It's Mailbox Improvement Week. What the USPS wants you to know

Washington Post

2 days ago

Washington Post

The best mail I ever received

In his July 11 column, 'Neither snow nor pandemic stops the nation's first miracle,' David Von Drehle wrote an ode to the U.S. Postal Service. We asked our readers: What's the best piece of mail you've ever received? In January, just before my 78th birthday, I received a Christmas card from my friend Catherine, who now lives in San Antonio. We lost each other 25 years ago when she moved away from her home in Florida. I tried every way I could think of to locate her, but I was unsuccessful. Luckily, she never stopped trying to find me. In our time apart, I lived in New York City and then moved to the northern Catskills. In May, we spent a week together in San Antonio with our second husbands. My eyes are full of tears of gratitude to the U.S. mail for bringing me her Christmas card. Anne Donovan, Prattsville, New York About 40 years ago, I, a gay man and a surgeon, received in the mail a laboratory report that my blood test for HIV was negative. At its annual meeting, my professional academy provided an opportunity for its fellows to be tested for the insidious presence of a virus that, if contracted, would not only rob us of our careers but also take our lives. That letter brought me relief and exhilaration — as well as evidence that my career, my loves and my life were not in their final stages. I still shiver and shed grateful tears when I recall receiving that piece of mail. John Wickenden, Oro Valley, Arizona Story continues below advertisement In the back of one of my closets is an unopened FedEx box from my mother. My 92-year-old mom died on March 8, 2019, and this box was delivered on March 11, 2019, as though it was mailed by the dead. The box is probably nothing. Mom had trouble throwing things away, so she'd often mail discarded items to me, her only daughter, instead. I got a package about once a month, usually like this one: a box about the size of a soccer ball. I received several used tablecloths, her father's plaid bathrobe, mismatched cutlery, her mother's apple corer, suspenders, an ashtray (Mom hadn't smoked in 70 years), wooden coat hangers and knee-high, fluorescent-orange socks. My unopened box probably contains broken pencils and used place mats, and maybe something she picked up for me at the Treasure Chest, her assisted-living facility's thrift store. She once sent me a clown trivet she purchased there. Right now, that package sitting unopened in my closet is the best piece of mail I've ever received — because it could contain anything. My mother and I had a difficult relationship, and toward the end of her life she would say, 'Tell me something good you remember.' I would dredge up what I could. But now I wonder whether these boxes of broken things she habitually sent were her trying to discard her bad memories. Or were they an instrument of repair — gifts that she genuinely thought in her dementia would help me see how loving she really was? The only choice I have to make now, though, is how to receive her last gift — and how I'm going to construct my memory of her. I'm not ready to open that package yet. Sarah Sloane, Fort Collins, Colorado There isn't just one best piece of mail I've ever received — there are dozens, because they all came from my grandmother. To understand why Grandmom's letters are so special to me, you need to know a bit about her. Maria Guiseppa Sainato was born in Roseto Valfortore, a small village in the Italian province of Foggia, closer to the Adriatic than the Tyrrhenian. She was the oldest in her family and had little formal education. Grandmom came to the United States alone through Ellis Island about three months after her 17th birthday. A family contact in New York collected her and put her on a train to D.C. An immigration document from the U.S. Embassy in Rome dated March 21, 1925, included a photo of a pretty ragazza with soulful eyes and hair cut just below her ears and a physical description with these quaint observations: 'forehead low,' 'nose straight,' 'mouth medium,' 'chin oval,' 'complexion dark,' 'face oval,' no 'distinguishing marks.' Granddad, Cristofaro Leonardo Capone, arrived from Italy through the port of Philadelphia and worked in a steel mill in West Virginia before settling in D.C. He ran a couple of small Italian grocery stores that failed during the Great Depression, then worked as a butcher at the iconic Northeast Washington delicatessen A. Litteri. Grandmom worked as a seamstress for a downtown department store. My grandmother and I were not very close when I was little. She was not the hug and kiss-hello and goodbye type. She spoke softly, and I never heard her yell, cry or belly-laugh. There was also the language barrier. Grandmom told me that she and Granddad learned to speak English by creating and practicing what sounded to me like nursery rhymes. The one I remember is: 'Chicken in the car and the car can't go, and that's how you say Chicago.' My parents occasionally left us four kids with Grandmom and Granddad for a weekend. I do not remember us talking much, although my mom once marveled at my ability to 'read' liquor ads in magazines. Grandmom had been paging through those magazines with me, and I had learned to associate the pictures with the type of booze. Maybe she and I were learning together. I have only vague memories of Grandmom during my teen years, except that she couldn't properly pronounce the word 'teenager.' She always dropped the last syllable. Grandmom died in 1999 at the age of 91, after suffering with dementia for the last five years of her life. She didn't recognize me anymore. But I have vivid memories of our relationship during my freshman year of college and later, when I moved to California for law school and my first job, because we wrote letters to each other. And I kept every one of hers. 'A letter is more than all the cards in the world, when written from your hand.' — Maria Guiseppa Sainato Capone, Jan. 31, 1987. Joseph A. Capone, Oakton Story continues below advertisement Advertisement There were many times my husband and I didn't know how we would pay the rent or our heating bills, or afford gasoline during the 1973 oil crisis. We were struggling as law students and newly released active-duty naval officers. We fortunately both had benefits from the GI Bill but no other income. My husband finally got a clerkship, and I was able to work nights as a registered nurse after our first son was born. One day, the postman dropped a letter from the Navy with a check and a note that said: 'This check was found in a drawer when we were closing the U.S. NAVAL HOSPITAL ST ALBANS NY.' It was surprising, unexpected and a true gift from the Navy and the Postal Service. Elizabeth Principi, Del Mar, California I was born in Florida during the Great Depression, and my parents left the state just before World War II for a job in Massachusetts. My grandparents exchanged hundreds of letters with my parents over the years. My grandmother saved them all, and my mother found them when my parents retired to the family homestead! I have been reading them and extracting bits and pieces of my family's history for my children and grandchildren. I have copied pages and pages about hardship during the Depression, the 1935 hurricane in the Keys and many family events during those historic times. The best piece of mail I found was a letter from my grandfather, who wrote home from Paris on Armistice Day at the end of World War I, describing thousands of people in the streets cheering, blowing car horns and waving flags. My grandfather joined them. I copied the letter in my story for my children and gave the original to Florida's Orange County Regional History Center. Peggy Lantz, Orlando In my junior year of college in 1974, I was living on the $10 a week that Mom sent. Dad had recently retired. One day, I went to the post office and found a letter from the Social Security Administration. It was a check for $142.50, a benefit of my dad's retirement. Neither parent had told me about it. I treated my whole gang of friends to dinner (and lots of beer) that Saturday. I don't remember the total bill, but I had lots of money left over. I opened my first bank account, and I never worried about money again. Whatever I had was enough. Paul Lancaster, Blacksburg, Virginia Story continues below advertisement Advertisement My best piece of mail was my final discharge papers from the U.S. Army in 1970. They indicated that I had completed my six-year term of service to the nation. David Jensen, Cove, Oregon My nursing board scores in 1981. The envelope was oversize and had green trim. It took me a beat to realize what it was, and I was shaking so badly that my roommate had to open it and read it to me. I had been waiting almost six months for the results and was certain I had failed. But I passed with a high-enough score to be licensed anywhere in the country. That was the best piece of mail I have ever received! Donna Worman, Cottageville, South Carolina

