Mailroom reclaimed as dwelling
CABOT — To the untrained eye, Peg Traggiai's house looks like an ordinary residence: Its sunny kitchen is filled with colorful teapots. Family photos are framed on the walls.
Not immediately evident is the square patch that covers a former mail drop in the outer wall, where Cabot residents once deposited late-night letters.
"It's a good thing we saved that piece of paneling," said the 92-year-old Traggiai, whose home doubled as a post office and general store beginning in the 1950s.
Traggiai's late husband Dario served as the town postmaster from 1955 to 1980.
With post offices usually operating in rented space, Traggiai said it was not uncommon for rural postmen to offer up unused rooms in their homes. Until the late 1960s, the family did double duty by also running a store onsite.
Although Traggiai has long since reclaimed the former post office as living space, leftover quirks remind her family of days gone by.
For many, the most curious parts of Traggiai's home are the two exterior doors on a streetside wall of the family room.
Once separated by a partition, one was used by postal customers while the other received shipments behind the counter, where a mail sorting room now contains a washer and dryer.
The paved area around the house still looks like a parking lot, partly because massive rectangular stones spaced around its perimeter are evidence of a neighboring house and its history. Formerly a tavern, Traggiai's husband Dario installed the buffers to protect his siding from inebriated drivers who left there at closing time.
Wedged inside Traggiai's kitchen, an antique cooler kitchen reminds her daughters of early mornings in childhood.
"(My brother) Ron and I worked in the store from the time we were 8 or 9, said Donna Bocchi, 64, of Cabot, who recalls endless stocking of heavy canned goods and soda.
"We waited on customers before we went to school."
Along with cooler goods like fruit and eggs, the store sold items such as paint, nylons and rubber gloves.
Traggiai's daughter Jane Cooper, 59, also of Cabot, recalls sometimes waking up to chirping sounds when a local farm received shipments of chicks."We'd always play with his chicks," she said, explaining the peeps were packaged 100 per cardboard crate. The farmer wouldn't fetch his mail until after chores, allowing for extra play time.Although the postal counter opened by 8 a.m., the store opened earlier.Because the post office was centrally located on Winfield Road, Traggiai said neighborhood children would congregate inside during the winter while they awaited the school bus."My husband would take a couple of the kids out to put up the flag," she recalled, noting the youngsters would clamor to get a turn.In the evenings, customers would sometimes arrive during dinner. And Dario's friends would linger long after closing time.Neighborhood youths also would linger in the store, which offered an easy supply of ice cream, chips and boxed pizzas."We never made any money because our kids and their friends would eat it," Traggiai laughed.Although the former post office and store now is furnished with comfortable sofas and chairs, Traggiai said out of habit she continues to use the home's original living room.But when company comes, the post office reverts to at least one former use: Her friends still congregate there.
