Farewell my mailbox - mailboxes diasappearing across USA

9/11/2011

This is a great story to read, read on:

Cheers..Joe

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/08/greene.mailboxes.post.office/index.html?hpt=li_t3

I agree. Inevitable. Try to find a pay phone - that works. Another institution of the "dark ages" going away - like the milkman and the fuller brush man. I'm surprised there's still "Avon calling" and a few others.

Anyone want to add to my lsit?

No one answers the phone at a business - all electronic
Tapes gone
Blockbusters gone
Milkman gone
Fuller Brush gone
Pay phones gone
Drive-Ins gone (movies and A & W rootbeer - a favorite combination)
Check out people replaced with self check out
Cameras close to gone - all-purpose smart phones
CD players nearly gone
By the way - smart phones just about replacing everything....
Slides gone
Movie projectors and reels gone
Vinyl records and players gone
Land line phones nearly gone
Incandescent bulbs nearly gone

... and I don't miss any of them.

Times change.

Waiting for the mail is a thing of the past.

I do miss check out clerks and real people at the other end of the telephone.

What have I missed on my list?

My buggy whip wore out. Can't find a replacement. Now the horse won't go.

Washing dishes by hand has gone out--Thank Heavens!

Dear Al,

The new thing with animals is the whisper-er. Horse or dog, cat or rat, you just find someone who whispers their language and there you are...a brand new day!


Dear Diane,

I am glad that I live out in the wilderness and when I go to town, I abide by the old rules. If you pass someone in your vehicle, you wave. If you walk in front of someone in the grocery, you say, 'pardon me' and if you run over their foot with your grocery cart (happened to me today) exclaim loudly that you are so very sorry.


Alice,

I look forward to the mail each day.

I have a record player that plays all those old records, and have all those old records. They are in the drawers of my old hippie bed that is now converted from water to regular California matress. Try to find that! We did get rid of the mirrors on the ceiling. SNORT!

Life is an ever changing thing. Kind of like those fade in and fade out nudes in Las Vegas lounges in the 60's.

Love,

Betty

Betty,



You must get better mail than I do. Our mail is mostly junk even my email is that way too.

Dear Alice,

I will try to send you wonderful mail....E or regular. It is we, I imagine, who have let mail slide into the pit.

I remember writing letters, long hand, and waiting with anticipation for the reply.

Carol and I talked about that a lot. A lost art is letter writing.



In fact, I think it is something worth the doing, the bringing back.



When I wrote letters, I knew that the person I wrote them to was the only person looking at the words on the page. It was not like writing on a message board at all. I did not write letters willy-nilly, but to people that I wished to connect mind to mind.



I can see. Yes, I can see the rebirth of letter writing. Some things are better in the old way.



Love,

Betty

Betty,



They had best keep the mail going until I get your letter. I am waiting.

Occasionally I send a birthday card or other cards (thank you, congratulations, sympathy) by mail. I know it is always nice to receive such mail.

When mail is finally gone,I guess those things will be done by email. I tend to do both - an email thank you and a card in the mail - so I guess I am preparing for the future.

There will be a way to send real mail.

I value a hand written note or letter. Copy and past is not personal.
Even a handwritten note with autograph on a book is valued. My grandaughter loves it when I send her a hand written note. She always writes back, taking care to keep a straight line and her writing legible.

We live in a world of change,but that doesn't mean we must discard the old things that still have meaning/value. Running to the mailbox as a kid was full of anticipation. A letter was special.

As for self check out. I encounter that only when in the States and avoid it when possible. I'd rather wait in line and have a human handle the transaction.

Telephone operaters have virtually disappeared. I still remember the old crank phones where you got an operator and gave the number. At work, we had a telephone operator with a switch board where she pushed cables into a slot for the desired extension. A good operator was a valued employee. How she answered the phone reflected on the company.

PC's replaced stenographers and most clerk typists. Jobs lost to technology continue as the norm. I value the personal touch and hope that it doesn't entirely disappear.

How many people walk into a bank? ATM's replacing personal contact.

