck my head in and asked if I could get some postmarks. They were very accommodating with both a bullseye dater and a four-bar hand cancel.

At Bormansdale, a tiny office in the front room of a house, the postmarks weren't coming out very well, so I asked if I might try them myself. Rather than bringing me the canceller, the postmaster opened the door and told me to come on back.

 

May 22 -- The third office of the day, Cressona, was celebrating their 140th anniversary and had a pictorial cancel still available. I got some of those as well as the regular postmarks.

 

May 27 -- Into the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania today. The Poconos look a lot like the Catskills, but doing better economically. Skytop and Pocono Manor are both post offices inside resort hotels. Neither is really a town, although there are some private summer homes surrounding Pocono Manor. I suspect there may be other independent offices inside resorts in the Poconos. Buck Hill Falls is not a resort hotel, but it is a sort-of private summer home community with no commercial establishments.

 

May 28 -- Ann has left Pennsylvania now, and is in New Jersey. Today I went east into northwestern New Jersey. The far northwestern part of New Jersey is completely different than what many of us think of when we picture the state. This area is rural and beautiful, and the suburban sprawl hasn't reached it yet.

 

May 30 -- Pine Island, N.Y., was once an island in a huge swampy area. The swamps were drained years ago, so there is excellent farmland. Sterling Forest, N.Y., is a small lakeside community where the post office would have been difficult to find if I hadn't had a street address for it. It is located in a house on a residential side street, with no sign or flag.