Tumbleweed Smith

Postmaster Sherry Hopson knows the 40 people who have boxes in the post office at Mound.

 “I know them by name. I know their children, their grandchildren, their grandparents, and maybe their great-grandparents.  I even know the names of some of their pets.”

She has been postmaster for ten years and watches the parade of life from her post office window.

“We have a lot of chickens in Mound,” says Sherry.   “I sit here and I can look out and anytime there might be six, eight, ten, 12 chickens in the road, trying to get out of the road before a truck hits them.  And with the chickens are the guineas.  They entertain me.  One day I looked out, and here was a huge hog walking down the middle of the road, and this high school kid was chasing it.  It was an FFA project gone wild.  He was trying to get that hog back in the pen.  It was a real rodeo.   And all this happened right here.  I have to get out and see where the ambulance or fire truck goes, because people will come in and ask where they went.”

Sherry is a retired teacher and is at the post office only a few hours a day.  “I’m here before 8 a.m. and close at 10 Monday through Friday.    Saturday is my long day.  I’m here before eight o’clock and close at 11:30.” Sherry has a good time at her job and enjoys Mound, population 200, near Gatesville.  Mound got its name from a hill that was full of cedar.  When the cedar was removed the hill became known as the White Mound. There was a school and church near the Mound.  “Back in the 1800s, they shared the same building.”

There is a mail route out of Gatesville, so some people have mailboxes on their property.  Sherry gets mail from both services.  She has had a post office box at Mound since 1962 when she and her husband married.

The post office is in the old Mound Depot Building built in 1926 when there were a lot of people coming and going to Mound by train.  The post office was slated for closure, but citizens rallied to keep it open.

“At that particular time, I was not the postmaster and did not work here.  But I was a friend of the postmaster, and she told me what was happening.   So, I got a petition and went around to every house in Mound and to nearly every farm and ranch and got people to sign to keep our post office.  And wouldn’t you know it, several years later here I am running the post office.”  When the previous postmaster left the position, she asked Sherry if she wanted to take it.  Sherry said she would be glad to.

Apparently, people appreciate her.  They bring gifts and leave them on the post office porch.  One was a loaf of fresh baked bread and a jar of orange marmalade with a note that said “for Miss Sherry, our postmaster.  Thank you.”