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

San Francisco Chronicle

2 days ago

San Francisco Chronicle

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday. Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule. 'The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,' said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster. While it now grapples with concerns over its financial viability in the modern era, the agency has had a long and colorful history that helped shape the nation. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. A new postal service In those early days, creating an American postal system was a key priority for the nation's founders, who needed to communicate with the Continental Army and the colonies. When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it appointed Franklin as the first postmaster because he had served in the British postal service for North America. The early postal system also became crucial to unifying the diverse, fragmented colonies into a nation by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Westward expansion When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes that were first used by mail carriers on horseback and later upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Initially running north–south along the East Coast, post roads later extended westward. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. The Pony Express, operated by private carriers, was started to speed things up. A relay system of riders on horseback carried mail from California to Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days. While legendary, it only lasted about 18 months, until Oct. 26, 1861. The service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph, said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days. New types of delivery Free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in 1863 in the nation's largest cities. It was initially created as a response to grief during the Civil War. At the time, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. They sometimes got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed. Enthusiasm for home delivery spread quickly, and people living in rural areas wanted it, too. Despite logistical challenges, rural free delivery began expanding rapidly around 1900. By the 1920s, mail carriers mostly had replaced horse-drawn wagons with automobiles. Around that time, mail started being sent by airplane as well. The nation's first regularly scheduled airmail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes. The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines. In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed. Major changes to the system The postal service saw major growth during President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's time in office. His New Deal plan to address the Great Depression put people to work building 2,000 new post offices. After World War II, a booming economy and growing population led to a surge in mail. To handle the increasing volume, the post office needed a faster alternative to manual sorting. So, on July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code. Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail, Kochersperger said. The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster. By 1970, postal workers were angry over low wages and a strike was called by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York. Eventually about 200,000 workers joined the postal stoppage, which led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. It authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers and transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch. In more recent times, U.S. Postal Service workers have faced various threats, including anthrax, a serious infectious bacterial disease. Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C. died after breathing in the spores, and thousands were potentially exposed. Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened.

