As a young boy, I sometimes traveled the country roads with my dad. He was a rural mail carrier, and on Saturdays he would ask me to go with him. Driving through the countryside was always an adventure: There were animals to see, people to visit, and chocolate cookies if you knew where to stop, and Dad did.
当我还是一个小男孩时，我有时会和爸爸一起行驶在在乡间小路上。他是一名农村邮递员，星期六他会让我和他一起去。开车穿过乡村总是一种冒险：可以看动物，看人，如果你知道在哪里停下来的话，还有巧克力饼干吃，爸爸知道。
In the spring, Dad delivered boxes full of baby chickens, and when I was a boy it was such fun to stick your fingers through one of the holes of the boxes and let the baby birds peck on your fingers.
春天，爸爸送一些装满小鸡的盒子，当时我还是个小男孩，把手指伸进盒子的一个洞，让小鸡啄你的手指，真是太有趣了。
On Dad's final day of work, it took him well into the evening to complete his rounds because at least one member from each family was waiting at their mailbox to thank him for his friendship and his years of service. "Two hundred and nineteen mailboxes on my route," he used to say, “and a story at every one." One lady had no mailbox, so Dad took the mail in to her every day because she was nearly blind. Once inside, he read her mail and helped her pay her bills.
在爸爸工作的最后一天，他花了很长时间才完成巡查，因为每个家庭至少有一名成员在邮箱前等待，感谢他的友谊和多年的服务。“我的路线上有219个邮箱，”他常说，“每个邮箱都有一个故事。”一位女士没有邮箱，所以爸爸每天都把邮件带给她，因为她几乎失明了。一进屋，他就阅读她的邮件，帮她付账。
Mailboxes were sometimes used for things other than mail. One note left in a mailbox read, "Nat, take these eggs to Marian; she's baking a cake and doesn't have any eggs." Mailboxes might be buried in the snow, or broken, or lying on the ground, but the mail was always delivered. On cold days Dad might find one of his customers waiting for him with a cup of hot chocolate. A young girl wrote letters but had no stamps, so she left a few buttons on the envelope in the mailbox; Dad paid for the stamps. One businessman used to leave large amounts of cash in his mailbox for Dad to take to the bank. Once, the amount came to $ 32,000.
邮箱有时被用来装邮件以外的东西。邮箱里留下的一张纸条上写着：“内特，把这些鸡蛋带给玛丽安；她正在烤蛋糕，没有鸡蛋。”邮箱可能被雪埋着，或者破了，或者躺在地上，但邮件总能送来。在寒冷的日子里，爸爸可能会发现他的一个客户拿着一杯热巧克力等着他。一个年轻女孩写信但没有邮票，所以她在邮箱的信封上留下了几个纽扣；爸爸付了邮票的钱。一位商人曾经在他的邮箱里留下大笔现金，让爸爸带到银行。有一次，金额达到了3.2万美元。
Ten years ago, when I traveled back to my hometown on the sad occasion of Dad's death, the mailboxes along the way reminded me of some of his stories. I thought I knew them all, but that wasn't the ease.
十年前，当我在父亲去世的悲痛时刻回到家乡时，沿途的邮箱让我想起了他的一些故事。我以为我熟悉所有邮箱，但那并不容易。
As I drove home, I noticed two lamp poles, one on each side of the street. When my dad was around, those poles supported wooden boxes about four feet off the ground. One box was painted green, and the other was red, and each had a long narrow hole at the top with white lettering: SANTA CLAUS, NORTH POLE. For years children had dropped letters to Santa through those holes.
当我开车回家时，我注意到两根灯杆，街道两边各有一个。当我爸爸还在的时候，那些杆子支撑着离地大约四英尺的木箱。一个盒子被漆成绿色，另一个是红色，每个盒子的顶部都有一个狭长的孔洞，上面写着白色的字母：SANTA CLAUS，NORTH POLE。多年来，孩子们一直通过这些孔洞给圣诞老人写信。
I made a turn at the comer and drove past the post office and across the railroad tracks to our house. Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table when I heard footsteps. There, at the door, stood Frank Townsend, Dad's postmaster and great friend for many years. So we all sat down at the table and began to tell stories.
我在拐角处转弯，开车经过邮局，穿过铁轨来到我们家。我和妈妈坐在厨房的桌子旁，突然听到脚步声。门口站着弗兰克·汤森，他是爸爸的邮政局长，也是多年的好朋友。所以我们都坐在桌子旁，开始讲故事。
At one point Frank looked at me with tears in his eyes. " What are we going to do about the letters this Christmas?" he asked.
这时弗兰克看着我，眼里噙着泪水。“今年圣诞节我们要怎么处理这些信？”他问道。
"The letters?"
“这些信？”
“I guess you never knew. "
“我想你永远都不知道。”
"Knew what?"
“知道什么？”
"Remember, when you were a kid and you used to put your letters to Santa in those green and red boxes on Main Street? It was your dad who answered all those letters every year. "
“还记得吗，当你还是个孩子的时候，你经常把给圣诞老人的信放在大街上那些绿色和红色的盒子里？每年都是你爸爸回信的。”
I just sat there with tears in my eyes. It wasn't hard for me to imagine Dad sitting at the old oak table in our basement reading those letters and answering each one. I have since spoken with several of the people who received Christmas letters during their childhood, and they told me how amazed they were that Santa had known so much about their homes and families.
我只是坐在那里，眼里噙着泪水。我不难想象，爸爸坐在我们地下室的旧橡木桌旁，阅读这些信件，并一一回复。此后，我与几位在童年时期收到圣诞信的人进行了交谈，他们告诉我，圣诞老人对他们的家庭了解如此之多，他们是多么惊讶。
For me, just knowing that story about my father was the gift of a lifetime.
对我来说，知道我父亲的故事是我一生的礼物。
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