WELL, while I still lived in New York, I had a substitute mail carrier for a few days who was very definitely illiterate. I came down one day while he was putting letters into boxes, and he was holding envelopes up to the front of the mailboxes so he could compare the names on the envelopes to the names on the front of the boxes. Using his finger to go one letter at a time. One box at a time. Through the whole pile and then on to the next box to do the same thing. I didn't want to stand there and wait, so I went back upstairs.
I came back down in an hour and he was still at it.
And there were only seventeen units in my building.
Naturally the mail was a mess. I happened to bring it up, gently, the next day, and he said they normally had him doing something else at the PO, and he was only delivering because our regular lady was in the hospital having surgery.
But I cannot imagine what they had this guy doing, when he literally could not read at all.
Wow that's unreal. I can't imagine how some people go through life not being able to read.
I hear you...the messengers that deliver packages to and from my office - most of the CAN NOT read..amazing. I work in a old building in Chelsea so we have a manual elevator, one of the porters operates it..I have watched countless times the porter has had to read the label on the package because the messenger couldnt answer what the Company's name was so he could stop at that floor... I couldnt believe it the first time I witnessed it, after the messenger got out on his floor I asked the porter, does that happen alot, he said yep!