The plan to ad zip codes to letters was announced by the Postmaster General today in 1962, to go into effect in July of 1963. I was just old enough to write letters (having written one of my first to Caroline Kennedy, a condolence letter on the death of her dad and that didn't have to have any address but "The White House in Washington, D.C.").
I have old family letters in my archive that only listed names, cities and states -- no street or street address. Now even with all the zip code numerals, mostly what I get is junk mail and other people's mail wrongly delivered to my box (about 2 a day on average). Some days we don't get mail at all. I guess the mailman likes to take off to go fish or something. Sometimes we get letters delivered months past when you'd think it should be delivered. I wonder what mail I'm not getting, with this sort of delivery system. They do say living in Santa Fe is like living in a Third World Country. I've not gotten wedding invitations and wonder what bills I'm not getting as well. I never could get NYTimes delivery but since I read it online, I quit bothering.
One of the [few] advantages of small town life. The postmaster knows us by name. If we have a package that won't fit in the mailbox, he'll meet me outside the door with it so I don't have to get the babies out of the car. And if our name's on it, it doesn't need an address. Lovely, lovely people. I am SO spoiled.
Posted by: Janet | November 28, 2007 at 07:43 AM