I remember how the Post Office once worked

[poorcarver]

The most interesting thing about mail service then and now is the difference in the actual mail or at least my experience of it. Years ago we anticipated the delivery and checked it over at once. We knew that communication we needed was there as well as letters from family/friends and so forth. It is a rare day when anything important/required/interesting is delivered now. For fun I kept track for three months this Fall. Out of approximately 150lbs of stuff (not including parcels) there were two items needed/required/wanted. One was the quarterly magazine that will not go electronic and one was a letter. Yes an actual letter. The rest did not even enter the home but went directly to the recycling bin in the back of the property. The USPS carried around 150lbs to be recycled without even being opened.

 

[Ronstar]

I remember those old days. There is still a small town about 30 minutes south of us that has no address numbers on the houses. I had to go to a given address for work once and had to have the postmaster lock up the post office and lead me there.

 

[gayl]

Martinez downtown post office is from the early 1900s and all boxes have a key. Long time residents get their mail there. In Clayton we moved from the old building to a new one in 1980s. But outside of the security gate that comes down in the middle of it, nothing's changed. B4 this house (& at my son's) mailboxes are attached to the house. At my DD's you have to go to a local delivery site. 3 different reception styles in a small (11k) town

The most interesting thing about mail service then and now is the difference in the actual mail or at least my experience of it. ....The USPS carried around 150lbs to be recycled without even being opened.

+1

 

[Clone]

At one time, the sales pitch for cluster boxes was that they would "draw neighbors closer together." Supposedly, people would meet and talk to each other while picking up the mail. Ha ha ha, what a notion.

We do meet some of our neighbors at the mailbox occasionally. Ralph is always the person that notices when the mail goes, so if we see him headed down the street we will walk with him. We also know most of the neighbors, their kid's names, and of course their dog's names.

Apparently a very different place to live than typical for this board.

We have a keyed mail box, and if there are packages they go in a larger box and the key for that box is left in our mailbox. Once opened, the key is captured in the mailbox for the delivery person to retrieve. I like the central mailbox much better than the individual mailbox on a post that we had at our house in the country. You can send mail from the central box also.

 

[davemartin88]

Today I didn't make it in to town before the post office closed at noon and knew I had missed a couple of packages. About 1PM, received a call on my cell from one of the workers at the PO saying I had a bunch of packages. They said they would be there until 5 if I wanted to stop by before then, just come to the back door. Great service, small town mentality. In fairness, our UPS and FedEx drivers also know my cell number and will call if they miss us or to check to see if we are in town and want to meet them to collect a package.

 

[Koolau]

We walked into our building the other day (IIRC about 150 mail boxes in the bldg. entry.) Our mail carrier saw us and pulled out our stuff and handed it to us! She also thanked us (hug and cheek kiss) for the small gratuity we left for her again this year. It's nice and does remind me of the old days (well, not the hug and kiss, but...) Just part of Island life, I suppose so YMMV.

 

[MRG]

We do meet some of our neighbors at the mailbox occasionally. Ralph is always the person that notices when the mail goes, so if we see him headed down the street we will walk with him. We also know most of the neighbors, their kid's names, and of course their dog's names.

Apparently a very different place to live than typical for this board.

We have a keyed mail box, and if there are packages they go in a larger box and the key for that box is left in our mailbox. Once opened, the key is captured in the mailbox for the delivery person to retrieve. I like the central mailbox much better than the individual mailbox on a post that we had at our house in the country. You can send mail from the central box also.

You just described our neighborhood and box setup.

We know people and their dogs because of the community mail box. It's a nice 30 minute walk down and back.

 

[athena53]

An interesting twist on this: my sister lives in a community in SC where older construction (<20 years ago) has curbside mailboxes. As they build on the vacant lots, the newer ones get their delivery to the community mailbox up the street. It's a good distance to walk their dog so they don't mind much, but it seems crazy that they have a driver going through the neighborhood putting some mail in boxes but the rest go into a community box.


I also realized how much I depend on address numbers on mailboxes to find my way. Frustrating when there are none. Not everyone has clear house numbers.

 

[brett]

We always had home delivery of mail until we moved a few years ago.

No we walk half a block to a box. We really don't care because we changed most of our mail to email. We would be ok if they reduced our mail delivery down to three days a week.

 

[street]

Today I didn't make it in to town before the post office closed at noon and knew I had missed a couple of packages. About 1PM, received a call on my cell from one of the workers at the PO saying I had a bunch of packages. They said they would be there until 5 if I wanted to stop by before then, just come to the back door. Great service, small town mentality. In fairness, our UPS and FedEx drivers also know my cell number and will call if they miss us or to check to see if we are in town and want to meet them to collect a package.

Not sure how small of town you live in but things like this and what many others here have stated are so true of a small town PO service. If the world would do business more of this kind of mentality I believe the world would be a better place.

Nice

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

The most interesting thing about mail service then and now is the difference in the actual mail or at least my experience of it. Years ago we anticipated the delivery and checked it over at once. We knew that communication we needed was there as well as letters from family/friends and so forth. It is a rare day when anything important/required/interesting is delivered now. For fun I kept track for three months this Fall. Out of approximately 150lbs of stuff (not including parcels) there were two items needed/required/wanted. One was the quarterly magazine that will not go electronic and one was a letter. Yes an actual letter. The rest did not even enter the home but went directly to the recycling bin in the back of the property. The USPS carried around 150lbs to be recycled without even being opened.

Thinking back to my stint working for the USPS, this was the season when the mail would be inundated with Christmas cards. Nearly every boxholder would get at least a couple per day through most of December. Christmas cards have gone out of style, at least in my circle of friends. We got a handful this season, and more than a couple came from businesses we patronized this year.

Frankly, I don't miss them.

As for business-type letters, we still get a few bills every month through the mail, along with whatever government correspondence might be directed toward us for taxes, license renewal etc. Considering all the IRS scams being perpetrated by phone or email these days, I'm reassured that the real IRS will contact us only by mail if they choose to "reach out" to us.

 

[street]

^ I remember as a youngster my parents would get dozens of Xmas cards each year. We would have the wall round the dinner table full of the cards and no room for any more. It was the only way to keep in touch those days there are more important things today life then keeping in touch with people.

 

[braumeister]

Another thing to miss is that in college I got a couple of weeks part time work before Christmas as a mail carrier. The workload was just too much for the regular folks and they brought quite a few of us in to tote bags of mail from here to there. It was good money for me then.

 

[kcowan]

The house we bought a few years ago has a mail slot in the door. Freaks us out when the mailman stealthy delivers our mail. The days of knowing your mail person unfortunately are over.

We get it through the door too, twice a day, once for real mail and then for flyers. Most days just flyers.

 

[Clone]

You just described our neighborhood and box setup.

We know people and their dogs because of the community mail box. It's a nice 30 minute walk down and back.

I looked closer at the mailbox the other day. There are 8 houses per mailbox, plus a small, medium, and large package box. So nobody is more than two houses away from the mailbox. This neighborhood was platted about 12 years ago.