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The Nation's Pulse
The Country Post Office
So long to an American way of life.
The United States Postal Service is broke and is going to have to do something about that. We hear that it may soon be necessary to stop Saturday mail delivery to save some money. And we also hear that some post offices will have to be closed and it’s a good bet that the list of expendables will include some small town and country P.O.s. These little places have a friendly charm that you won’t fine in the city; so as necessary as it may be, I will be sad to see the end of country post offices.
Here is the one I will miss most: This little post office sits in a small hamlet near the Chesapeake Bay — let’s call it Brown’s Corner. This is not even a tiny town, but just a crossroad with two junk/”antique” sheds and a wooden storefront that was once a restaurant and will perhaps be something else next year. And the U.S. Post Office. The tiny brick structure is dwarfed by its name and zip code in big letters across the front and boasts two large flower planters tended by local ladies who arrive with a plastic milk jug of water when the flowers need watering. This is an area short on towns and big on farms, wildlife and woods. Since there is no mail delivery in Brown’s Corner, locals rent a box at the post office to get their mail. Picking up one’s mail is a daily ritual for farmers, fishermen, year-round and (like me) summer residents — and for my neighbor Lem. In his baseball cap and work clothes, Lem rides his old bike to the post office and beyond — rain or shine — making an interesting contrast to the tourist bikers in their spandex and perky helmets. Getting the mail is a ritual that breeds friendliness. Someone holds the door for you; “Thanks, how are you today?” “Pretty good ‘cept for this heat.” “I heard it’s the hottest July ever.” “Well, see you, stay cool.”
From the inner sanctum, the enterprise is presided over by Miss Emmy the postmistress who knows everyone in town. That means it is never necessary to wait as a stranger in a line with other strangers to deal with a clerk you don’t know. If there happen to be a few waiting in line to buy stamps or mail a package or whatever, Miss Emmy never disappears into the back to do whatever postal clerks do when they vanish while people are still in line. Besides, there is no back in which to hide. Every transaction comes with conversation. “I saw your daughter this morning,” “I heard the swim team won its meet Monday,” If she is away from the counter you just call “Hi, Miss Emmy, looks like we have a package.” “Yeah, it’s addressed to your son. Feels heavy — I think it’s a battery.”
Miss Emmy goes home for lunch from noon to one p.m. This does not inconvenience anyone, as nobody expects anybody to be there at lunch time anyway. Of course you can still get to your mailbox, as you can on weekends and holidays, just not into Miss Emmy’s inner sanctum.
Toward the end of the summer, Miss Emmy told me that she is going to retire in a few months. Seeing my dismay, she explained that the money problems of the postal service have her worried about her pension. So she is getting while the getting is good. And with her departure I see what’s coming. An end to many country post offices, to their Miss Emmys, to the daily ritual, the friendly meetings — and who knows how far Lem will have to ride to get his mail.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment
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Darin| 9.14.11 @ 6:16AM
All fine, but times change and the post office must change with them. Buildings used to have hitching posts in front of them so you could tie your horse. You don't find these much anymore. There used to be pay phones all over the place. Now they are very rare. The post office is still needed (or a private venture to do the same function), but the importance has faded as communication has moved to the Internet. The post office either deals with this reality or dies. Dealing with it includes shutting down small post offices and doing consolidation. Since the postal unions are resisting all change (and have been for years), the measures needed become more and more drastic.
Alan Brooks| 9.14.11 @ 4:11PM
We are all a bit goopily sentimental at AS, aren't we?
My mom is from the South, and I miss the ol' times with grits smothered in butter at 6 AM on Sunday morn.
Oh, how we miss the Dead Old Days!
Alert1201| 9.14.11 @ 7:08AM
I can remember as a kid in the early 70s going with my grand mother each day to the General Store that doubled as a post office. She would not only get her mail but the neighbors as well, visit for a while with the owner and friends who also dropped and load up on the latest town gossip.
Wonderful memories but like Darin said, times do change.
Timothy L. Pennell| 9.14.11 @ 7:54AM
There used to be a BUGGY WHIP Company on the Dow Jones. Did you know that?
There used to be Rotary Phones and Operators, who connected your calls.
When you pulled in to a Gas Station, a guy would come out, pump your gas, wash your windows, check your oil, and your tire pressure.
