Berg Family's PO Box Turns 85

By Matthew Avitabile

CENTRAL BRIDGE -- Earl Berg's family has held the same Post Office box in Central Bridge for 85 years. Times have changed, but one thing has remained the same. We spoke with Mr. Berg this week about the changes. The anniversary of the box comes as the USPS celebrates its 250th anniversary.

Berg said that his father was the first to have the box which Berg inherited.

He could remember back when the box was a combination lock. Back then, the train would come to deliver the mail.

You could view through the glass whether or not you had mail.

The postmaster's name around the 1950s was Mort Crapser.

Berg's father would give him a dime to get candy.

"Central Bridge was a booming town," he said.

"We never had the mailbox on the end of the road," he said. Back then, there were no separate mailboxes. The town always headed into town, Berg said.

The train would enter into the town to get water for the steam engines. Grant Fanning had a two-wheeled cart with wooden wheels to bring in the mail.

"I can remember that cart," Berg said. He can still remember the sound of the wheels headed in.

The family would receive a Sears & Roebuck catalog each year and purchase items throughout the year. Berg said that his biggest memory was purchasing the chickens. The family would buy 100 per year. The Bergs would also purchase clothes through the mail and when he was born, his mother ordered a high-chair through the mail, which he still has.

The Central Bridge Post Office honored Berg in 2006 for holding the same box-- then for 66 years.

"What a change over the years," he said. The family would come to the Post Office in the back of the family's pickup truck.

"When the train was there, everyone was there."

The current employees at the Central Post Office are always "very helpful" and "very friendly" and credits the Postmaster Marcie Caldwell.

"How times have changed," he said.