From “Doc Alders, Farmington’s Lone Eagle”: Doc’s first memory of the Farmington Post Office was in the General Store. Then it was moved to the old harness shop building at the First Street corner. From there, it was moved across the highway to the old meat market building. Bill Toda had run the meat market. His brothers Bud and Jeff ran the General Store. Their father had run the meat market first then Bill took over. Sieff Willets was the last butcher that ran the butcher shop. It was closed for several years before they moved the Post Office in. Stanley Beck was the first Postmaster in that building. Then, Mary Ramos took it. She ran it for a few months in the old butcher shop and she had a new brick Post Office built on Second Street. Doc’s brother Pete built the new one. Pete used concrete blocks, similar to the blocks used for the gas station office. Eventually they built a new one for the next millennium. It is located on the highway to Stockton across from where the train tracks once were.

Doc recalled the old Farmington telephones. The farmers owned the line originally. Everybody owned their own phone. They were battery run and it had a crank on it. And everybody had a certain number of cranks. In 1923 W.D. Mobley was president of the Telephone Association. In 1951, Fred Neher upgraded the system to dial telephones. There was another company bought out the dial system. Remodeled it and made modern exchange. The system was followed in succession by Continental Telephone, GTE and finally Verizon.

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Happy Anniversary to Bob and Toni Ladiges on March 19th.

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Farmington Elementary Spaghetti Dinner and Talent Show, Friday, March 22 at 5 p.m. Dinner and Show Tickets, $10 Adults ($12 at the door). $5 Children (10 and under) ($7 at the door). Family 4 Pack $25 (2 adults, 2 children) ($30 at the door).

Dinner includes spaghetti, salad, bread and a drink.

Show Ticket $5.

Also included in the evening’s events are a raffle and silent auction.

Go on-line at www.farmingtonschool.org for more information and print out a form to purchase tickets early by March 20.

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I would still like to hear from you. Have you taken a trip? Have you had out of town visitors? Let me know of family birthdays, anniversaries and new arrivals to your family. Whatever you want to add to the Farmington News is welcome. Please contact me if you have items for the Farmington News column. E-mail me at farmingtonnews@gmail.com or phone 896-6697.