discovering buried treasure
badolbilz
Thank you, Kelly, for asking about grok and thank you Karen for
answering. I thought it was one of those LOL type of things.
Anyway...just wanted to share a really fun thing that happened last
night. My two older girls, Aislinn, 7, and Elysia, 5, have been staying
up with me for the last 3 nights until about 12:30. The first two
nights we looked at "reborn" babies online (check them out, they're
amazing!). Last night was different. We have a library room in our
house with a built-in bookshelf that's about 9' high x 13' wide thats
overflowing with books. But off on it's own is a little antique
bookshelf with glass doors. It too is full of books, but antique books.
For the first time last night, Aislinn asked me about those books.
Some of the books belonged to my greatgrandfather. About 25 are my
greatgrandmother's diaries. Some belonged to other passed away family
members. Some I just bought at yard sales because they were beautiful.
So the girls asked if we could get a few out. The first one they picked
was a monsterous old bible. As soon as we opened it we made a fabulous
discovery...a letter to my great grandfather mailed on Oct. 4, 1945 from
Ontario, Canada...and it's never been opened. We were so excited. The
girls didn't want to open it. They have a thing about suspending the
magic and mystery as long as possible. So I asked them how they would
feel if we let my Oma (Grandmother) open it. The letter is addressed to
her fil. So now we can't wait until she comes over today to show her
the letter.
After that, we picked a book at random from among the diaries. The
small autograph album I pulled out was gifted to my ggm on March 18,1893
as a going-away present from her friends as she was moving from
Plymouth, Kansas to Kenmore, NY where she met and married my ggf (to
whom the letter is addressed). She had traveled to Kansas with her
family in a wagon train. The girls and I were moved to tears as we read
the wonderful little good-bye poems that people wrote. Ex: the first
one...Dear Mary, Friends must part, Strangers meet, Ties be broken once
so sweet. This world must change and be anew, And you and I must bid
adeiu. Forget-me-not. From your friend, Lizzie Beiyliff. Each person
had a different poem and they are all so sweet. They skipped pages and
then later on others wrote in it too including my gf, her adopted son,
wrote on Dec 21., 1921: "To Mother, Remember me when this you see. The
many miles apart we be. Your loving son, Kenneth." He was 10 years
old when he wrote that to her.
Sorry this is so long. It was just a kind of magical night filled with
friendly ghosts and talk of times gone by. Then we went to sleep
together on our screened-in porch where we continued to
talk about all sorts of meaningful stuff. Wow...what a great night.
Heidi
answering. I thought it was one of those LOL type of things.
Anyway...just wanted to share a really fun thing that happened last
night. My two older girls, Aislinn, 7, and Elysia, 5, have been staying
up with me for the last 3 nights until about 12:30. The first two
nights we looked at "reborn" babies online (check them out, they're
amazing!). Last night was different. We have a library room in our
house with a built-in bookshelf that's about 9' high x 13' wide thats
overflowing with books. But off on it's own is a little antique
bookshelf with glass doors. It too is full of books, but antique books.
For the first time last night, Aislinn asked me about those books.
Some of the books belonged to my greatgrandfather. About 25 are my
greatgrandmother's diaries. Some belonged to other passed away family
members. Some I just bought at yard sales because they were beautiful.
So the girls asked if we could get a few out. The first one they picked
was a monsterous old bible. As soon as we opened it we made a fabulous
discovery...a letter to my great grandfather mailed on Oct. 4, 1945 from
Ontario, Canada...and it's never been opened. We were so excited. The
girls didn't want to open it. They have a thing about suspending the
magic and mystery as long as possible. So I asked them how they would
feel if we let my Oma (Grandmother) open it. The letter is addressed to
her fil. So now we can't wait until she comes over today to show her
the letter.
After that, we picked a book at random from among the diaries. The
small autograph album I pulled out was gifted to my ggm on March 18,1893
as a going-away present from her friends as she was moving from
Plymouth, Kansas to Kenmore, NY where she met and married my ggf (to
whom the letter is addressed). She had traveled to Kansas with her
family in a wagon train. The girls and I were moved to tears as we read
the wonderful little good-bye poems that people wrote. Ex: the first
one...Dear Mary, Friends must part, Strangers meet, Ties be broken once
so sweet. This world must change and be anew, And you and I must bid
adeiu. Forget-me-not. From your friend, Lizzie Beiyliff. Each person
had a different poem and they are all so sweet. They skipped pages and
then later on others wrote in it too including my gf, her adopted son,
wrote on Dec 21., 1921: "To Mother, Remember me when this you see. The
many miles apart we be. Your loving son, Kenneth." He was 10 years
old when he wrote that to her.
Sorry this is so long. It was just a kind of magical night filled with
friendly ghosts and talk of times gone by. Then we went to sleep
together on our screened-in porch where we continued to
talk about all sorts of meaningful stuff. Wow...what a great night.
Heidi
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/25/2003 10:40:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
ynxn96@... writes:
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ynxn96@... writes:
> Wow...what a great night.Indeed.
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/25/03 8:40:12 AM, ynxn96@... writes:
<< ...a letter to my great grandfather mailed on Oct. 4, 1945 from
Ontario, Canada...and it's never been opened. >>
Is it possible there was enough glue left and humidity over the past 50 years
that it resealed itself?
I have envelopes reseal themselves sometimes even in New Mexico sometimes.
I LOVE old letters. I love their addresses, their envelopes, their stamps
and postmarks and EVERYTHING.
Sandra
<< ...a letter to my great grandfather mailed on Oct. 4, 1945 from
Ontario, Canada...and it's never been opened. >>
Is it possible there was enough glue left and humidity over the past 50 years
that it resealed itself?
I have envelopes reseal themselves sometimes even in New Mexico sometimes.
I LOVE old letters. I love their addresses, their envelopes, their stamps
and postmarks and EVERYTHING.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/25/03 7:40:04 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
ynxn96@... writes:
evening, with all its glorious excitement and magic.
Rhonda
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ynxn96@... writes:
> Sorry this is so long. It was just a kind of magical night filled withThanx so much for sharing Heidi!!! I felt like I could invision the whole
> friendly ghosts and talk of times gone by. Then we went to sleep
> together on our screened-in porch where we continued to
> talk about all sorts of meaningful stuff. Wow...what a great night.
>
> Heidi
>
evening, with all its glorious excitement and magic.
Rhonda
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Barb Eaton
Heidi,
Thanks for sharing. What a wonderfully magical evening. It gave me goose
bumps. <g> Do you know where the many mile where? Just curious.
Barb E
"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it
is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to
the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last
analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is
grace."
- Frederick Buechner, Author, in "Now and Then"
on 7/25/03 10:56 AM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
Thanks for sharing. What a wonderfully magical evening. It gave me goose
bumps. <g> Do you know where the many mile where? Just curious.
Barb E
"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it
is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to
the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last
analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is
grace."
- Frederick Buechner, Author, in "Now and Then"
on 7/25/03 10:56 AM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
> "To Mother, Remember me when this you see. The
> many miles apart we be. Your loving son, Kenneth." He was 10 years
> old when he wrote that to her.