There used to be SLEDS, There used to be Bicycles with Banana Seats. There used to be Vinyl Records, that played on Phonographs. We used to have Antennas on our Roofs.
There used to be a Pony Express, Steam Locomotives and Piston Driven Military Fighters and Bombers.
The end of the Post office, is like Death. It's a part of life.
Why am I thinking of that song from EVITA?
Citizen Jerry| 9.14.11 @ 12:05PM
I won't cry for you. But there's still a certain sadness in watching parts of our unique American culture die before our eyes.
"The voices sound sad as they're singing along, another piece of America's lost." -- Ed Bruce
donserge| 9.14.11 @ 7:55AM
If the post office was initially set up to run for profit in a capitalistic economy these rural post offices would never have opened. And, I might add, these multi-million dollar (tax payer funded) buildings in small towns would never have been built.
Teaghan| 9.14.11 @ 7:59AM
No Darin, I disagree. If they ran the damn post office like a business that needs to make a profit to suvive, they wouldn't need to close the rural POs. I live in rural Virginia and our little rural POs are a sometimes incorporated with a general store. They provide a place not only to pick up your mail, but to get a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread not to mention, run into friends you wouldn't see otherwise. These places don't need to go but I suppose they will do to the mismanagment of the government. How sad. Not getting mail on Saturday is another "like Europe" idea. That's obama's goal isn't it? To make us like just another EU country?
Byron Keith| 9.14.11 @ 10:17AM
"If they ran the damn post office like a business . . ." they would make sure their employees were competent and maybe, just maybe, courteous. But when's the last time you saw any of either in a post office? It's getting on five years since I've looked into one, so I may be behind the times here - but I doubt it.
Darin| 9.14.11 @ 1:39PM
That's really the whole problem. The post office is NOT run like a business. If it were, you wouldn't have a post office in 2 small towns 5 miles apart. Rural delivery would use a formula based on distance and people X miles from the post office would not see a mail truck every day. If your mailbox is blocked by a car, the driver does not stop. The list goes on. But since the post office is not permitted to be run like a business, reasonable measures cannot be taken (or they are fought until extreme measures are required for survival).
TrueBlue| 9.14.11 @ 1:46PM
Thank the unions for that. They had a purpose once, now their purpose is to run businesses into the ground. Did you know there are separate unions for the people who work on the union staffs?
Brian Mc| 9.14.11 @ 8:25AM
I wonder sometimes...what if my wages had kept up with the price of a stamp? I have not mailed a letter or bought a stamp for over twenty years...just an economic reality. Now, they want to run the health care system? Not even God will help us if we the people displace Him with the Federal god of gimme'.
Dave| 9.14.11 @ 8:33AM
Perhaps if the staff at the Post Office were more friendly, more helpful, and actually WORKED - I might use it.
Email didn't kill postal - attitude did.
CopyKatnj| 9.14.11 @ 8:53AM
This weekend I intend to watch my DVD "The Postman", a Kevin Costner movie. Above all other movies, I find this motion picture inspiring and a heaping helping of proud Americanism to boot.
Yes times have changed as others have commented above. I for one will miss these buildings. They are the only government buildings that I care to go into. Seeing the most wanted poster, the rows of post boxes and people carrying packages with contents destined to far places some how brings a smile to me. I see people reaching out to others with concern that the package arrives at a certain date and is safe. It's human to human interaction, something you don't "see" in an email.
Dan Hirsch| 9.14.11 @ 9:34AM
You won't miss the buildings. They won't be torn down; they'll be vacant and have "For sale" and "For rent" signs in the windows. Now Uncle Sam can have a taste of what the rest of us are 'enjoying' when he discovers that nobody wants his overbuilt buildings, at any price...
DTOM
DaveD| 9.14.11 @ 12:48PM
Maybe, maybe not. The local branch office where I live is up for elimination but will not be closed until they find a buyer for the building. (Prolly a law some place to that effect.)
Gayle| 9.14.11 @ 9:38AM
I have seen the figure that closing rural post offices would save the USPS 0.7% of their expenses. The USPS' problem is the same as many another municipality or school system - bloated pension and benefits systems that aren't sustainable. Can the post office do postal operations more efficiently? Without a doubt. Are there small post offices that could be closed? Most probably. Will it solve their problems. No.
