Parcel post toddler

This fantastic postcard came to me via a Sendsomething correspondent. I've seen and admired the image before; it is in the collection of the National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian. You can find out more about the original image here, but here's the gist:

"This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples."

Mail art thank-you

My amazing little package full of mailbox postcards from Carolee of PodPost begged a mail-art-licious thank-you response, so I had fun putting this puppy together, with all the meta-postal goodness I could muster. Only the Shakespeare stamp doesn't really fit the theme, but he's the bard and I love him, so he gets to join the party.



The envelope is vintage 1971, from my grandfather's days in the post office, commemorating the official change of name from "post office" to "U.S. Postal Service," complete with new logo. I love that this envelope shows both the old and the new logos.

I am feeling rather clever for putting my return address in the wavy lines of the "please hand cancel" rubber stamp image.



As is typical, I don't think the glimmer mist spray glitter is really showing up very well in this photo, but I tried to showcase it here.



On the back is a vintage air mail label (I found it on eBay, for anyone who's wondering), whose glue tastes so awful I have to prepare myself to lick it. But that's part of the fun, saying pTOOey and swishing around a tasty beverage as I affix the label... which is cool enough to merit the distaste, in my book.

I feel rather some pressure to make something quite amazing, these times I have sent mail/mail art to the fine authors of the fabulous Good Mail Day book, but it's a fun challenge.

Dialing for stamps

I am so excited to share this find with you.

If you've been following my blog for at least a month, you have probably heard that my beloved grandfather passed away recently. He was a casual collector of stamps, and his collection was fueled by his 40 years working for the Post Office (as it was called then: "U.S. Postal Service" came later).

In going through his effects after his death, my mother found this wonderful newspaper photo of him demonstrating the newfangled stamp-dialing machine. (Does anyone else think "That is so 1955?" I do.) I can't believe how awesome this is. I would love the idea of postal history involving a stamp-dailing machine anyway, and probably share that with you for the coolness factor, but the fact that the photo shows my dear grandfather (with hair! I never saw him with hair!) just makes my day. It was such a joyous thing, to come across this in our grieving. My mom mailed the clipping to me (along with a letter, of course!), and I scanned it. This appeared in the Kansas City Star on July 3, 1955.



My favorite quote from the article:
"The customers seem to like it," one of the postal clerks said, "but they're sure surprised at seeing anything efficient at a post office."
HA! My grandfather so could have been the one who said that. I can just hear his laugh after making a crack like that.

For anyone who has trouble viewing this small size, I am experimenting with a new way to download documents. I don't know if this will work for you or not, but here is a link to view the PDF of the scan.