Residents along “Peaceful Dave” Anderson’s postal route make sure he knows how much he meant.

The flags were up on all 11 mailboxes at the entrance to Bailey Farm Road in Freeport last Friday.

“Peaceful Dave” Anderson had mail.

Outside the boxes were signs, and inside each box was a card wishing Anderson well on this, his last day on the job following 16 years as a rural postal worker in Freeport. Anderson, as always, turned his mail truck onto the driveway of Jim and Gwen Sartoris, where he turns around and continues on his route, on Route 136. This time, there was no quick exit.

“It’s been a sad day,” said Anderson, who received similar farewells on his route, which includes U.S. Route 1 and Route 136, and all side roads on each. “I’m very sad today.”

Anderson, who just turned 62 and lives in Freeport, had written a notice of his impending retirement to his postal patrons in May.

“Although I will not miss the structure of a six-day work week or delivering in snowstorms, I will miss all of you,” Anderson wrote. “It has been a pleasure and privilege to play a small part in your lives. I hope I have served you well. Your kindness, consideration and fellowship will stay with me forever. I bid you all a bittersweet farewell. May joy and serenity abound.”

Such words are typical of Anderson, all the Bailey Farm Road people say.

“He is the opposite of a bureaucrat,” said Abbie Sewall, who with her husband, Paul Mentag, gave Anderson a box of fresh Bailey Farm strawberries as a going-away present. “He truly is a gentle soul.”

A gentle soul, indeed, as Anderson’s nickname implies. As well as they know and like him, no one in the farewell gathering knew how he got his moniker. So he told them a story about when he was 16, living in Cumberland and attending Greely High School. He played in a basketball game in which Greely defeated Gray-New Gloucester. Following the game, members of both teams went to Cole Farms, a popular Gray eatery.

“We were laughing and joking around,” Anderson said. “Some of the Gray kids didn’t like it, and they were waiting for us in the parking lot. They confronted us.”

One of the Gray boys, an especially intimidating one, was named Floyd.

“I stepped up and said, ‘Floyd, all we want is peace,’” Anderson recalled.

And so a lifelong nickname was born.

Friday’s farewell was Mentag’s idea.

“He treats the mail like it’s his own,” Mentag said. “If it’s something special, he’ll bring it right up to your door and knock.”

“He just makes your whole day,” said Sunday Chapman. “He’s just so warm and friendly.”

Jim and Gwen Sartoris will miss Anderson, as well.

“He just goes out of his way to do nice things for people,” Jim Sartoris said. “He’s quiet and gracious.”

In addition to the signs beneath the Bailey Farm Road mailboxes, other neighborhoods did the same. Todd and Barbie Thomas put one up just a short walk away, on Route 136. Anderson responded by placing a little sticky note, telling them how nice their mailbox looked, on the box.

Anderson said he plans to spend time working out, and wants to learn how to play the drums. He’ll miss what he’s been doing, though.

“Some days the job isn’t all that fun in the winter,” he said, “but the people have made it all worthwhile.”

Signs wishing “Peaceful Dave” Anderson good luck in his retirement adorn the mailboxes at the entrance to Bailey Hill Farm in Freeport last Friday. Staff photo by Larry Grard“Peaceful Dave” Anderson, right, talks with, from left, Jim Sartoris, Barbie Thomas and Paul Mentag, part of a group that gave him a short retirement party last Friday at the Sartoris home on Bailey Farm Road in Freeport. Staff photo by Larry Grard