>
>
> Heidi
>
>
badolbilz
Barb, I'm not sure what you mean. Could you rephrase that? Heidi
Barb Eaton wrote:
Barb Eaton wrote:
>Heidi,[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> Thanks for sharing. What a wonderfully magical evening. It gave me goose
>bumps. <g> Do you know where the many mile where? Just curious.
>
>
>Barb E
>"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it
>is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
>excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to
>the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last
>analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is
>grace."
>
>- Frederick Buechner, Author, in "Now and Then"
>
>
>
>
>on 7/25/03 10:56 AM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
>
>
>
>>"To Mother, Remember me when this you see. The
>>many miles apart we be. Your loving son, Kenneth." He was 10 years
>>old when he wrote that to her.
>>
>>
>>Heidi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>[email protected]
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>
>
badolbilz
Oh, sorry Barb. You mean the miles between my grandfather and his
mother. No, I don't think we'll ever know. They've both passed away.
My Oma opened the letter today. It was a quick hello from my ggf's
cousins in Kitchener, Ontario. And I really studied the seal. I don't
think it had ever been opened. But you never know...it's still fun and
now the girls want to study all my old heirlooms to see what we can
find. I do too:) .
Heidi
Barb Eaton wrote:
mother. No, I don't think we'll ever know. They've both passed away.
My Oma opened the letter today. It was a quick hello from my ggf's
cousins in Kitchener, Ontario. And I really studied the seal. I don't
think it had ever been opened. But you never know...it's still fun and
now the girls want to study all my old heirlooms to see what we can
find. I do too:) .
Heidi
Barb Eaton wrote:
>Heidi,[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> Thanks for sharing. What a wonderfully magical evening. It gave me goose
>bumps. <g> Do you know where the many mile where? Just curious.
>
>
>Barb E
>"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it
>is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
>excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to
>the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last
>analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is
>grace."
>
>- Frederick Buechner, Author, in "Now and Then"
>
>
>
>
>on 7/25/03 10:56 AM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
>
>
>
>>"To Mother, Remember me when this you see. The
>>many miles apart we be. Your loving son, Kenneth." He was 10 years
>>old when he wrote that to her.
>>
>>
>>Heidi
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>[email protected]
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
>
>
>
Barb Eaton
Maybe you'll find it in those writings. At ten I wonder if he could have
been apprenticed.<sp> It was such a long time ago. Your kids' idea sounds so
interesting. Have fun. :-)
Barb E
We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that he
is someone today.
Stacie Tauscher
on 7/25/03 7:49 PM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
been apprenticed.<sp> It was such a long time ago. Your kids' idea sounds so
interesting. Have fun. :-)
Barb E
We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that he
is someone today.
Stacie Tauscher
on 7/25/03 7:49 PM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
> Oh, sorry Barb. You mean the miles between my grandfather and his
> mother. No, I don't think we'll ever know. They've both passed away.
>
>
> Heidi
Fetteroll
on 7/25/03 7:49 PM, badolbilz at ynxn96@... wrote:
to mail unsealed letters than sealed ones. So it's possible it had been
delivered unsealed and then sealed itself over the years.
I tried to find out why there was a discount but couldn't. But here's a few
of interesting things I ran across, how Rural Free Delivery was responsible
for improving roads, missle mail and a still running mule mail delivery and
things you can't send to other countries. Some odd things showed up in a
number of country's lists like prison-made items, shoes and playing cards.
http://www.usps.com/history/history/his1.htm
Rural Free Delivery
Today it is difficult to envision the isolation that was the lot of farm
families in early America. In the days before telephones, radios, or
televisions were common, the farmer's main links to the outside world were
the mail and the newspapers that came by mail to the nearest post office.
Since the mail had to be picked up, this meant a trip to the post office,
often involving a day's travel, round-trip. The farmer might delay picking
up mail for days, weeks, or even months until the trip could be coupled with
one for supplies, food, or equipment.
John Wanamaker of Pennsylvania was the first Postmaster General to advocate
rural free delivery (RFD). Although funds were appropriated a month before
he left office in 1893, subsequent Postmasters General dragged their feet on
inaugurating the new service so that it was 1896 before the first
experimental rural delivery routes began in West Virginia, with carriers
working out of post offices in Charlestown, Halltown, and Uvilla.
Many transportation events in postal history were marked by great
demonstrations: the Pony Express, for example, and scheduled airmail service
in 1918. The West Virginia experiment with rural free delivery, however, was
launched in relative obscurity and in an atmosphere of hostility. Critics of
the plan claimed it was impracticaland too expensive to have a postal
carrier trudge over rutted roads and through forests trying to deliver mail
in all kinds of weather.
However, the farmers, without exception, were delighted with the new service
and the new world open to them. After receiving free delivery for a few
months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it up. A
Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15 years, he
had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get the mail.
A byproduct of rural free delivery was the stimulation it provided to the
development of the great American system of roads and highways. A
prerequisite for rural delivery was good roads. After hundreds of petitions
for rural delivery were turned down by the Post Office because of
unserviceable and inaccessible roads, responsible local governments began to
extend and improve existing highways. Between 1897 and 1908, these local
governments spent an estimated $72 million on bridges, culverts, and other
improvements. In one county in Indiana, farmers themselves paid over $2,600
to grade and gravel a road in order to qualify for RFD.
The impact of RFD as a cultural and social agent for millions of Americans
was even more striking, and, in this respect, rural delivery still is a
vital link between industrial and rural America.
Missile Mail
Throughout its history, the Postal Service enthusiastically has explored
faster, more efficient forms of mail transportation. Technologies now
commonplace -- railroads, automobiles, and airplanes -- were embraced by the
Post Office Department at their radical birth, when they were considered
new-fangled, unworkable contraptions by many.
One such technology, however, remains only a footnote in the history of mail
delivery. On June 8, 1959, in a move a postal official heralded as "of
historic significance to the peoples of the entire world," the Navy
submarine U.S.S. Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at
the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. "Before man reaches the
moon," the official was quoted as saying, "mail will be delivered within
hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by
guided missiles - missile mail."
History proved differently, but this experiment with missile mail
exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the Post Office Department when it came
to developing faster, better ways of moving the mail.
Mule Mail - High Tech, Then Low Trek Descent into Grand Canyon, Mule Mail
The sign on the only cafe in town reads "No Fries 'Til Mail." Life in the
community of Supai, Arizona, literally survives on its mail--and eats more
mail than it reads.
Arguably the most remote mail route in the country, the Supai route is the
last mule train delivery in the United States. The route brings everything
from food to furniture to the tiny Havasupai Indian Reservation, consisting
of 525 tribal members who live deep below the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
The only way in and out of Supai is an eight-mile trail on foot, mule, or
horseback. The first two miles of the trail consist of a dizzying series of
switchbacks that careen along the red rock cliffs of the Grand Canyon's
shale formation.
Helicopters and air drops are impractical here, so the mule mail train makes
the three- to five-hour trip five days a week, even through wind and rain.
During a typical week, more than a ton of mail is sent via the mules, with
each mule mail animal carrying a cargo of 200 pounds.
========
This is a partial list of things you can't send to other countries from the
International Rate Calculator:
Afghanistan
Articles liable to compete with national industry.
Articles of silk.
Chessboards.
Children toys except sports goods.
Literature, publications, other articles prejudicial to public order or
offensive to religion or morality.
