Virginia Thompson checks all the boxes
Popular Rapidan postal clerk is first Peep in Byrd Street's "We the Peeps"
Virginia Thompson says she was “scared to death” when she began working at the Rapidan Post Office two years ago. There had been lots of staff turnover before she arrived, and she thought skeptics might look at her and think, “‘Let’s see how long she lasts.’”
But Thompson, a Culpeper resident, had no reason to worry. She quickly won the hearts of her customers, many of whom enjoy chatting with her before continuing on with their day.
Rapidan resident Glenn Minshall is among that group. He describes Thompson as “a gem—friendly, thoughtful and helpful way beyond what her job description describes.” A stamp collector, Minshall pays frequent visits to the post office and likes to mail postcards and other items with the postmark hand-stamped in Rapidan. This is preferable, in his view, to the “the sprayed-on cancels applied at the major mail processing centers.”
Minshall wrote me via email, “Virginia happily and helpfully provides the local postmark to my mail pieces, and we often converse about the stamps attached, as every USPS ‘Forever’ stamp has a story to tell.”
Thompson, 55, was born and raised in Culpeper, and comes from a big family with Culpeper roots. Her mother was the oldest of 13 children, and her father was one of nine. Thompson herself is number six of seven. She graduated from Culpeper County High School and has three grown daughters, Octavia, Courtney and Ashley, and five grandchildren.
Earlier in her career, she worked at Walmart and later at Lowe’s. Before the pandemic, she took a job with Cintas, but when the company cut staff during the public health crisis, she lost her job.
For nearly a year and a half, she got by on unemployment. The unexpected time off was in some ways a blessing, because she was able to shop for her older aunts and uncles and help them avoid exposure to covid.
Then, in August 2022, she was hired to run the Rapidan post office. (She also works an early shift at the Culpeper P.O.) Although she’s lived in the area her whole life, her first day of training in Rapidan was, in fact, her first visit to Rapidan.
Thompson told me that it took six or seven months for her to settle in and relax. She wanted to make sure she was doing her job exactly right. But eventually, she realized the work came easily to her—and no one was giving her a hard time. She looked around at the brick post office, the peaceful setting and her customers (some of whom, she discovered, are related to each other) and something clicked: “I fell in love with it. Everyone was nice. They welcomed me.”
“It wasn't what I expected. I really thought I was gonna have to fight my way through to stay here. But it was totally opposite. I love the customers, and I hope they love me just as much as I love them.”
As a show of her affection for the people who troop into the post office day after day, Thompson keeps a big bowl of candy on her counter. Since the beginning, the candy, much of it chocolate, has been a big hit.
“I didn't think I was going to get as much of a response as I have, which has floored me. That's why I keep doing it. Because everyone appreciates it,” Thompson said.
Post office regulars Howard and Martha Zaritsky of Rapidan appreciate both Thompson and her treats. Martha told me that the good-natured postal clerk is the best person ever to run the Rapidan P.O.: “She would be even if she didn’t feed Howard’s Tootsie Roll addiction.”
And Minshall says Thompson’s friendliness and cooperative spirit make “a visit to the post office such a joy.”
Virginia Thompson, our first Peep in “We the Peeps,” Byrd Street salutes you for all that you do to make our community a lovely—even joyful—place to live.
Rain, rain, come our way
On Monday morning, I heard from our weather correspondent, Greg Lillard, the farm manager at the Northern Piedmont Research Station in Orange. In case you were wondering just how bad this dry spell has gotten, Greg wrote me that Orange County is in the midst of a “moderate to severe” drought. Ugh.
When I asked about the report I’d read that last month was the driest June on record in Virginia, he responded: “For the Northern Piedmont Center, it has not been the driest June on record. There are actually four years with less rainfall in June than in 2024. [The years] 2005, 1999, 1984 and 1980 had less than an inch of rain in the month of June, with 1980 being the driest at 0.68 inches.
“Your location can have a significant impact on what you observe. A stray summer shower can bring you rain but not your neighbor a quarter mile down the road. For some areas, it has been the driest June on record, but that just isn't the case for the Northern Piedmont Center.”
In a previous exchange, he said hay production in Orange County had fallen off severely. Since then, things have improved a little: “The recent showers definitely helped with hay production, but we need more rain to get us back on track. At this point, I expect the second cutting to be possible but low-yielding. Third cutting, for most producers, is out of the question at this point in time.”
On Monday afternoon, I took a good look at the Rapidan River. As you can see, there’s very little water cresting the dam. Let’s hope the rest of the week brings us some relief.
<beep> Junior has been spotted in the vicinity of a library book
In the Orange County Public Schools, parents can sign up to receive an alert every time their child checks out a book from the school library. Good idea, or invasion of privacy? If you’d like to share your thoughts on this for possible quotation in an upcoming Byrd Street story, write to me at hwholladay@gmail.com or via Substack message.
Mt. Pony wraps up July with one more weekend of comedy
Have you been to Mt. Pony lately? That’s shorthand for the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus Theater on Mt. Pony Road off Rt. 522 in Culpeper County. The beautiful, Art Deco-style theater shows free movies on Fridays and Saturdays. The films belong to the vast collection that the Library of Congress preserves in this state-of-the-art facility. Comedy is on tap this month, and the public chose the films being shown. Here are this weekend’s selections.
Friday, July 26: Modern Times (1936) starring Charlie Chaplin, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 27: The Nutty Professor (1963) starring Jerry Lewis, at 2 p.m. and Hundreds of Beavers (2022) at 7:30 p.m., with guest appearances by the director of this indie film (which drew inspiration from Modern Times), Mike Cheslik, and the producer, Kurt Ravenwood.
Orange County obits
This week’s obituaries of note: Vincent LaMere Thompson, 66, of Gordonsville; Elizabeth Maxine Roper, 88, of Orange; and Steven Edward Shifflett, 68, also of Orange.
Love your first We the Peep and the Peep herself. Thank you for these Peeks into your community - and our humanity.