While Nothing Stops The Mail, It May Become Lost And Delivery May Be A Lot Slow At Times

While some things get better with age, its best not to be kept waiting for 60 years.

The Detroit News: Letter from boot camp in 1953 returned to sender

An ex-soldier living in southwestern Michigan says the U.S. Postal Service has returned a letter he wrote to his wife from boot camp 60 years ago.

A 60-year delivery time is nothing to sneeze at. He could have walked to deliver the letter and walked back to boot camp hundreds of times at that rate.

Then-Pvt. Bob Rodgers says he'd just arrived for basic training at Fort Campbell, Ky., when the power went out, prompting him to write to his wife Jean.

. . .

On March 7, New Carslisle, Ind., Postmaster Connie Tomaszewski hand-delivered the letter to the 79-year-old Rodgers. She tells the South Bend Tribune she did so the same day it arrived at her office.

Postal authorities say they don't know what happened to the letter in between.

Unfortunately the delivery was much too late for its intended recipient:

Jean Rodgers died of cancer eight years ago.

While the Post Office may even be 90% effective, that remaining 10% is a ton of lost mail.

That the letter survived floating around the mail system for that long is rather impressive.

Unsurprisingly, the Post Office doesn't release statistics regarding the amount of lost mail, and the 60 year arrival time for this letter just played hell with their delivery speed statistics.

Snow does stop the mail

The US Postal Service:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds

In Michigan, not so much.

Snow stops 'em from delivering mail quite nicely.

On Friday, as I blogged before, we had a wicked storm with blowing winds and dumping over a foot of snow. No mail delivered to my street that day and I have no complaints, I wasn't about to go out in that either.

Saturday our street wasn't plowed...but the day was clear - no mail.

Monday our street wasn't plowed...but the day was clear - no mail.

We went to the Post Office and picked up some mail and were told that until the Oakland County Road Commission plows the mail does not get through.

Ok our street does have the hill from hell, and as they don't plow it, it gets a nice sheet of ice and you need to take a running start from the end of the street to get to the top and onto the main road unless you have 4 wheel drive, but what about the mail must go through?

Can the mail person get out of the vehicle at the top of the road and deliver it on foot?

Nope, as the post office related its a vehicle route they by rule will not get out to do deliveries and until the RCOC plows its no mail.

Sure enough there was no mail. There was also no plowing.

Finally nature intervened with this lovely snow melt and mild temperatures, melting the road ice sheet and lo, there was mail delivery again, and it was good.

But a cherished myth of Post Office dependability and reliability is sadly dashed however. Snow does stop the mail.