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Maybe it’s from our English forebears, whose Royal Mail Service was started in 1516, that our nation’s founders were inspired to establish the U.S. Post Office, which they did definitively by making sure it was part of our federal Constitution (Article II, Sec. 8, #7).
Since then, the U.S. Postal Service’s tenacious workers have steadfastly maintained the chain on which we Americans have strung our thoughts, dreams, business transactions, travelogues and love stories.
Could be I have a stronger attachment and deeper appreciation for the postal service because my mother’s father was a mail carrier in Binghamton in the early 20th century, and I grew up hearing her stories about him. I have a picture of Grampie in his long-coated gray woolen uniform, flat-topped cap on his head, and large leather satchel over his shoulder.
Mother said he walked 20 miles a day, 10 miles out and back in the mornings, then he’d repeat the same route in the afternoons after eating a very large “dinner” at lunchtime to stoke his energy.
Those were the days when the mail was delivered twice every working day. He even walked his route Christmas morning, which is why it was tradition in our family to open our presents on Christmas Eve since that was what Mother was used to doing throughout her childhood.
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