Anonymous Globetrotter Writes to Riverton School
The postcards started arriving in the office of Portland’s Riverton Elementary School in 2000 - and they’ve been coming ever since. The pictures on the front and postmarks on the back tell the story of a globetrotter who has visited Hong Kong, the Philippines, New York (several times), Wisconsin, Camden and Old Orchard Beach just this year alone.
The writer begins each card, “Dear Raccoons,” showing that he or she knows Riverton’s mascot. Cards are signed simply “Your friend.” They all are written in the same, shaky penmanship. And they all are sent to an incorrect address - 16 Forest Avenue, rather than 1600 Forest.
But everything else about Riverton’s faithful pen pal remains a mystery.
“We don’t know who it is,” said Ginny Lofman, the school’s lead secretary, who has 77 cards displayed in chronological order on the wall by her desk. “No clue.”
When the postcards first began arriving, school staff assumed they were sent by someone who had retired recently, perhaps a former principal. But the writer clearly has a budget beyond most school retirees.
During the past eight years, he or she has made several trips to Hawaii, New York, Baltimore, North Carolina’s Emerald Isle, Florida (Key West, Orlando and West Palm Beach), Biloxi, Miss. and Old Orchard Beach. Other destinations include Cleveland, Anchorage, Houston, New Orleans, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Sweden, St. Paul, Holland, the Hoover Dam, Ireland, Washington, Puerto Rico and Trinidad-Tobago.
“I’m in the Big Easy,” says one card. “Ate dinner in the Four Seasons,” says another.
The staff was so curious to learn the identity of the anonymous sender that they once sought help from the husband of a teacher who is a psychic. He pictured a woman’s hands putting the cards into a mailbox, a connection to the Flintstones and something coming out of an airplane.
The next postcard said, “Don’t believe the psychic.”
That’s one of several clues that the secret writer has some inside connection to Riverton School. Another postcard, sent in 2007, alluded to the school renovation then underway.
The most recent postcard, with a picture of the Old Orchard Beach pier, arrived at the school on July 10, while Lofman was on vacation. It reads:
“Hello, Raccoons, Came to see you but school’s out. Maine summer weather just great. Cruisin’ the beach, still great. Have a great summer. Your friend.”
Lofman has lined up the cards neatly in rows marked by year - and she’s already made a place for 2009 cards.
Would she like to know the sender’s identity?
“It’s been so much fun having the mystery and trying to figure it out,” Lofman said. But she added, “I’d like to know before I retire.”
