A northeastern Pennsylvania newspaper has just received a calendar to help ring in the new year - except the year is 1950.
Scranton’s The Times-Tribune reports a mail carrier delivered it 63 years late without explanation on Friday.
The large tube contained a 1950 Pennsylvania Railroad calendar addressed to James Flanagan, former general manager of The Scranton Times.
The calendar includes a holiday greeting from a railroad executive dated December 1949. Flanagan died that month.
A U.S. Postal Service spokesman says lost mail is sometimes found when a machine is dismantled or office space is renovated.
Times-Tribune publisher Bobby Lynett says he’ll see if the Steamtown National Historic Site railroad museum is interested in the calendar. If not, he’ll display it in the newspaper’s offices.
A rather unfair statement. Note that this event is news because it’s rare. Having spent a summer sorting mail in the main Chicago Post Office in 1970 and having seen and worked the volume involved, the rarity of such events implies a high degree of accuracy.
The U. S. Postal Service is in financial difficulty for a number of reasons. One of them is that it is obligated to deliver first class mail at the same rate to every single address in the country no matter how many people live in areas where there are extra costs involved. Private companies would simply pass those costs along to someone else but the Postal Service cannot do so.
And they’re being forced to do so in the face of steadily declining volume brought on by our friend, the Internet. I haven’t sent a written letter in next to forever.
I suspect that our little hamlet of 300 may see the day sooner, not later, when our little post office is gone. Extending neighboring rural mail delivery into the hamlet would not be a major challenge. One route goes right by my house. I could change over at any time, and some folks already have.
The loss of our own zip code, would, however, be a blow to our identity as a community.
I still send written letters but I agree with you very few people do that today. But I think a much bigger reason is that many bills are sent over the internet and they are paid over the internet rather than with a written check.
Another big loss is government programs that used to mail checks but now use electronic funds transfer (direct deposit). In my state, New Jersey, it is impossible to get an unemployment check. If you don’t give unemployment your bank information they will open a special account for you and tell you the name of the bank where the account is.
Tree, you bring up an issue that must have USPS screaming in frustration. I understand that you and the other residents of your hamlet don’t want to lose your post office, but it probably cries out to be closed from any rational business perspective.
Let me describe a situation that I think is probably somewhat similar to your case. Whenever I drive to my hometown over in SE GA, I pass thru the tiny town of Bristol, GA. Bristol is 10 to 15 miles north of Blackshear, GA, which itself is not a large town, but I’d guess has a population of (maybe) 5000 in the town and the surr
Indeed. I don’t know that Congress itself has gotten involved, but suggestions to close other such post offices in this area have met with definitive resistance. Last I knew there were about 150 boxes in use in our post office (no rural delivery from this office). There are smaller POs in the area.
I don’t know that I’d mind if the PO closed - it would simply mean my daily walk to check my mail would be to the end of my driveway instead of 3/8 mile down the road. Buying stamps and mailing items that required a clerk’s attention would simply move to an adjacent community, probably rolled into other errands.
Some folks have gone to alternate means of receiving their mail because they can’t get to the PO when it’s open due to their own working hours.
What’s interesting is that UPS and FedEx are pretty heavy users of the USPS as well (and vice versa). But that little bit of info is conveniently ignored.