Tapestries and lace.
Albania
Extravagant clothes and other articles contrary to Albanians' taste.
Items sent by political emigres.
Literature, publications, and other articles prejudicial to the State public
order.
Used articles.
Algeria
Funeral urns.
Household articles made of tin.
Saccharine in tablets or packets.
Used clothing, accessories, blankets, linen, textile furnishings, footwear
and headwear.
Watches and clocks.
Australia
Goods produced wholly or partly in prisons or by convict labor.
Seditious literature.
Silencers for firearms.
Used bedding.
Brazil
Primary educational books not written in Portuguese.
Cambodia
Coins; banknotes; currency notes (paper money); securities payable to
bearer; traveler's checks; manufactured and unmanufactured platinum, gold,
silver; precious stones; jewels; expensive jewelry; and other valuable
articles.
Canada
Butane gas lighters and refill cartridges.
Commercial tags of metal.
Oleomargarine and other butter substitutes, including altered or renovated
butter.
Parcels bearing caution labels indicating the contents are flammable.
Plumage and skins of wild birds.
Prison-made goods being sold or intended for sale by a person or firm.
Reprints of Canadian or British works copyrighted in Canada.
Reproductions of Canadian postage stamps unless printed in publications in
black and white only and with a defacing line drawn across each
reproduction.
Smoke-making devices for motor vehicles and boats.
Used or secondhand hives or bee supplies.
China
Manuscripts, printed matter, photographic negatives, gramophone records,
films, magnetic tapes, video tapes, etc., which could do political,
economical, cultural, or moral harm to the People's Republic of China.
Meat and meat products.
Radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie-talkies and
parts thereof; valves, antennae, etc.
Used clothing and bedding.
Wrist-watches, cameras, television sets, radio sets, tape records, bicycles,
sewing machines, and ventilators.
Cuba
Musical letters or cards that play a sound recording when opened.
Cyprus
Daggers.
Explosives and flammable substances.
Leeches and silkworms.
Postcards of private manufacture having illustrated designs not previously
approved by the Cyprus Post Office.
Seditious publications.
Denmark
Almanacs (except for single copies) that do not bear the University almanac
stamp.
Dried or powdered milk, and food mixtures containing it.
Dominican Republic
Books in parcels addressed to bookshops care of banking institutions.
Poniards, daggers, stilettos, sticks, or fans with concealed blades or
firearms.
Roulette games and other gambling devices.
France
Measuring instruments marked in units not complying with French law.
Germany
Absinthe.
Playing cards, except in complete decks properly wrapped.
Pulverized coca beans.
Melatonin.
Iceland
Toys made of lead.
Indonesia
Books and periodicals printed in any Indonesian language and published
outside of Indonesia, except educational books approved by the Indonesian
Department of Commerce.
Cloth and batik designs and sarongs.
Cocoa leaves, dried, undried, or powdered.
Indonesian national currency (rupiahs).
Used articles including clothing.
Ireland
Hay, straw, including articles made of straw.
Prison-made goods.
Israel
Agricultural tools and accessories.
Blank invoices with headings.
Cigarettes exceeding 600.
Games of chance.
Lottery tickets and advertisements.
Organic fertilizers.
Soil and sand.
Spices exceeding 1 kg.
Tropical and sub-tropical fresh fruit.
Used beehives.
Italy
Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).
Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.
Bells and other musical instruments and parts thereof.
Clocks and supplies for clocks.
Ether and chloroform.
Footwear of any kind.
Haberdashery and sewn articles of any kind, including trimmings and lace;
handkerchiefs; scarves; shawls, needlework including stockings and gloves;
bonnets, caps, and hats of any kind.
Hair and articles made of hair.
Leather goods.
Live bees, leeches, and silkworms. Parasites and predators of harmful
insects.
Nutmeg, vanilla; sea salt, rock salt; saffron.
Perfumery goods of all kinds (except soap).
Playing cards of any kind.
Postage stamps in sealed or unsealed letters.
Ribbons for typewriters.
Saccharine and all products containing saccharine.
Salted, smoked or otherwise prepared meats; fats; and lard.
Tobacco.
Toys not made wholly of wood.
Jordan
Advertisements concerning treatment of venereal diseases or medicinal
preparations intended to serve as preventives against those diseases.
Kuwait
Magazines or other printed matter containing illustrations of nude or partly
nude human figures.
Nicaragua
Communist material or literature.
Foreign lottery tickets.
Lighters.
Police whistles.
Telegraph equipment.
Paraguay
Batteries.
Plastic toys.
Soaps.
Stocking and socks except those made of jersey.
Suitcases; leather bags.
Wool blankets.
Peru
Artificial flowers and interior ornaments.
Ceramic products and imitation jewelry.
Cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco.
Clothing, accessories, and underwear.
Communist propaganda.
Contraceptive products, remedies, or apparatus.
Electrical household appliances.
Footwear, shoes, boots, and accessories.
Furs and clothing made of fur.
Gloves and hosiery.
Household articles of iron, steel, copper, and aluminum.
Household linens.
Lighters.
Perfume products or soaps.
Perishable infectious biological substances.
Playing cards.
Radioactive materials.
Samples of cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco.
Sound recorders and reproducing devices.
Textiles and carpets.
Toys and dolls of all kinds.
Travel articles, suitcases, attache cases, kits, or similar articles.
Waxes and creams for shoes.
Wooden utensils.
Qatar
Alcoholic beverages of all kinds.
Ammunition.
Obscene or immoral articles.
Sri Lanka
Paper and writing products (envelopes, ink, pencils, pens, erasers, chalk,
etc.).
Radios; tape recording machines and parts thereof.
Sweden, Switzerland, and Portugal
Lottery tickets and advertisements concerning lotteries.
United Kingdom
Citizens Band Radios, walkie-talkies, microbugs, and radio microphones that
are capable of transmitting on any frequency between 26.1 and 29.7
megacycles per second and 88 to 108 Mhz per second.
Goods made in foreign prisons, except those imported for a non-commercial
purpose or of a kind not manufactured in the UK.
Horror comics and matrices.
Vietnam
Invisible ink, codes, cyphers, symbols or other types of secret
correspondence, and shorthand notes.
Products made from non-Vietnamese tobacco.
Radio transmitters and receivers and radio set accessories of any kind.
Unused postage stamps.
Used clothing, blankets, mosquito nets, and shoes.
> And I really studied the seal. I don'tAt one time (as late as the early '60s since I remember it) it was cheaper
> think it had ever been opened.
to mail unsealed letters than sealed ones. So it's possible it had been
delivered unsealed and then sealed itself over the years.
I tried to find out why there was a discount but couldn't. But here's a few
of interesting things I ran across, how Rural Free Delivery was responsible
for improving roads, missle mail and a still running mule mail delivery and
things you can't send to other countries. Some odd things showed up in a
number of country's lists like prison-made items, shoes and playing cards.
http://www.usps.com/history/history/his1.htm
Rural Free Delivery
Today it is difficult to envision the isolation that was the lot of farm
families in early America. In the days before telephones, radios, or
televisions were common, the farmer's main links to the outside world were
the mail and the newspapers that came by mail to the nearest post office.
