Mailmen Muddy but Unbowed

--Floods that wiped out a large part of the town of Parsons, W. Va., could not dampen the spirits of postal workers, who delivered mail to the houses still standing and to the residents they could still find. The flood last week left about 900 of Parsons’ 1,900 residents homeless, but acting Postmaster Bob Lambert said that there was only one day when the mail didn’t go through. “We had 5 1/2 feet of water in the post office and a foot of mud,” he said. “We didn’t have any water or electricity, so we cleaned the mud by hand.” Lambert said the office was reopened quickly because, with telephone service out, “we had mail coming into town and it was like the old days . . . people looked to the post office for communication.” Postman Steve McDonald said: “I think most people are happy about the mail delivery, even if they get bills. I guess if they see the mail go through they think everything will come back to normal.”

--Marc Gauze has a lot on his mind now, serving as mayor-elect of Hazel Park, Mich., as well as janitor at a local elementary school. “I believe I can handle it with time, patience and a large bottle of aspirin,” said Gauze, who beat incumbent Stephen Zervas nearly 3 to 2, even though he spent only about $100 on his campaign. In the last 20 years, Gauze, 37, has sold pets, raised exotic birds and fixed boilers. He’s not sure what his duties will be when he takes office in January, but he kept his job as janitor at Longfellow Elementary School because the mayor’s salary is only $15 a month.

--An extensive collection of manuscripts and letters by John James Audubon has been donated to Yale University by the naturalist’s great-great-grandson. The gift from Morris Tyler, a Yale graduate and honorary university trustee, was given on the 200th anniversary of Audubon’s birth. The donated papers, passed down through Tyler’s family, make up the last available Audubon manuscripts to be presented to an institution. The university already has in its Audubon archive one of the few complete collections of “The Birds of America” and a partial manuscript of “The Ornithological Biography.”

--White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan helped the Marine Corps celebrate its 210th anniversary by praising the corps as always prepared to fight “for right and freedom.” Regan, who saw extensive combat with the Marines during World War II, told a gathering at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington that there are no ex-Marines, only former Marines. After a war, “we may never see each other again, but we never forget each other or the corps,” he said.