I got a Christmas card yesterday. The postmark on it was December 21, so it was the apparent victim of mail delays. A friend of mine told me that some mail between her and friends and family arrived this week as well, so this must be National Postal Catch-Up Week.
People who want Christmas all year can at least extend it into January this way. However, the real trees everybody bought probably didn’t make it this far.
My card also came with a lottery ticket. From Maryland. It gives me an excuse to take a drive and reacquaint myself with the perils of highway traffic, since I won enough money to make it worth visiting there to claim my prize, even if the bridge toll will eat up what I won.
My mother would have related how reliable and fast postal service used to be. In the olden days, mail came more than once a day, and there was a time you didn’t even have to seal an envelope but simply tuck the flap in. There were different postal rates for sealed and open envelopes, and stamps cost pocket change. As in pennies. Ask somebody in their nineties. People took the time to actually use a pen and stationery, which is a lost art these days. However, many of us of a certain age still take the time to put a signature on a holiday card and mail it. Of course, now postage costs much larger pocket change.
Did I ever relate the time a couple years ago when an employee in my office was not able to sign a form, because they had never needed to even use a pen in school?
Not to brag, but when I found that my less than rigorous education in penmanship was affecting my writing life, I sat down and modified it myself. The results are pretty good, but I’m not sure if anybody under 40 even bothers to try to write anything any more.
The postal service is still sending things on tangible paper, and the holidays are still their busiest time. It will probably take another generation before the concept of cards and writing paper are truly endangered. Meanwhile, I still keep a supply of stamps, pay by mail and keep my pens filled with nifty little ink cartridges that are not as difficult to find as those that go into computer printers.
I still have a box of personalized stationery, and I’ve had the opportunity to use it a few times. When it’s used up, I wonder if I will still be able to get more.
I don’t want to put the post office out of business. The mail, after all, does go through.
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