Since the mail had to be picked up, this meant a trip to the post office,
often involving a day's travel, round-trip. The farmer might delay picking
up mail for days, weeks, or even months until the trip could be coupled with
one for supplies, food, or equipment.
John Wanamaker of Pennsylvania was the first Postmaster General to advocate
rural free delivery (RFD). Although funds were appropriated a month before
he left office in 1893, subsequent Postmasters General dragged their feet on
inaugurating the new service so that it was 1896 before the first
experimental rural delivery routes began in West Virginia, with carriers
working out of post offices in Charlestown, Halltown, and Uvilla.
Many transportation events in postal history were marked by great
demonstrations: the Pony Express, for example, and scheduled airmail service
in 1918. The West Virginia experiment with rural free delivery, however, was
launched in relative obscurity and in an atmosphere of hostility. Critics of
the plan claimed it was impracticaland too expensive to have a postal
carrier trudge over rutted roads and through forests trying to deliver mail
in all kinds of weather.
However, the farmers, without exception, were delighted with the new service
and the new world open to them. After receiving free delivery for a few
months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it up. A
Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15 years, he
had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get the mail.
A byproduct of rural free delivery was the stimulation it provided to the
development of the great American system of roads and highways. A
prerequisite for rural delivery was good roads. After hundreds of petitions
for rural delivery were turned down by the Post Office because of
unserviceable and inaccessible roads, responsible local governments began to
extend and improve existing highways. Between 1897 and 1908, these local
governments spent an estimated $72 million on bridges, culverts, and other
improvements. In one county in Indiana, farmers themselves paid over $2,600
to grade and gravel a road in order to qualify for RFD.
The impact of RFD as a cultural and social agent for millions of Americans
was even more striking, and, in this respect, rural delivery still is a
vital link between industrial and rural America.
Missile Mail
Throughout its history, the Postal Service enthusiastically has explored
faster, more efficient forms of mail transportation. Technologies now
commonplace -- railroads, automobiles, and airplanes -- were embraced by the
Post Office Department at their radical birth, when they were considered
new-fangled, unworkable contraptions by many.
One such technology, however, remains only a footnote in the history of mail
delivery. On June 8, 1959, in a move a postal official heralded as "of
historic significance to the peoples of the entire world," the Navy
submarine U.S.S. Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at
the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. "Before man reaches the
moon," the official was quoted as saying, "mail will be delivered within
hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by
guided missiles - missile mail."
History proved differently, but this experiment with missile mail
exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the Post Office Department when it came
to developing faster, better ways of moving the mail.
Mule Mail - High Tech, Then Low Trek Descent into Grand Canyon, Mule Mail
The sign on the only cafe in town reads "No Fries 'Til Mail." Life in the
community of Supai, Arizona, literally survives on its mail--and eats more
mail than it reads.
Arguably the most remote mail route in the country, the Supai route is the
last mule train delivery in the United States. The route brings everything
from food to furniture to the tiny Havasupai Indian Reservation, consisting
of 525 tribal members who live deep below the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
The only way in and out of Supai is an eight-mile trail on foot, mule, or
horseback. The first two miles of the trail consist of a dizzying series of
switchbacks that careen along the red rock cliffs of the Grand Canyon's
shale formation.
Helicopters and air drops are impractical here, so the mule mail train makes
the three- to five-hour trip five days a week, even through wind and rain.
During a typical week, more than a ton of mail is sent via the mules, with
each mule mail animal carrying a cargo of 200 pounds.
========
This is a partial list of things you can't send to other countries from the
International Rate Calculator:
Afghanistan
Articles liable to compete with national industry.
Articles of silk.
Chessboards.
Children toys except sports goods.
Literature, publications, other articles prejudicial to public order or
offensive to religion or morality.
Tapestries and lace.
Albania
Extravagant clothes and other articles contrary to Albanians' taste.
Items sent by political emigres.
Literature, publications, and other articles prejudicial to the State public
order.
Used articles.
Algeria
Funeral urns.
Household articles made of tin.
Saccharine in tablets or packets.
Used clothing, accessories, blankets, linen, textile furnishings, footwear
and headwear.
Watches and clocks.
Australia
Goods produced wholly or partly in prisons or by convict labor.
Seditious literature.
Silencers for firearms.
Used bedding.
Brazil
Primary educational books not written in Portuguese.
Cambodia
Coins; banknotes; currency notes (paper money); securities payable to
bearer; traveler's checks; manufactured and unmanufactured platinum, gold,
silver; precious stones; jewels; expensive jewelry; and other valuable
articles.
Canada
Butane gas lighters and refill cartridges.
Commercial tags of metal.
Oleomargarine and other butter substitutes, including altered or renovated
butter.
Parcels bearing caution labels indicating the contents are flammable.
Plumage and skins of wild birds.
Prison-made goods being sold or intended for sale by a person or firm.
Reprints of Canadian or British works copyrighted in Canada.
Reproductions of Canadian postage stamps unless printed in publications in
black and white only and with a defacing line drawn across each
reproduction.
Smoke-making devices for motor vehicles and boats.
Used or secondhand hives or bee supplies.
China
Manuscripts, printed matter, photographic negatives, gramophone records,
films, magnetic tapes, video tapes, etc., which could do political,
economical, cultural, or moral harm to the People's Republic of China.
Meat and meat products.
Radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie-talkies and
parts thereof; valves, antennae, etc.
Used clothing and bedding.
Wrist-watches, cameras, television sets, radio sets, tape records, bicycles,
sewing machines, and ventilators.
Cuba
Musical letters or cards that play a sound recording when opened.
Cyprus
Daggers.
Explosives and flammable substances.
Leeches and silkworms.
Postcards of private manufacture having illustrated designs not previously
approved by the Cyprus Post Office.
Seditious publications.
Denmark
Almanacs (except for single copies) that do not bear the University almanac
stamp.
Dried or powdered milk, and food mixtures containing it.
Dominican Republic
Books in parcels addressed to bookshops care of banking institutions.
Poniards, daggers, stilettos, sticks, or fans with concealed blades or
firearms.
Roulette games and other gambling devices.
France
Measuring instruments marked in units not complying with French law.
Germany
Absinthe.
Playing cards, except in complete decks properly wrapped.
Pulverized coca beans.
Melatonin.
Iceland
Toys made of lead.
Indonesia
Books and periodicals printed in any Indonesian language and published
outside of Indonesia, except educational books approved by the Indonesian
Department of Commerce.
Cloth and batik designs and sarongs.
Cocoa leaves, dried, undried, or powdered.
Indonesian national currency (rupiahs).
Used articles including clothing.
Ireland
Hay, straw, including articles made of straw.
Prison-made goods.
Israel
Agricultural tools and accessories.
Blank invoices with headings.
Cigarettes exceeding 600.
Games of chance.
Lottery tickets and advertisements.
Organic fertilizers.
Soil and sand.
Spices exceeding 1 kg.
Tropical and sub-tropical fresh fruit.
Used beehives.
Italy
Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).
Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.
Bells and other musical instruments and parts thereof.
Clocks and supplies for clocks.
Ether and chloroform.
Footwear of any kind.
Haberdashery and sewn articles of any kind, including trimmings and lace;
handkerchiefs; scarves; shawls, needlework including stockings and gloves;
bonnets, caps, and hats of any kind.