I have a stack of old 45 rpm records, some are Elvis hits. I have a number of LP records that I still play. It is quaint, but I love it.

We realize how old we are when telling stories of our childhood to grand kids. They think we are ancient. Our lives are now the subject of history books.
I think I will revive my manuscript of my childhood. At least it will be of interest to my children and grand kids some day.

Enjoying the new technology doesn't mean we must discard the past. Value the memories, both good and bad. Many chores as a child were character building. We learned responsibility. We also got whipped. Those are not so good memories. Getting praise was rare. How times have changed!

Gas stations were called Service Stations. You pulled up to the pump and popped the hood. Someone started cleaing your windows while another checked the oil and tire pressure while the tank was filling up.

When I go out to eat I want to be served. I enjoy the interaction with the waiter or watiress.

Do it yourself has replaced service. I may be alone with my quirks, but as long as I can find service, I'll give them my business.

9/12/2011


It's true what Abe said. Last week when I went to the bank
I wrote a check for some cash, the teller told me " Oh you don't
have to write check, just tell us your account number," I said :
" I'm use to writing a check, call me old fashion." Their system is,
( It's a credit union) you tell them your account number , they
type everything in the computer, show your drivers license, then
they have like a credit card machine and you sign that and at the
end they give you a receipt, one you get, one they keep !

Cheers..Joe

When the economy slid, junk mail almost disappeared. That hurt the Post Office. Spam is replacing junk mail.

I just got two spam messages in my inbox. Their subject lines:

"Start the School Year with Clear Skin"
"A Power Wheelchair at little to no cost"

I think that about covers it.

Who will the dogs chase if there's no mailman?

Abe F. March wrote:

Who will the dogs chase if there's no mailman?

That does it--we must keep the mail service.

I guess I'm weird. I prefer to wash my own dishes, I also enjoy checking my own groceries.

I dated a history teacher for some time during my teaching days. One night when I had him over for dinner, my first course was a quiche.

A few days later, I went to my mailbox at work, and found a copy of the book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche

A few days after that, he went to his mailbox at work, and found a copy of the book, Real Women Don't Pump Gas, with an inscription that said, "Any man who won't eat my quiche deserves a woman who can't pump her own gas."


And we continued dating for some time after.

Ann

alj wrote:

I guess I'm weird. I prefer to wash my own dishes, I also enjoy checking my own groceries.

I dated a history teacher for some time during my teaching days. One night when I had him over for dinner, my first course was a quiche.

A few days later, I went to my mailbox at work, and found a copy of the book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche

A few days after that, he went to his mailbox at work, and found a copy of the book, Real Women Don't Pump Gas, with an inscription that said, "Any man who won't eat my quiche deserves a woman who can't pump her own gas."


And we continued dating for some time after.

Ann

...and then??? We need the rest of the story.

You ought to write an autobiography.

The history teacher? He was 10 years younger than me, so he wasn't especially good father material. He went back into the service, anyway. He was teaching here is SA a few years ago. Lynn ran into him at a district meeting. He eventually married someone his own age and they have a son who would be finishing hs about now.

No story worth writing.

Ann

My spam is more graphic and targeted to men for some reason - the other set of spam makes me a lottery winner or a potential person to cash a bank check for profit.......I should be wealthy by now had I won those lotteries and cashed those checks.

I am looking forward to the hand writing of letters. Alice, please send me your mailing address, again.



Anyone else want a letter?



I am thinking about getting some lovely stationary. It makes me happy to think about it. I love beautiful paper to write upon. How clean it is! How the words put upon it must be heartfelt and true!



It is almost as wonderful to have a new journal, blank and hopeful of thought, as it is to consider the first words that will grace the first page of that writing paper.



A box of stationary that has that little yellow ribbon across the letter pages and the matching envelopes tucked in behind make a promise . . . a promise that my mind will have lovely words to write to lovely people.



I will do my best.



Love,

Betty

Betty, You have a PM!

Ann,



Thank you for the rest of the story. I found it interesting.