They were a constant source of company and a ready means to a friendly chat. At the very least you could count on them for a wave and a smile as they drove by.

Rural mail carriers have always provided a link to the world in more ways than one, local carriers agreed Thursday in front of the Bangor Post Office, as they sold the new stamps and pictorial cancellations commemorating rural free delivery’s 100th anniversary.

“Residents always looked forward to having their mail delivered,” recalled Hudson postmaster Marice Arnold, who was the town’s rural mail carrier from 1976 to 1986.

“It may have been the only contact they’d have with the outside world for days and days,” said Arnold, who traveled 102 miles a day six days a week and went through six cars during her stint.

“They’d be out waiting for me lots of times. They’d let me know if I was late, too,” she said, chuckling, “and if I’d have to go inside, it was sometimes hard to get away.”

Carolyn Bartlett of Bangor, who collects stamps as a hobby, found herself purchasing the new stamp Thursday for sentimental reasons as well. The stamp depicts an early rural carrier alongside his horse-drawn mail wagon.

Bartlett, whose grandmother was a rural mail carrier in Fort Fairfield in the 1950s, remembered riding along with her as she delivered letters and packages to eagerly waiting residents.

“It was great fun when you were 10 years old,” Bartlett said. “People would always give us doughnuts.”

Jeanne Hill, a rural carrier in Bangor for eight years, laughed as she tucked herself into the tiny, antique red sleigh which postal workers placed in front of the post office as part of the anniversary celebration. The old-time sleigh had been used years ago by a rural mail carrier in Bradford, she said.

“Can you believe how small this is?” Hill exclaimed, as she settled herself on the narrow wooden seat.

A pan of coals would have been placed under the seat to keep the carrier warm, pointed out Bob Tracy, another rural mail carrier in Bangor. Carriers could also count on appreciative customers along the route to provide hot blankets, he added.

In turn, customers would rely on rural carriers to deliver milk, transport them to town and even pick up a bag or two of groceries, Hill said.

Carriers who finished the route and returned to the post office only to find yet another package or letter would set off again so customers wouldn’t have to wait until the next day, the mail carriers said.

That kind of customer attention still goes on today, they agreed.

Rural postal workers use their own cars to deliver the mail, said Hill, although carriers adapts the vehicles to their own liking to facilitate mail delivery.

Hill uses a second steering wheel and set of brakes and accelerator installed on the right side of her car. Tracy is most comfortable sitting in the middle using his left hand to steer and left foot to maneuver the accelerator and brake.

“It took me a few weeks to get used to it,” he admitted.

Bangor’s rural carriers cover eight routes which extend into Glenburn and Hermon, according to Hill. Maine has 400 rural routes, she said, “although that number is growing all the time as people move farther and farther out.”

Each rural mail vehicle is “a post office on wheels,” said Hill.

“Anything we do at the post office window, we can do with rural free delivery service,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Hill and Tracy describe rural carriers as basically a hardy bunch for whom difficult driving conditions are simply a way of life.

“We don’t pay any attention to snowstorms,” Hill said. “We just know we gotta go.”

Besides, she added, rural carriers are never without sand, ashes and a shovel.