Hair and articles made of hair.
Leather goods.
Live bees, leeches, and silkworms. Parasites and predators of harmful
insects.
Nutmeg, vanilla; sea salt, rock salt; saffron.
Perfumery goods of all kinds (except soap).
Playing cards of any kind.
Postage stamps in sealed or unsealed letters.
Ribbons for typewriters.
Saccharine and all products containing saccharine.
Salted, smoked or otherwise prepared meats; fats; and lard.
Tobacco.
Toys not made wholly of wood.
Jordan
Advertisements concerning treatment of venereal diseases or medicinal
preparations intended to serve as preventives against those diseases.
Kuwait
Magazines or other printed matter containing illustrations of nude or partly
nude human figures.
Nicaragua
Communist material or literature.
Foreign lottery tickets.
Lighters.
Police whistles.
Telegraph equipment.
Paraguay
Batteries.
Plastic toys.
Soaps.
Stocking and socks except those made of jersey.
Suitcases; leather bags.
Wool blankets.
Peru
Artificial flowers and interior ornaments.
Ceramic products and imitation jewelry.
Cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco.
Clothing, accessories, and underwear.
Communist propaganda.
Contraceptive products, remedies, or apparatus.
Electrical household appliances.
Footwear, shoes, boots, and accessories.
Furs and clothing made of fur.
Gloves and hosiery.
Household articles of iron, steel, copper, and aluminum.
Household linens.
Lighters.
Perfume products or soaps.
Perishable infectious biological substances.
Playing cards.
Radioactive materials.
Samples of cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco.
Sound recorders and reproducing devices.
Textiles and carpets.
Toys and dolls of all kinds.
Travel articles, suitcases, attache cases, kits, or similar articles.
Waxes and creams for shoes.
Wooden utensils.
Qatar
Alcoholic beverages of all kinds.
Ammunition.
Obscene or immoral articles.
Sri Lanka
Paper and writing products (envelopes, ink, pencils, pens, erasers, chalk,
etc.).
Radios; tape recording machines and parts thereof.
Sweden, Switzerland, and Portugal
Lottery tickets and advertisements concerning lotteries.
United Kingdom
Citizens Band Radios, walkie-talkies, microbugs, and radio microphones that
are capable of transmitting on any frequency between 26.1 and 29.7
megacycles per second and 88 to 108 Mhz per second.
Goods made in foreign prisons, except those imported for a non-commercial
purpose or of a kind not manufactured in the UK.
Horror comics and matrices.
Vietnam
Invisible ink, codes, cyphers, symbols or other types of secret
correspondence, and shorthand notes.
Products made from non-Vietnamese tobacco.
Radio transmitters and receivers and radio set accessories of any kind.
Unused postage stamps.
Used clothing, blankets, mosquito nets, and shoes.
[email protected]
Cool article!
Why don't we all send something---ANYthing---to Peru, just to see whether it
passes? <g> Hell, What CAN you send to Peru?
~Kelly
Why don't we all send something---ANYthing---to Peru, just to see whether it
passes? <g> Hell, What CAN you send to Peru?
~Kelly
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/03 2:18:27 AM, fetteroll@... writes:
<< At one time (as late as the early '60s since I remember it) it was cheaper
to mail unsealed letters than sealed ones. >>
YES! It was the way people used to send Christmas cards, with the flap just
tucked in instead of sealed! Maybe it was postcard rate, or nearly so.
I think it was at the time that the law went away, early 60's? late 50s?
that Christmas Seals came around, and they were fund raising for... March of
Dimes? Tuberculosis Society? So then lots of Christmas cards were closed with
those Christmas-Seals stamps, because I think sometimes packaged Christmas
cards had envelopes without any glue, like the inside envelopes of invitations and
announcements do still.
Rather than go totally against traditions of how to address things and for
them not to be sealed, wedding invitations and graduation announcements just
have an outside envelope with glue.
Sandra
<< At one time (as late as the early '60s since I remember it) it was cheaper
to mail unsealed letters than sealed ones. >>
YES! It was the way people used to send Christmas cards, with the flap just
tucked in instead of sealed! Maybe it was postcard rate, or nearly so.
I think it was at the time that the law went away, early 60's? late 50s?
that Christmas Seals came around, and they were fund raising for... March of
Dimes? Tuberculosis Society? So then lots of Christmas cards were closed with
those Christmas-Seals stamps, because I think sometimes packaged Christmas
cards had envelopes without any glue, like the inside envelopes of invitations and
announcements do still.
Rather than go totally against traditions of how to address things and for
them not to be sealed, wedding invitations and graduation announcements just
have an outside envelope with glue.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/2003 10:15:11 AM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
SandraDodd@... writes:
> Rather than go totally against traditions of how to address things and forI don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes?
> them not to be sealed, wedding invitations and graduation announcements just
>
> have an outside envelope with glue.
>
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/03 9:16:57 AM, Tuckervill@... writes:
<< I don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes? >>
Sending a sealed packet was some high-class privilege you paid extra for.
I THINK when I was little, unsealed was 3 cents and I think the others might
have been 8 cents or so.
My neighbor Harry would know for SURE. He's 90 and knows a million bits of
trivia, but the problem is if I ask him I have to stick around for 85 bits of
trivia and a description of how the moon looked reflecting on the Pacific near
Okinawa in 1943 (well that was last time; next time will be something totally
unpredictable) and what opera recording just came out and who recorded it
first and how the old singers were greater. I can't stand it politely most days.
Sandra
<< I don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes? >>
Sending a sealed packet was some high-class privilege you paid extra for.
I THINK when I was little, unsealed was 3 cents and I think the others might
have been 8 cents or so.
My neighbor Harry would know for SURE. He's 90 and knows a million bits of
trivia, but the problem is if I ask him I have to stick around for 85 bits of
trivia and a description of how the moon looked reflecting on the Pacific near
Okinawa in 1943 (well that was last time; next time will be something totally
unpredictable) and what opera recording just came out and who recorded it
first and how the old singers were greater. I can't stand it politely most days.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/03 9:16:57 AM, Tuckervill@... writes:
<< I don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes? >>
Some of what's below is helpful, and some isn't, but I've put both parts
whole.
"or a Christmas greeting simply signed and not sealed."
My mom said that too. If you wanted to write a letter or note, it had to be
letter-price, but if you just signed your name you could send them at the
unsealed rate.
Before zip codes, if people were sending mail within their own city, they
didn't put the city and state, but just put "City" on the third line. "City"
mail is mentioned below.
July 11, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,
The 1¢ rate George Wagner discusses [March Specialist, p. 113] for postcards
with simple messages on them is merely the 1¢/2 oz. circular third class rate
that existed from May, 1879 to April 15, 1925, and then became 1 1⁄2¢ per 2
oz. until January 1, 1949. Check Tables on p. 114 of his reference 5 [U.S.
Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-1999, Revised Second Edition], or p. 111, Figure 22-7
for an example.
You could also mail a folder of postcards at the same rates, or a Christmas
greeting simply signed and not sealed. The third class mailings of 1925 and on
were often called Christmas card rates, and eventually displaced the use of
postcards in favor of the card and envelope combinations.