Hamilton Spectator

2 days ago

Hamilton Spectator

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

The one government agency that still reaches nearly every American daily — undeterred by rain, sleet, snow or even gloom of night — turns 250 on Saturday. Established in 1775, when the Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general, the postal service predates the United States itself. It was launched nearly a year before the colonies declared their break from British rule. 'The country may not even have come into existence but for the Postal Service,' said Stephen Allen Kochersperger, the postal service historian and a former local postmaster. Now grappling with concerns over its financial viability, the independent agency has had a long and colorful history. It has grown from serving the 13 colonies to delivering more mail than any other postal system in the world, reaching nearly 169 million addresses and employing more than 635,000 people. America's first postmaster When the Continental Congress met in 1775, it had two main priorities: appoint a commander to lead the war against Britain and appoint a postmaster to oversee communication among the colonies. Franklin was chosen because he had served in the British postal service for North America. He'd been dismissed in 1774, in part for his radical views. The early American postal service linked colonial leaders and the Continental Army. It also helped unify the diverse, fragmented colonies by spreading ideas of liberty and independence through letters, newspapers and pamphlets. 'People were reading, getting ideas of what it would be like to be an independent country,' Kochersperger said. Settlers, migration and roads: A nation connected When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, Congress was granted power to establish post offices and mail routes — many along existing Native American trails. These post roads, first used by mail carriers on horseback, were upgraded for stagecoaches. Some evolved into highways still used today. Historians have said this aided settler expansion into Native lands and was intertwined with the displacement of tribes. As western migration accelerated, mail was sent by ship from New York to Central America and on to California. Delivery typically took two to three months. A new business model: Putting a stamp on it Before the advent of stamps, postage was generally collected in cash from the recipient. 'By the mid 19th century, the problem is developing that the post office is carrying a lot of letters for which it's never actually getting paid,' said Daniel Piazza, chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. With no home delivery, recipients either didn't want the letters or were unaware of them. Postmasters paid to publish in newspapers lists of people with mail piling up. In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued. Making postage prepaid saved the post office the trouble of chasing down its money. 'That's a business model that's pioneered in 1847 that is still the basic business model of the postal service today,' Piazza said. A postal precursor: The Pony Express comes ... and goes While the Pony Express is legendary, it only lasted about 18 months. Operated by private carriers from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861, a relay system of riders on horseback carried mail, often from San Francisco or Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, Missouri, the furthest westward railroad stop. The 1,800-mile (2,900-kilometer) journey took 10 days. As a West Coast stock market emerged, most mail was financial, Piazza said. Businesses needed to send stock quotes and commodity prices across the country. 'And so they're willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to do that,' Piazza said. 'The Pony Express was very, very expensive.' While U.S. postage to send a letter was 10 cents in 1860, it initially cost an additional $5 to send mail by Pony Express — close to $200 today. Piazza said the service was scuttled by the Civil War and made obsolete with the advent of the telegraph. Later, the transcontinental railroad reduced mail delivery from months to days. A war and sad tidings streamlined home mail delivery After early experimentation, free mail delivery to homes began in earnest in the nation's largest cities in 1863. During the Civil War, the only communication from a father, brother, husband or son usually came through letter-writing. The postal service let soldiers send mail for free and vote by mail — an early forerunner of mail-in ballots. Women lined up daily at post offices, awaiting word. Sometimes they got their own letters back, with a note saying their loved one had been killed. 'And that was a terrible scene at the post office that played out almost every day,' Kochersperger said. Postal officials in Cleveland decided to take mail to people's homes out of compassion, he said. The idea spread quickly. City home delivery proved popular, but nearly two-thirds of Americans still lived in rural areas by the end of the 19th century. Demand was so great that rural free delivery, or RFD, began expanding rapidly around 1900. Postal innovations: Using Army planes and pilots While authorized air mail flights began in 1911, the nation's first regularly scheduled air mail service began on May 15, 1918. The initial routes were between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York, using Army pilots and planes. The post office soon took over air mail, running operations for nine years until turning to fledgling private airline companies, some of which remain major airlines. In the early days, flights were so dangerous that some pilots dubbed themselves the Suicide Club. Thirty-two pilots were killed, including four whose planes caught fire in flight, according to the National Postal Museum. There were no commercial aviation systems, navigational tools or radios, and pilots relied on landmarks to find their way. 