The post office in my rural Kansas town is slated to be closed and the public meeting was last week. Nearly 200 people filled up the church basement for the meeting. The district postmaster who moderated was rude, arrogant, and refused to give straight, honest answers to the questions people asked. He clearly had very little idea of the realities of rural postal service. The USPS proposal for our area is to merge us with another small, rural post office. The problem is that PO is over 25 miles away on unpaved roads and there are even fewer businesses in that town. It would make much more sense to put everyone to the PO in the county seat. At least there are other reasons to go there. The postmaster at the meeting scoffed at such suggestions and told us that our mailman would become a "post office on wheels," picking up packages (the next day), selling stamps and delivering money orders. All while expanding his route to cover the people who did have boxes and driving nearly 60 extra miles to get the mail from the relocated office. Right.
We've been told that our good turnout at the meeting might help us and that our letters to the regional postmaster might help. Sadly, I think that nothing much will help until the concept of customer service is put back in to the post office at the higher levels and they get a handle on their benefits.
Petronius| 9.14.11 @ 9:41AM
So long as most people write checks to pay bills there will be a U. S. Postal Service. Title XVIII and the Private Express statute isn't getting the axe until banks and credit carriers go paperless and the "last mile problem" gets solved. Half a Billion dollars could be saved Today if the Board of Governors did two things. Let the carriers case and carry their routes as they see fit and cease violations under article 8 of our contract. Grievances are the most wasteful expense for the U.S.P.S. But they won't stop this abuse because senior carriers wouldn't retire early to escape it and they wouldn't need so many supervisors enforcing idiotic mickey mouse work rules which impede our efficiency and serve no purpose other than inflicting misery on the job.
Congress should then pass H.R.1351 adjusting the prepayment formula for retirement and medical benefits we make to the Office of Personnel Management and return our $26,000,000,000 in past earnings they plundered for their ethanol racket. The Postal Service can then retire the $18,000,000,000 debt owed and remain viable. Finally, the suits at L'efant Plaza can come to their senses and make Miss Emmy want to stay with us instead of running her out to avoid paying her a couple hundred dollars more each month for her annuity. They are not the Postal Service. She is.
al bundhii| 9.22.11 @ 1:33AM
Re the demise of check writing: in the early '70s the FRB set up maybe 20 or so regional check processing centers around the country to clear checks. Besides the operations in the 12 district hdqrts the rest of the centers were in regional urban centers. When the debit card and email paying came in check writing began to go away. About 3 years ago the FRB closed down most of the check centers, including mine, and there are only about four check processing centers left; three east of the Mississippi, and one west.
Pecos Pete| 9.14.11 @ 10:12AM
The USPS is the best example of government run amok compounded by union rules and a ridiculous wage, benefit and pension cost.
I agree with Gayle above. I too live in a rural area where the post office is a small part of a general store. The benches in front of the store provide for local information dispersal. (Ah, rumors.) It is 20 miles to the next closest post office and I'll do that travel twice a month with gasoline costing $3.70 per gallon.
Things change. Agreed, there ain't no more buggy-whips or horse railings (they may be making a comeback soon). But, the post office could change in unimaginable ways if it were truly privatized.
United Parcel Service delivers up this 20 mile canyon daily and they make a profit. Why not the USPS?
The Big E| 9.14.11 @ 10:37AM
I live in a town with about 13,000 full time residents and 16,000 college students. There are two zip-codes, one for the town, and one for the University. The University has its own post office on campus, and there are two other post offices in town. One of those is down-town, was built in the 1930's, and is a beautiful stone building that adds greatly to the flavor of the down-town area. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The other is in a more recently developed area, was built in the late 1970's (I think), and is about as distinctive as a wart on toad's ass. It's much larger, built of brown bricks, is all glass up front, has inadequate parking, etc. The new post office was built (as I understand it) because the town had outgrown the old post office. There was not enough room to expand the old post office to accommodate expected growth, and its down-town location was extremely inconvenient to those starting businesses in the areas growing the most rapidly. The old post office was not closed when the new one opened though, in large part because of its convenience to down-town businesses.
A few years ago, there was some discussion that the USPS may close the down-town post office, which prompted the town to purchase the building and lease it back to the USPS for a pittance in order to insure continued down-town mail service. Now, the word has come down yet again, that the down-town post office will be closed.
Needless to say, merchants down-town are upset. Many of those people have had the same business mailing address for decades.
The other, newer post office, is already over crowded at certain times of day and has grossly inadequate parking. The road on which it sits is already a traffic nightmare at almost any time of day, and of course, with more traffic having to come there for mail, that will all only get worse.
