You've Got Snail Mail...Maybe

According to an article in this morning's newspaper, due to rising costs mail deliveries could be cut back from six days a week to five or even less. Or the recipient may have to go pick their mail up or pay extra for home delivery.

From the tone of the piece I was given to understand that I – and all Americans – should meet this news with maybe not horror, but at least dismay. After a moments reflection I realized that I wasn’t even mildly upset.

The loss of a day’s mail delivery wouldn’t really impact my life as these days there is nothing that I receive in my daily mail that would make a big difference if it came a day or two or even three later. And it wasn’t that long ago that residents of some local villages had to go to the post office to pick up their mail.

Additionally, I no longer wait for the mail, anticipating a card or a letter or an invitation to a special event. Most of my mail is junk mail interlaced with an occasional bill or bank statement with more and more of my day-to-day personal communications arriving via email.

In fact, these days tell me I’m going to get my email delivered only five days a week and then you might get a dismayed reaction or I may even react with horror.

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Reminiscing about mail delivery, I know that it came twice a day when I was young, but the switch to one delivery a day didn’t even register with me.

I remember when the mail was delivered to our door – either through a mail slot or placed in the mailbox hanging on the side of the house next to the door. In the early 70s I moved into a small village that didn’t have home delivery and had to go to the post office to pick up my mail from my post office box. When I lived in a townhouse we went out to our community mailbox next to the parking lot to get our mail from our individual boxes. In our later houses we had rural-style boxes along the road, the way we have now.

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My father was a mailman through most of the 1950s. They weren’t mail carriers then, they were all mailmen because they were all men. They walked, carrying a leather mailbag over their shoulders, and I never remember him wearing shorts. And he had Wednesdays off.

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Actually I just thought of a downside to delayed mail delivery. My habit of mailing cards at the last minute could mean friends and family will get their greetings even later than they already do and my excuses will stretch even thinner and thinner.