Walking Therein

National Postal Worker Day

Posted By Jacque on October 6, 2008

This post was so fun to do. Since Matt works at the PO, we had a special interest in this article. We had fun driving down to the local PO and snapping a few pictures.

Originally posted at Growing in Grace Magazine

July 1, 2008

Ever wondered how your letters and packages get around the world so fast? It usually takes just two days to send a letter from the East to the West, and it’s all because the United States Postal Service workers work hard everyday to transport your mail. You may think that your mail is only transported on week days from 7am to 5pm. That’s when most Post Offices close, right? Not exactly…The mail is always on the move. It’s always being transported, scanned, and processed somewhere.

It completely boggles my mind how the USPS does it. It is very complex, but all so organized. There are thousands and thousands of letters and packages that goes through the Post Offices everyday. I got to see for myself how a “house-to-house” mail carrier sorts the mail, loads up the mail, and delivers it right to your door last year when I went to help my dad collect canned-food. My Dad has been working for the USPS for over two years now, and it’s been very interesting hearing how everything works. When he started off he wasn’t a mail carrier, instead he worked from 2am to ??? collecting and transporting the mail from city to city, on a split shift.

The US Post Office has been around almost as long as the Pilgrims. The first Post Service was established in February, 1692 by King William and Queen Mary, who charged the task to Thomas Neale. However on July 26, 1776 Benjamin Franklin built the first ever United States Post Office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because the post clause in Article One of the US Constitution the Congress was able to “To establish post offices and post roads”, and it became the Postal Department in 1792. However, it was recognized as an independent agency and changed it’s name to Postal Service. Because the mail had to get around things like the building of the federal railway across the entire country were set in motion. The Railway Mail Service was then created on the side just for the mail. The Mail Railway Service was a big deal to people, and those who delivered it were considered famous. There were even mail competitions to see who could deliver their mail the fastest.

As the USPS grew and gained respect and money, more political issues were involved. In the 1890s Anthony Comstock, working with New York Society for Suppression of Vice, made it illegal to mail anything obscene, indecent or involving abortion, alcohol, or contraception.

The sign of the USPS as not always been the Eagle’s head. At first it was the Roman god Mercury but was replaced in 1837 with a running pony and after that the had a flying eagle. In the 1990s the eagle was redesigned again to just the eagle head.

In 1845 it would have cost you no more than 14.5 cents to send something through the general USPS and only 5 cents through a private USPS. Today the price of one letter to stamp is 42 cents. That may seem like nothing but when you add it up to as many letters as you’re sending to grandparents it gets pretty pricey. Within the past few years the stamp as been raised several cents, but everyone still uses the mail and they always will.

The Postal Reorganization Act signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12, 1970, replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service. July 1, 1971 is the day the Act took effect and it’s also National Postal Workers Day. The USPS does a lot of work to get those special letters, cards, and packages to your door.

This year, thank them.

National Postal Worker Day
My Dad is a U.S. Postal Worker. He delivers mail to people. He first started working for the Post Office back in 2004, driving a big truck, taking mail to the Post Offices in Fort Wayne (20 miles away). He would go in to in the morning and would not get home until 11pm. So when he switched to working in the town about 8 miles from us, his was closer to us and he was home more.

When the day came that we could go with him to work and help him collect cans for charity, I was excited. I had never been to work with him. He has about 10 miles route everyday that he delivers mail to. We got up with him and got dressed to go. When we got to the P.O., Dad had to sort the mail by the addresses and streets. We waited while he did that. Funny thing was, we were the only kids there. It was the can-drive day… all the other kids were in school.

Amanda, Eric and I had to walk while Dad drove the mail truck. We carried the bags of cans we got from people, and he delivered the mail to people. I remember we ate lunch around 3pm, at a fast food restaurant. Then it was back to work. When we got home, we were all so tired. I understood why Dad didn’t want to do anything when he gets home at night. He must be really tired. He walks all day, and then he goes to Lowe’s. My Dad works very hard to feed, clothe, and house us. I am very proud to say my Dad is a Postal Worker.

Can you imagine what it would be like with no mail or post office? Well for many years in the beginning of the United States, there was no post office. You had to hand deliver your own letters.
The first United States Post Office, USPO, was created in Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia by Benjamin Franklin on July 26th, 1776 by decree from the Second Continental Congress.
The USPO was based off the Postal Clause in Article One of the United States Constitution, which empowered Congress “To establish post offices and post roads,” it then became the Post Office Department in 1792.

When there was political corruption with the United States Post Office it was realized that in order for the Postal System to thoroughly do its job, it would need a building of a federal railway to transport mail all across America. The Railway Mail Service was then created. RMS workers were hired and became some of the most skilled mail sorters in the service.

From 1782 to 1837, the USPS used Mercury as its symbol, til it was replaced in 1837 with a running pony. The running pony stood for the Pony Express. The running pony symbol was then replaced with the eagle flight in 1970, and in the 1990’s the eagle had a new design with just the head.

Nowadays we only get mail 1 time a day and 6 days a week, did you know that until 1912 mail was delivered 7 days a week at many different times? Every time you got something at the post office it would be delivered to you and you could mail things whenever you needed to.

When mailing letters you need to make sure you have your letter in a sealed envelope with the correct address and a USPS stamp.

A little trivia about the USPS… you have heard the saying, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” and that it is the USPS motto, well its not! The USPS does not have a motto, although for a brief time after the World Trade Center attacks, it did adopt the saying in a commercial.

Next time you go to mail something remember all the work that your postman and post office does! I have seen how much they have to do when I had the opportunity to go to work with my Dad who is a mailman. Sorting all his mail, then walking 10+ miles a day along with carrying all the mail is a big job and it is hard work! The USPS works hard to make sure you get your mail and your letters from pen pals or grandparents. When you see your mailman or postmaster on July 13th, tell them thank you for all the hard work they do!

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