SEALED WITH A KISS

Romance Post Office helps many make Valentine's Day special

By Amy Widner

LITTLE ROCK — Cupid, with his cherub cheeks and trouble-causing arrows, may be a figure of myth, but Angela Davis, she's a fleshand-bone Valentine's Day matchmaker.

Davis is postmaster in Romance, where she's expecting about 6,000 Valentine's Day cards to receive her stamp of heartfelt approval before the big day. Each year lovebirds from across the globe send their cards to Davis to be postmarked with love from Romance, Ark., and each year the stamp is different.

Davis has designed the stamp for the past couple of years. This will be her third Valentine's Day as postmaster.

"Let's see, today, I've got one from Japan; here are a few from Texas; there's one from California, Florida, Washington state, Maryland, another Florida, Kentucky, Georgia,"Davis said. "I got the first one on about Jan. 20, and I've gotten one or two a day since then. [On Jan. 27] I received about 20, so it's picking up. From here on, it'll start every day increasing more and more."

Davis said Feb. 1-14 is her busy time. She and her postmaster relief handle all of the cards. They each work shifts alone, and when it gets really bad, they double up. She saidArkansans tend to wait closer to Valentine's Day to send their cards.

"I have a lot of people come in and drop them off," Davis said. "They come from Jonesboro or Little Rock to drop their Valentine's Day cards off here. It's kind of crazy, but they'll do it."

It all may seem crazy to Davis, but it's a variety of crazy that she's starting to understand: the crazy things people do for love.

"Before I came to work here, I would have never thought to do it, but now, I think it's really inspiring that people get that involved in doing something special for their loved ones and the people they love," Davis said. "You'd be surprised, some of these big burly men who come in here to get a nice little stamp for their sweetheart. It's sweet and endearing that they care enough to drop by and do that little extra something."

Gloria Bickerstaff, 73, of Heber Springs is one of the many who turn to the Romance Post Office to do something special for their loved ones each year. Bickerstaff has been bringing her cards to Romance for 10 years. This year, there were 16 people on her list: children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren and close friends and family.

"It's just neat," Bickerstaff said. "It's something different. They come up with these really cute stamps, and they're different every year. My daughter has been saving them since I started sending them."

Bickerstaff said she and her husband found out about the special Valentine's Day stamp when they just dropped in one day as they were driving between Heber Springs and Little Rock. Now she would never be able to skip a year; her grandchildren would be too disappointed. It's become a bit of a tradition.

"And I just got a brand-new grandbaby, so we'll start him on the tradition here soon, too," Bickerstaff said.

Between people like Bickerstaff with their Valentine's Day cards and the similar service the post office provides for wedding invitations, Davis did about 56,000 special mailings last year. The regular mail averages at fewer than 50 letters a day, Davis said.

As big as the special mailings are in Romance, Davis said there's another town that beats them by a long shot.

"Loveland, Colo., definitely," Davis said. "They have to have volunteers come in and help. They get hundreds of thousands of cards every year."

To have a Valentine's Day card postmarked from Romance, make out the card, apply the postage and put it in a larger envelope with its own postage and addressed as follows: Attn. Postmaster, Valentine's Re-mailing, 292 Hwy. 31, Romance, AR 72136. More information is available by calling the Romance Post Office at (501) 556-5911.

Davis said that in order for Valentine's Day cards to arrive in time, in-state cards should be mailed today or dropped off Monday at the Romance Post Office.

- awidner@ arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 123, 125 on 02/08/2009