As of this new year the US Postal Service announced price increases and service reductions.
Then probably an expensive study by experts about reasons the competitors are doing better.
So they tossed it in the dead letter bin and figured George would get to it.
Then George quit and it was now Fred's responsibility. Fred got promoted and now Gertrude had to take care of it.
Gertrude moved away and Irene got the dead letter responsibility. It was now 1959.
Irene died and Nathan took over dead letters. Nathan was lazy dead didn't do anything for ten years. Then Nathan became postmaster and appointed
Cedric to handle it. By now it was 1971 and Cedric said "That ain't my job" and ignored it for another ten years.
In 1981, Cedric asked Gwendolyn to handle it and she told him "Get stuffed -- ain't my job."
That brought us to 2003 when Gwendolyn became Postmaster General of the USPS. By then, with a PO full generation of AA hires, nothing got done. Everybody just forgot about the letter.
But, who did they finally hire that went through the dead letter bin and found it? That's the big mystery.
Mad Magazine in the 1960s had a sketch about delayed US Post Office mail discovered and delivered.
One was a card to Abraham Lincoln: “Skip going to that play Our American Cousin. It’s a real dud.”
Government efficiency at its best.
At least it showed up.
I’ve lost count of how many pieces of mail I’ve sent that never reached its destination and vice versa.
And then there’s mail delivered to the wrong recipient that they were kind enough to bring to me.......no telling how much fell into a black hole never to be seen again.
That excuse is suspect because any letter carrier in 1943 would have known everyone on a street by name.
I live in a rural area, and my mail lady waves to me when we pass on the street. She calls me by name when coming to the house to deliver packages.
I told them the check was in the mail.
“’Everybody was just like, ‘My god,’ you know? Gobsmacked. Just like, ‘What is this?’”
Can the recipients of said letter even READ it?
They don’t seem to have much grasp of the English language. *SMIRK*
We have some grandkids who live up there and our grandson still hasn’t gotten the birthday card we sent him at the beginning of December. Wonder if they’ll find it in fifty years. Good thing we didn’t put money in it.
All they had to do was give it to the postman who had that route. If it was a long street, cycle it down until a postman recognizes the name of their customer. Did no one have any sense of duty? This was a condolence letter. Imagine the family wondering why they didn’t get any sympathy from the sender.
During WWII, my grandfather was on a Navy ship when my uncle wrote and asked to be adopted. The letter got lost, and this poor kid thought he’d been rejected by a non-answer. My grandfather didn’t know for who knows how long, if ever. I’m not sure my uncle ever brought it up. At least these circumstances are understandable but not a stationary home on a regular route, that I don’t understand. The “not my job” mentality was at work for the people in the article.
What has changed with the PO?
This is why they have “Forever” stamps. To cover the cost of postage even 50-100 years later.
Would it have hurt anyone to disclose the text of the letter?
Sounds like a typical experience with the USPS.
No surprise. Address is in cursive script!
-PJ
Train taking up mail bag, U.S.P.O.
I had a friend whose father worked for the USPS in KC back in the 40s and 50s. His job was to ride the train from KC to Denver at night and sort the Denver mail on the way. He did the turnnaround trip from Denver to KC and sorted for Kansas City. All the mail was in bags and that is how they would pick up the mail along the way.