Did you ever get the feeling that life has sped up and become more complicated as the years have passed? Well I certainly do. Of course I have counted many more years than you. I have moved from the age when you picked up the phone receiver and asked the operator to connect you with your Aunt Maggie. Now it seems that you have to find a small, pocket-sized phone set, check to see if you have enough bars or something (I don’t have one) and then punch in a series of numbers to either locate Auntie for a chat or send her a text message or e-mail her; and, you can do this while taking a photo of the children and listening to a new tune with the same device.. Even disposing of garbage is a problem.. In my earlier times any disposal of food garbage was handled by a service. Today I have to separate every thing. Paper, plastic, metal go in one can, grass and tree clippings in another and food garbage in a third can. But wait, you can’t put old flashlight batteries, worn out electronic gadgets (such as phones) motor oil and various other things in any of the cans. You must locate a collection point where you can carry your old double A batteries and the other stuff to dispose of them. You can get a guide from the city disposal headquarters.
As an old postal employee I am amazed at how complicated the mail service has become. It started with getting rid of small branch offices where mail could be received, cancelled and sorted for delivery quickly to various destinations. Nearby cities or villages could often get same day delivery. The postmen then kept a forwarding address book at their desks where your new location would be listed. Since usually only a few folks would move from a route each month the carrier would usually not even look in the book; he could memorize the forwarding address and write it on the envelope for immediate re-distribution. But management decided that there should be large distribution centers where all new mail should be sent before being cancelled and sorted out for destination. Soon after the forwarding of mail was removed from the carrier’s responsibility and that mail would be bundled up each morn and sent to the distribution center where clerks would forward them. But first, of course, sticky labels with the person’s new address had to be made for each change of address request. The requests were printed on file cards and boxed by route number. Are you beginning to see the problems here? The carrier who knew you and your new address could no longer just write it on your mail and send it on - - -- no, now your request of change and your mail had to wait while labels were made and cards filed alphabetically in proper boxes. If a number was out of place on a letter the forwarding clerk, who did not know you or the route, would just send it to the dead letter office where it would eventually be destroyed. To top it off in the ’ridiculous’ category, now the sorting of mail is no longer done by hand. Clerks operate machines that read the punched in zip code and address and direct the mail to the proper city and route. We hope. The mail is then machine sorted so that the carrier just picks up a row of mail in the morning for his route, bundles it and sets off for delivery. He no longer fingers the mail. This means that if the sequence is out of order relating to the rows of homes, he may find that, whoops!, here is Smith’s mail and I passed his house a half hour ago. Count your blessings if the mail to your home is on time now, or even makes it to your house. Forget about mail from your old address - -if some few pieces find the way and they are only a few weeks old - - and you are lucky.
Maybe I am over reacting to the present state of affairs and how it affects us. Here is a personal story that should be told once more. I bought a modern digital camera. I made myself comfortable on the couch at home and began to read its operating manual, the guide through menus and the directions about focusing, flash, deleting and/or viewing photos and onward to nausea. I tried to program this complicated device and finally was satisfied that it might take a picture. This was in preparation for my trip to Salt Lake City where I was scheduled to officiate at my younger daughter’s wedding. When I arrived there and enjoyed celebrating the reunion with my children and preparing for the coming affair I remembered my camera. I was confident that either of my daughters could teach me the rudiments of its operation. Both had been born into the electronic age. So, I approached the eldest who has computer memory, the world’s fastest typing speed, can manipulate scanners, Tvs, remotes, Tivos, and ‘smart bomb’ laser guiding sights. I handed her my camera and asked “Can you show me how to take a picture with this?” She looked at it briefly and said “Sure, dad. You look through this little window, point it at the subject and then push down this little button on the top.” Yeeaaahh! It worked. Now, I am no genius but I could handle that operation. Maybe life isn’t as complicated as I thought - - - but I am
Just sayin’
As an old postal employee I am amazed at how complicated the mail service has become. It started with getting rid of small branch offices where mail could be received, cancelled and sorted for delivery quickly to various destinations. Nearby cities or villages could often get same day delivery. The postmen then kept a forwarding address book at their desks where your new location would be listed. Since usually only a few folks would move from a route each month the carrier would usually not even look in the book; he could memorize the forwarding address and write it on the envelope for immediate re-distribution. But management decided that there should be large distribution centers where all new mail should be sent before being cancelled and sorted out for destination. Soon after the forwarding of mail was removed from the carrier’s responsibility and that mail would be bundled up each morn and sent to the distribution center where clerks would forward them. But first, of course, sticky labels with the person’s new address had to be made for each change of address request. The requests were printed on file cards and boxed by route number. Are you beginning to see the problems here? The carrier who knew you and your new address could no longer just write it on your mail and send it on - - -- no, now your request of change and your mail had to wait while labels were made and cards filed alphabetically in proper boxes. If a number was out of place on a letter the forwarding clerk, who did not know you or the route, would just send it to the dead letter office where it would eventually be destroyed. To top it off in the ’ridiculous’ category, now the sorting of mail is no longer done by hand. Clerks operate machines that read the punched in zip code and address and direct the mail to the proper city and route. We hope. The mail is then machine sorted so that the carrier just picks up a row of mail in the morning for his route, bundles it and sets off for delivery. He no longer fingers the mail. This means that if the sequence is out of order relating to the rows of homes, he may find that, whoops!, here is Smith’s mail and I passed his house a half hour ago. Count your blessings if the mail to your home is on time now, or even makes it to your house. Forget about mail from your old address - -if some few pieces find the way and they are only a few weeks old - - and you are lucky.
Maybe I am over reacting to the present state of affairs and how it affects us. Here is a personal story that should be told once more. I bought a modern digital camera. I made myself comfortable on the couch at home and began to read its operating manual, the guide through menus and the directions about focusing, flash, deleting and/or viewing photos and onward to nausea. I tried to program this complicated device and finally was satisfied that it might take a picture. This was in preparation for my trip to Salt Lake City where I was scheduled to officiate at my younger daughter’s wedding. When I arrived there and enjoyed celebrating the reunion with my children and preparing for the coming affair I remembered my camera. I was confident that either of my daughters could teach me the rudiments of its operation. Both had been born into the electronic age. So, I approached the eldest who has computer memory, the world’s fastest typing speed, can manipulate scanners, Tvs, remotes, Tivos, and ‘smart bomb’ laser guiding sights. I handed her my camera and asked “Can you show me how to take a picture with this?” She looked at it briefly and said “Sure, dad. You look through this little window, point it at the subject and then push down this little button on the top.” Yeeaaahh! It worked. Now, I am no genius but I could handle that operation. Maybe life isn’t as complicated as I thought - - - but I am
Just sayin’
Definitely not over-reacting, at least in regards to the mail system. I always wonder why only the USPS delivers daily mail to your mailbox when there are so many other options out there just for packages. Having personally known people who worked for FedEx, UPS, and that other yellow company, I know that while they might have problems, at least it gets to you!
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Postal System is run by a semi-private governing board but is still a Federal project. The law gives it a monopoly on the delivery of 1st, 2nd and 3rd class mail. Private companies have, for years, tried to have Congress allow competition; so far without results. The problem that would exist is that private companies could raise rates without permission and when a service, such as delivering personal letters, proved unproffitable it could simple drop that service. Delivering a letter to Aunt Maggie in some out-back village is not profitable. Dropping off a postcard to her is even less so. Some public services are so important that they require operation by the government; the military, forest service, social security and such.
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