I don't know what will happen to the (few) employees who work down-town. They don't look old enough to retire, and I assume they'll be needed to cover the increased traffic at the other post office anyway, so I assume they will keep their jobs. I hope they will, because unlike what some have posted above, the folks who work in both our post offices are helpful and friendly even when things are backed up and crowded.
I don't know what to think about the closing of the downtown post office. On the one hand, its departure will be a blow to the down-town area, and in particular to down-town businesses. Due to the distance, time, and cost of gas involved in driving across town to the other post office, the closure of the old post office will increase the cost of owning a business downtown, though by how much, I do not know. At the same time, I recognize that the world is always changing, and progress sometimes means the loss of one cherished institution for the sake of the development of something which will work better in the long run and which, in years to come, may itself become a cherished institution.
I guess I just wish that I felt confident that the changes in the USPS, the end of Saturday delivery, and even the closure of our downtown post office, was being necessitated by the march of progress. If I felt confident that was the case, then I could accept the necessity of the changes and closures much more easily.
But for some reason, I can't escape the feeling that the real reason has little to do with the march of progress, and more to do with mismanagement, or with the need to continue feeding the insatiable, blood sucking needs of an unsustainable employee pension system.
Either way, an institution passes, and with its departure comes the onset of an uncertain, and more impersonal, future.
Petronius| 9.14.11 @ 11:33AM
Big
Retirement and medical benefits are prescribed in Civil Service Law for craft and management alike. it's not a component of our labor agreements.
The Big E| 9.14.11 @ 12:05PM
The question is not from whence the employee benefits originate, the question is whether or not they are sustainable. If the USPS is having to cut back its services and locations in order to pay unsustainable pension and benefit obligations then what does it matter whether those obligations arise out of a labor agreement, Civil Service administrative law, or the US Code? They are still unsustainable, and by definition, must either be changed or fail.
ChcoclateJeebus| 9.14.11 @ 12:49PM
"Hi, Miss Emmy, looks like we have a package." "Yeah, it's addressed to your son. Feels heavy -- I think it's the Ultra Pleasure Vibe 2000."
Citizen Jerry| 9.14.11 @ 3:16PM
How is this advancing the discussion in any positive direction?
c. j. acworth| 9.14.11 @ 6:09PM
I for one don't think I'll miss our P.O. here in rural NH, if it is one that gets the axe. Whoever does the sorting can't seem to separate my stuff from my neighbors'. I always have to double-check to make sure I'm not opening someone else's mail. Also, USPS makes me go down to the P.O. to pick up any package that is too large for my roadside mailbox. FedEx and UPS come up the private road I and my neighbors live on and brings them right to my door.
Todd Powers| 9.15.11 @ 2:07AM
Here in southern Appalachia, we have entire countieswith 25,000 people. I live within 5 miles of a county line along a four-lane highway. Within a 15 minute drive in anydirection, there are 13 post offices. Way too many. There was an article in one of the area newspapers about this a few weeks ago that listed several candidates for closure. Only a few rabblerousers in one community seemed worried about this. Everyone else seems to be accepting this in stride.
POST American| 9.15.11 @ 5:28AM
----------------BOTTOMLESS LINE--------------------
--Oh well.
Anyway, we'd give it about 5 years before
outsourcing, becomes insourcing, and some
of that 30 MILLION male surplus in RED
China's brought over here to manage the post
in our ever more dysfunctional POST America.
SO, keep destroyng your unborn folks.
Keep enjoying the sports, n' the porn
n' the wampum.
-HAARP technologies, Pigeon Lake tunnels
and Boise 'sovereignty zones'
------------JUST KEEP ON GOIN'---------------
KyMouse| 9.15.11 @ 10:54AM
Remember when the Post Office spent about $1 billion to give its eagle logo a makeover? Oooh, supersonic waves of air rolling off its wings! I recall the top PO people saying that the change would be good for employee morale.
So how good is morale now? Perhaps that billion dollars could have been put to a better use.
Doc| 9.15.11 @ 4:50PM
I wonder how the post office in my mom's home town in North Eastern Pennsylvania is doing? It was a gathering place where the local women and children could converse. (The barber shop was where the men were). I remember since my Great uncle was the local Post Master. (and the local barber). Gosh, no wonder why he knew so much.