Strange but True

Valentine's Day cards and letters have been coming to the town's adobe-style post office for weeks as romantics from around the world send messages to get stamped with the distinctive postmark of Valentine, Texas.

With 7,000 cards already behind them Monday, Postmaster Maria Elena Carrasco and her part-time assistant Leslie Williams were greeted with a dozen brimming baskets of cards and letters left by the daily delivery truck that traveled 150 miles from El Paso.

They stamped each piece by hand, and by nightfall, another truck making the return trip picked up the cards and letters for routing to cities coast to coast, border to border. By Carrasco's count, they've gone to 28 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Ireland and Switzerland.

"It reinforces my belief that there is a lot of love and a lot of people do believe in God because that's what love is," said Carrasco, who has run the post office since 1990.

The holiday postmark tradition grew from the 1980s, when the previous postmaster, Doris Kelley, offered the postmark to some friends and the favor spread by word of mouth.

Money bag

Jon Jazdzewski made a valuable discovery while driving out of town for business.

Jazdzewski, 52, an employee of Wausau Supply, was leaving town around 4 a.m. on Jan. 28 when he spotted something on the road near the Rothschild Village Hall.

"I knew it was a money bag, and I picked it up. But there was no doubt in my mind that this thing was going back to (the village)," said Jazdzewski, of Kronenwetter.

More than $850,000 in cash and checks was inside the locked bag, according to city officials.

A police officer had set the bag on the trunk of a squad car and then was called to an emergency, Jazdzewski said. The bag apparently slid off the back of the car when the officer pulled away.

Rothschild Police Chief Bill Schremp declined to discuss the contents of the bag, but he said he was grateful.

"Someone that found the bag was very honest. We are planning on doing something for him," Schremp said.