The disadvantage of using the third class mailings was that they were not
favorable or returnable without an added fee. His reference 3 - United States
Official Postal Guide - is quite helpful on pages 10 and 11 as to details. The
Post Office expected such third class mailings to be in groups of 20
identical, unsealed copies, but this was not always enforced. There was no "local"
rate for such mailings, but unpaid mailings were subject only to dues at a single
rate, vs. double rates for those out of town.
Mr. Wagner's Figures 4, 6 and 7 are good examples of third class mailings,
assuming they were mailing qualifying quantities. Figure 5 is just a mistake by
a Post Office dealing with the massive Christmas mailing they had in WW I.
I dislike "nitpicking" an author, but this one suggests a special unlisted
rate that was only one portion of a long existing rate.
Warren Bower
The Author Responds
I appreciate the comments by Mr. Bower, and I certainly don't believe he is
"nitpicking." One of the reasons that I wrote the article was to promote
discussion on the subject and to try to produce evidence for or against a
postulated one cent rate for post cards. In addition to this letter to the Editor, I
have received several others directly. It is my intention to summarize their
discussion points, as well as those from Mr. Bower, in a follow-up article.
Section 33 of the 1918 Postal Guide does list cards as included in articles
of the third class; but cards are also included in articles of the first
class. In Sections 11 to 16 that discuss post cards under first class matter,
references to post cards that are more properly third class also include the words
"entirely in print" and do not include exceptions or provisions for manuscript
inscriptions. But it is also true that Section 35(b) under third class
matter describes, as permissible, manuscript dedications or inscriptions of the
nature described in my article.
The bottom line seems to be that the regulations were not exactly clear; and
perhaps the Postmaster at Washington, D.C. was trying to simplify it for his
staff and for the public. It certainly would have been a welcome financial
relief to the public to know that they could legally continue to mail greeting
cards at one cent. It just appears that almost no one understood it.
I still welcome additional correspondence on this subject.
George P. Wagner
<< I don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes? >>
Some of what's below is helpful, and some isn't, but I've put both parts
whole.
"or a Christmas greeting simply signed and not sealed."
My mom said that too. If you wanted to write a letter or note, it had to be
letter-price, but if you just signed your name you could send them at the
unsealed rate.
Before zip codes, if people were sending mail within their own city, they
didn't put the city and state, but just put "City" on the third line. "City"
mail is mentioned below.
July 11, 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir,
The 1¢ rate George Wagner discusses [March Specialist, p. 113] for postcards
with simple messages on them is merely the 1¢/2 oz. circular third class rate
that existed from May, 1879 to April 15, 1925, and then became 1 1⁄2¢ per 2
oz. until January 1, 1949. Check Tables on p. 114 of his reference 5 [U.S.
Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-1999, Revised Second Edition], or p. 111, Figure 22-7
for an example.
You could also mail a folder of postcards at the same rates, or a Christmas
greeting simply signed and not sealed. The third class mailings of 1925 and on
were often called Christmas card rates, and eventually displaced the use of
postcards in favor of the card and envelope combinations.
The disadvantage of using the third class mailings was that they were not
favorable or returnable without an added fee. His reference 3 - United States
Official Postal Guide - is quite helpful on pages 10 and 11 as to details. The
Post Office expected such third class mailings to be in groups of 20
identical, unsealed copies, but this was not always enforced. There was no "local"
rate for such mailings, but unpaid mailings were subject only to dues at a single
rate, vs. double rates for those out of town.
Mr. Wagner's Figures 4, 6 and 7 are good examples of third class mailings,
assuming they were mailing qualifying quantities. Figure 5 is just a mistake by
a Post Office dealing with the massive Christmas mailing they had in WW I.
I dislike "nitpicking" an author, but this one suggests a special unlisted
rate that was only one portion of a long existing rate.
Warren Bower
The Author Responds
I appreciate the comments by Mr. Bower, and I certainly don't believe he is
"nitpicking." One of the reasons that I wrote the article was to promote
discussion on the subject and to try to produce evidence for or against a
postulated one cent rate for post cards. In addition to this letter to the Editor, I
have received several others directly. It is my intention to summarize their
discussion points, as well as those from Mr. Bower, in a follow-up article.
Section 33 of the 1918 Postal Guide does list cards as included in articles
of the third class; but cards are also included in articles of the first
class. In Sections 11 to 16 that discuss post cards under first class matter,
references to post cards that are more properly third class also include the words
"entirely in print" and do not include exceptions or provisions for manuscript
inscriptions. But it is also true that Section 35(b) under third class
matter describes, as permissible, manuscript dedications or inscriptions of the
nature described in my article.
The bottom line seems to be that the regulations were not exactly clear; and
perhaps the Postmaster at Washington, D.C. was trying to simplify it for his
staff and for the public. It certainly would have been a welcome financial
relief to the public to know that they could legally continue to mail greeting
cards at one cent. It just appears that almost no one understood it.
I still welcome additional correspondence on this subject.
George P. Wagner
Fetteroll
on 7/26/03 11:55 AM, SandraDodd@... at SandraDodd@... wrote:
point became 5 cent bluish gray Washington stamps. I was born in 1956 and
though I have lots of memories of my childhood, I doubt I'd have such clear
memories before 4.
(The earliest memory I can identify is at 3 1/2, while my mother was in the
hospital having my sister. It was 1960 and my father was an engineer so
liked technology and we had a dishwasher. My grandmother was staying with me
and I was flabbergasted that she was choosing to do dishes by hand. I tried
to show her how to turn on the dishwasher but she just didn't want to be
taught. ;-)
Joyce
> I THINK when I was little, unsealed was 3 cents and I think the others mightI remember 4 cents for sealed. Reddish purple Lincoln stamps. Which at some
> have been 8 cents or so.
point became 5 cent bluish gray Washington stamps. I was born in 1956 and
though I have lots of memories of my childhood, I doubt I'd have such clear
memories before 4.
(The earliest memory I can identify is at 3 1/2, while my mother was in the
hospital having my sister. It was 1960 and my father was an engineer so
liked technology and we had a dishwasher. My grandmother was staying with me
and I was flabbergasted that she was choosing to do dishes by hand. I tried
to show her how to turn on the dishwasher but she just didn't want to be
taught. ;-)
Joyce
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/2003 10:56:19 AM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
else, like sharing a taxi? Or did you have to pay extra just to keep the
postman from reading your mail?
There has to be some kind of reasoning behind it, probably based on the way
people sent messages previously. I'm trying to imagine what that might be, but
I'm apparently missing some crucial bit of trivia.
Hmmm...
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
SandraDodd@... writes:
> <<I don't get the point of not sealing the envelopes? >>Yeah, but why? Did they use your envelope to transport a letter for someone
>
> Sending a sealed packet was some high-class privilege you paid extra for.
>
else, like sharing a taxi? Or did you have to pay extra just to keep the
postman from reading your mail?
There has to be some kind of reasoning behind it, probably based on the way
people sent messages previously. I'm trying to imagine what that might be, but
I'm apparently missing some crucial bit of trivia.
Hmmm...
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/2003 11:02:03 AM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
the mundane and archaic some folks can be interested in, even in 2000. lol.
(Not you, those quoted.) The postal service is often a bit of an enigma to me,
anyway.
Unsealed...still doesn't make sense, but perhaps some day. :) Thanks.
