Postal Bllues

 Posted on Facebook 8 years ago:

I thought about the Post Office today. Here is a true event I experienced while working as a window clerk:

When I was a Postal Window clerk I from time to time would wait on a nut. I guess that is to be expected. There are nuts out wandering around and they do business and social activities where they have to interact with people, which the people they interact with know before the interaction gets too involved, they are dealing with a nut an back off.

But is rare to be talking with two nuts at the same time.

Once, when I was a window clerk an elderly couple were next. I asked them to come up to my window, which they did, in an unsure manner. They looked to be in their late 60s or 70s. The man wore worn overalls and the woman had on a flowerily dress. They had a serious look of their face.

Somebody knocked down their mailbox the man said. They didn’t even stop the woman said. The man added if he had knocked down someone mailbox he said it would have been an accident and he would stop and offer to replace it. The woman told me whoever hit their mailbox and knocked it down didn’t stop.

They said they would like to see some examples of regulation mailboxes. I had a Postal issued publication that illustrated different types of mailboxes and had the legal dimensions, minimum and maximum, and showed an illustration how long the post should be from ground to the box. Of course, that would be about the right height for a carrier to be able to deliver the mail from his car window and move on.

Some of the illustrations had big red X’s on them which was saying that was the WRONG way.

The elderly couple studied each picture and talked among themselves and finally focused on one standard looking mailbox and the man pulled out his wallet and said, “We’ll take that one.”

I said we didn’t sell mailboxes you would have to buy them at a hardware store or someplace that sold mailboxes.

He said, “Well how come you have a catalog?”

Are they real or are they joking? Maybe they both are getting to be senile about the same time.

I explained that it wasn’t a catalog it was just showing Postal regulations on the requirements for a mailbox.

They looked at me like the didn’t believe me, but if I didn’t want to sell them a mailbox that was my right, it was a free country.

Then, the man said if they go down to the hardware store and buy a mailbox and a pole how long would it be until we sent someone out to put it up.

Again – are they serious?

We don’t put up mailboxes, that is your responsibility I told them.

He said he could put it up, he had dug many of a hole for a post for fences in his time, so he didn’t mind.

They walked away talking about their next approach to the problem of no mailbox.

I wonder if they ever came up with the proper chain of solutions.

Ca