'These pilots were flying in open cockpits and all kinds of weather. It was very risky,' Kochersperger said. FDR's New Deal brings the nation new post offices Part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal plan to address the Great Depression was to put people to work on federal construction projects. That included roughly 2,000 new post offices. A portion of each building's budget was reserved for artwork, such as murals. Hundreds of post offices still house original art from the era. During World War II, the 6888th Central Postal Battalion, or the Six Triple Eight , an all-Black and all-female unit of the Women's Army Corps, went overseas to tackle a massive backlog of undelivered mail for troops in Europe, many of whom had been reassigned. The unit's motto was, 'No mail, low morale.' It cleared the backlog in three months. A population boom and five digits transform mail service After World War II, the economy boomed — and so did the population. The post office needed a faster way to sort massive amounts of mail. It could no longer do so by hand. On July 1, 1963, each post office was given a five-digit ZIP code. 'Previously, clerks had to memorize thousands of points of address information so they could sort the mail,' Kochersperger said. 'With the ZIP code, you didn't have to memorize anything.' The public was skeptical at first, balking at more numbers. So, the post office came up with a friendly cartoon character named Mr. ZIP, who helped convince people their mail would arrive faster. It took some getting used to, but it worked. 'Today, can you imagine life without a ZIP code?' Kochersperger asked. A mail workers' strike led to restructuring and bargaining rights In 1970, a strike was called over low wages by leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers union in New York and quickly broadened in scope. After about 200,000 workers joined the first U.S. postal strike, President Richard Nixon called up the National Guard to help sort mail. But it was a 'disaster' after two days, Kochersperger said. The strike led to the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which authorized collective bargaining rights for postal workers. It also transformed the taxpayer-supported Post Office Department into the United States Postal Service, a financially self-sustaining and independent agency within the executive branch. The postmaster general would work for a board of governors instead of reporting to the president. The U.S. Postal Service would set its own rates, control its finances and decide post office locations. How anthrax attacks reshaped the postal service Weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four threatening letters contaminated with anthrax were sent through the mail, including to two U.S. senators. Two workers at a mail distribution center in Washington, D.C., died after breathing in the spores. Three other people were killed, and more than a dozen were sickened. Following a nine-year investigation , authorities concluded the person who mailed the anthrax had taken his own life in 2008 and the case was closed, but new precautions were added to protect workers. 'It changed the whole way that we sorted mail at that time,' Kochersperger said. Years later, postal workers would be designated essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and don protective gear again. What's next for the USPS? The advent of the internet and private companies like Amazon has taken a bite out of mail volume, threatening the postal service's financial viability . A 10-year modernization effort was launched to keep up with the times. Reaction has been mixed, but David Steiner , the agency's newly appointed postmaster general, says some improvements have been made. Steiner, a former FedEx board member, wants to help keep the service self-sustaining. He has said he opposes privatization, an idea raised by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, and believes the agency has a bright future as an independent entity. 'There is much to build upon in the years ahead,' he said. ___ Haigh reported from Hartford, Conn.

It's Mailbox Improvement Week. What the USPS wants you to know

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The best mail I ever received

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

It's Mailbox Improvement Week. What the USPS wants you to know

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Try Our AI Features

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The best mail I ever received

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

From Benjamin Franklin to Pony Express to anthrax: How the US Postal Service shaped a nation

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