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
SandraDodd@... writes:
> Some of what's below is helpful, and some isn't, but I've put both partsIt helped me see that there are no limits to my astonishment at how much of
> whole.
>
the mundane and archaic some folks can be interested in, even in 2000. lol.
(Not you, those quoted.) The postal service is often a bit of an enigma to me,
anyway.
Unsealed...still doesn't make sense, but perhaps some day. :) Thanks.
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 04:20:51 -0400 Fetteroll <fetteroll@...>
writes:
live. Our road is dirt but the main road it comes off of is not, and
going half a mile down to the road for mail would beat going all the way
into town.
We're eligible for a free PO box in the town where we technically "live",
but that's around 12 miles away, in a direction we rarely drive. There's
another town about 6 miles away in the direction we go most often, and we
pay $20 a year for a box there. We can get our mail anytime but to get
packages, we have to go in when the post office is open, which is M-F
7-4, and it's closed from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch. The postmaster
(postmistress) is the onlt person there, unless she's on vacation and a
woman from an even smaller town fills in. If we show up early Saturday
morning while the mail is being put in boxes we can sometimes call
through the box and ask about packages, and she brings them around, but
we're not generally early people.
Fedex, UPS, and all the other carriers do deliver to our house. When I
order something online, I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. Some
companies don't say which carrier they use - I know amazon uses different
carriers for different orders - so I'm left leaving long messages in the
comments sections, whic sometimes don't seem to get read. My computer has
been in for service twice while under warranty and both times they've
managed to ship it all the way from Tennessee to California and then
realize that the address they had was a PO Box - even though they came
and picked it up at my home address.
Dar, with a glimpe into modern rural postal stuff
writes:
> After receiving free delivery for a fewup. A
> months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it
> Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15I really want to know why we can't get mail delivery to the farm where we
> years, he
> had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get
> the mail.
live. Our road is dirt but the main road it comes off of is not, and
going half a mile down to the road for mail would beat going all the way
into town.
We're eligible for a free PO box in the town where we technically "live",
but that's around 12 miles away, in a direction we rarely drive. There's
another town about 6 miles away in the direction we go most often, and we
pay $20 a year for a box there. We can get our mail anytime but to get
packages, we have to go in when the post office is open, which is M-F
7-4, and it's closed from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch. The postmaster
(postmistress) is the onlt person there, unless she's on vacation and a
woman from an even smaller town fills in. If we show up early Saturday
morning while the mail is being put in boxes we can sometimes call
through the box and ask about packages, and she brings them around, but
we're not generally early people.
Fedex, UPS, and all the other carriers do deliver to our house. When I
order something online, I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. Some
companies don't say which carrier they use - I know amazon uses different
carriers for different orders - so I'm left leaving long messages in the
comments sections, whic sometimes don't seem to get read. My computer has
been in for service twice while under warranty and both times they've
managed to ship it all the way from Tennessee to California and then
realize that the address they had was a PO Box - even though they came
and picked it up at my home address.
Dar, with a glimpe into modern rural postal stuff
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/03 11:03:58 AM, Tuckervill@... writes:
<< Or did you have to pay extra just to keep the
postman from reading your mail? >>
Kind of, I guess. Even now, second class and fourth class mail aren't sealed
totally up, usually. The purpose for sealing now is to KEEP something from
accidentally riding along. I got a gas bill for someone way across the country
once, stuck in a bulk-mailed newsletter. Some of that stuff gets just thrown
away unseen, so that's where some of the lost mail undoubtedly goes, into the
trash, unseen, in the wrong state.
Magazines used to be mailed under the assumption they wouldn't be sealed up,
but now some come in plastic bags (Nintendo Power does). So they're sealed
but NOT sealed--if they're in brown paper and sealed (like a clasp envelope) I
think they have to be first class (or bulk first, which is only a little
cheaper).
Sandra who has done way more bulk mailing than was fun
<< Or did you have to pay extra just to keep the
postman from reading your mail? >>
Kind of, I guess. Even now, second class and fourth class mail aren't sealed
totally up, usually. The purpose for sealing now is to KEEP something from
accidentally riding along. I got a gas bill for someone way across the country
once, stuck in a bulk-mailed newsletter. Some of that stuff gets just thrown
away unseen, so that's where some of the lost mail undoubtedly goes, into the
trash, unseen, in the wrong state.
Magazines used to be mailed under the assumption they wouldn't be sealed up,
but now some come in plastic bags (Nintendo Power does). So they're sealed
but NOT sealed--if they're in brown paper and sealed (like a clasp envelope) I
think they have to be first class (or bulk first, which is only a little
cheaper).
Sandra who has done way more bulk mailing than was fun
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/26/03 11:38:56 AM, freeform@... writes:
<< I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. >>
Can you just put BOTH whenever they ask for an address? Put the house number
first and THEN the P.O. Box which might be fine with those companies that say
"no P.O. Boxes" but the post office works from bottom up, so they see zip
code first, then state, city, then second (or third) line of the address. If you
have all kinds of junk in the first or second line that shouldn't affect
their P.O. Box delivery at ALL.
If you put the P.O. Box on the line under your name and further explanation
in the following line, that will screw up both systems, though.
Sandra
<< I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. >>
Can you just put BOTH whenever they ask for an address? Put the house number
first and THEN the P.O. Box which might be fine with those companies that say
"no P.O. Boxes" but the post office works from bottom up, so they see zip
code first, then state, city, then second (or third) line of the address. If you
have all kinds of junk in the first or second line that shouldn't affect
their P.O. Box delivery at ALL.
If you put the P.O. Box on the line under your name and further explanation
in the following line, that will screw up both systems, though.
Sandra
[email protected]
It generally won't work because it's all different - the zip code and
city for our PO Box are different from the ones where we really live
(mostly because we live 1/2 mile from the county line). Unless I could
squeeze the entire physical address into the second line... and trust
that UPS and fedex will get it.
If there's a comments place, I write it there, and sometimes I email the
company right after I order. When our Harry Potter book got send by the
post office rather than fedex, the woman who sometimes substitutes at our
PO was visiting her friend at the Arbuckle PO (the town where we
physically live) and recognized the name and said, "Oh, they have a box
in Dunnigan" and so they sent it over to our PO Box even though it justy
had the Arbuckle address... but we're not always that lucky.
Dar
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 14:13:07 EDT SandraDodd@... writes:
city for our PO Box are different from the ones where we really live
(mostly because we live 1/2 mile from the county line). Unless I could
squeeze the entire physical address into the second line... and trust
that UPS and fedex will get it.
If there's a comments place, I write it there, and sometimes I email the
company right after I order. When our Harry Potter book got send by the
post office rather than fedex, the woman who sometimes substitutes at our
PO was visiting her friend at the Arbuckle PO (the town where we
physically live) and recognized the name and said, "Oh, they have a box
in Dunnigan" and so they sent it over to our PO Box even though it justy
had the Arbuckle address... but we're not always that lucky.
Dar
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 14:13:07 EDT SandraDodd@... writes:
> Can you just put BOTH whenever they ask for an address? Put the
> house number
> first and THEN the P.O. Box which might be fine with those companies
> that say
> "no P.O. Boxes" but the post office works from bottom up, so they
> see zip
> code first, then state, city, then second (or third) line of the
> address. If you
> have all kinds of junk in the first or second line that shouldn't
> affect
> their P.O. Box delivery at ALL.
Fetteroll
on 7/26/03 1:06 PM, Tuckervill@... at Tuckervill@... wrote:
wasn't sealed then it became conventional to consider them as and use the
rate for "cards". Apparently the rate for cards was intended for postcards,
but no one had defined what "card" meant.
On that link I sent before the stories, there was another story about the
reorganization of the Post Office. It mentioned how disorganized everything
was because the Postmaster General had no authority to make any decisions or
change anything. The Post Office wasn't being run like a business but a
branch of the government. (It didn't say, but maybe congress was voting on
changes?) Rates made no sense based on the cost of delivery and lots of
other nonsensical stuff. It said that except for zip codes essentially
everything was handled exactly as it had been 100 years before while having
to handle a huge overwhelming volume of mail.
So there was a lot of stuff going on that didn't make any sense. Then there
was the postal strike in 1970's and everything was reorganized into the now
self-supporting business of the US Postal System.
Joyce
> Unsealed...still doesn't make sense, but perhaps some day.I think, maybe buried in all words that Sandra sent, was the idea that if it
wasn't sealed then it became conventional to consider them as and use the
rate for "cards". Apparently the rate for cards was intended for postcards,
but no one had defined what "card" meant.
On that link I sent before the stories, there was another story about the
reorganization of the Post Office. It mentioned how disorganized everything
was because the Postmaster General had no authority to make any decisions or
change anything. The Post Office wasn't being run like a business but a
branch of the government. (It didn't say, but maybe congress was voting on
changes?) Rates made no sense based on the cost of delivery and lots of
other nonsensical stuff. It said that except for zip codes essentially
everything was handled exactly as it had been 100 years before while having
to handle a huge overwhelming volume of mail.
So there was a lot of stuff going on that didn't make any sense. Then there
was the postal strike in 1970's and everything was reorganized into the now
self-supporting business of the US Postal System.
Joyce
heather mclean
We use a box at a commercial mail store instead of the
US post office because we get to use an actual address
and not a PO Box address. Ours is called The UPS
Store. Companies are happy to send packages there and
we can pick them up when we like..., well, whenever
they are open. And their hours are much more generous
than the US Post Office.
heather m
..summering in issaquah, wa
--- freeform@... wrote:
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
US post office because we get to use an actual address
and not a PO Box address. Ours is called The UPS
Store. Companies are happy to send packages there and
we can pick them up when we like..., well, whenever
they are open. And their hours are much more generous
than the US Post Office.
heather m
..summering in issaquah, wa
--- freeform@... wrote:
> It generally won't work because it's all different -__________________________________
> the zip code and
> city for our PO Box are different from the ones
> where we really live
> (mostly because we live 1/2 mile from the county
> line). Unless I could
> squeeze the entire physical address into the second
> line... and trust
> that UPS and fedex will get it.
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
[email protected]
Good heavens, where do you live?!
Elaine Marshall
ecsm@...
-------Original Message-------
From: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, July 26, 2003 10:37:59
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] discovering buried treasure
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 04:20:51 -0400 Fetteroll <fetteroll@...>
writes:
live. Our road is dirt but the main road it comes off of is not, and
going half a mile down to the road for mail would beat going all the way
into town.
We're eligible for a free PO box in the town where we technically "live",
but that's around 12 miles away, in a direction we rarely drive. There's
another town about 6 miles away in the direction we go most often, and we
pay $20 a year for a box there. We can get our mail anytime but to get
packages, we have to go in when the post office is open, which is M-F
7-4, and it's closed from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch. The postmaster
(postmistress) is the onlt person there, unless she's on vacation and a
woman from an even smaller town fills in. If we show up early Saturday
morning while the mail is being put in boxes we can sometimes call
through the box and ask about packages, and she brings them around, but
we're not generally early people.
Fedex, UPS, and all the other carriers do deliver to our house. When I
order something online, I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. Some
companies don't say which carrier they use - I know amazon uses different
carriers for different orders - so I'm left leaving long messages in the
comments sections, whic sometimes don't seem to get read. My computer has
been in for service twice while under warranty and both times they've
managed to ship it all the way from Tennessee to California and then
realize that the address they had was a PO Box - even though they came
and picked it up at my home address.
Dar, with a glimpe into modern rural postal stuff
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Elaine Marshall
ecsm@...
-------Original Message-------
From: [email protected]
Date: Saturday, July 26, 2003 10:37:59
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] discovering buried treasure
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 04:20:51 -0400 Fetteroll <fetteroll@...>
writes:
> After receiving free delivery for a fewup. A
> months, one observed that it would take away part of life to give it
> Missouri farmer looked back on his life and calculated that, in 15I really want to know why we can't get mail delivery to the farm where we
> years, he
> had traveled 12,000 miles going to and from his post office to get
> the mail.
live. Our road is dirt but the main road it comes off of is not, and
going half a mile down to the road for mail would beat going all the way
into town.
We're eligible for a free PO box in the town where we technically "live",
but that's around 12 miles away, in a direction we rarely drive. There's
another town about 6 miles away in the direction we go most often, and we
pay $20 a year for a box there. We can get our mail anytime but to get
packages, we have to go in when the post office is open, which is M-F
7-4, and it's closed from 12:30 to 1:00 for lunch. The postmaster
(postmistress) is the onlt person there, unless she's on vacation and a
woman from an even smaller town fills in. If we show up early Saturday
morning while the mail is being put in boxes we can sometimes call
through the box and ask about packages, and she brings them around, but
we're not generally early people.
Fedex, UPS, and all the other carriers do deliver to our house. When I
order something online, I often run into trouble with the delivery
address, because the other carriers won't deliver to our PO Box address,
and the US postal system won't deliver to our home address. Some
companies don't say which carrier they use - I know amazon uses different
carriers for different orders - so I'm left leaving long messages in the
comments sections, whic sometimes don't seem to get read. My computer has
been in for service twice while under warranty and both times they've
managed to ship it all the way from Tennessee to California and then
realize that the address they had was a PO Box - even though they came
and picked it up at my home address.
Dar, with a glimpe into modern rural postal stuff
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 15:31:30 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
"ecsm@..." <ecsm@...> writes:
We're deep in Farm Country, lots of cotton and tomatoes and rice around,
but Sac is closer and the bay area is only about an hour and a half...
Dar
"ecsm@..." <ecsm@...> writes:
> Good heavens, where do you live?!We're in Northern California, about an hour northwest of Sacramento.
>
We're deep in Farm Country, lots of cotton and tomatoes and rice around,
but Sac is closer and the bay area is only about an hour and a half...
Dar
Dan Vilter
> In a message dated 7/26/03 11:03:58 AM, Tuckervill@... writes:In a way, yes. I remember my father at the time saying that it so the postal
>
> << Or did you have to pay extra just to keep the
> postman from reading your mail? >>
officials could check to make sure that you weren't including anything more
than a signed card, like a personal letter that requires more postage.
Up until I left the University of North Texas in 1995 all items sent out
through the school had to be submitted unsealed so they could be checked for
official state business only. The folks in the mail office sealed and
affixed postage before sending it off into the world.
-Dan Vilter