Eric
some of that is way to funny to not be true.. LOL
At 03:04 PM 2/10/2010, Eric Melanson wrote:
I read these posts about the triangle boxes and toilet paper tube
mailers with a chuckle and it brings me back to my old days as what
was known as a "casual" working for the Postal System to pay my way
through college with summer work. It paid well, and I worked from
2:30 AM to 9:00 AM.
People maintain the illusion that there is some higher presence
watching over every letter and parcel they have committed to the
care of the US Postal Service. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
As a rookie, I unloaded trucks at 3 AM with both letters and
parcels. My boss, a "supervisor of mails" (think of that title, if
you will), stood watching me while I had 15 minutes to unload a
delivery truck stacked 6 foot high with parcels and canvas letter
bags. When I first started working, I would notice parcels marked
"Fragile" and "Handle with Care" and I was under the illusion that
this was actuallly read and acted upon. I was yelled at and
threatened with firing if I did not take every parcel and toss it
into a canvas roller tote set 8 feet away in a very short
time. Many was the time that I heard what sounded like a glass item
or set of dishes break when they hit the cart or the
pavement. Every thing was treated the same no matter what was written on it.
Along with that truth was the interesting way that people, at least
in those days, packed up items. During this same unloading, a
number of packages were leaking fluids when unloaded ( this included
boxes of stuff used to inseminate cattle...you get the
drift). People often packaged oversize items such that the item was
uncovered on both ends (like umbrellas) with no packing paper. Some
packages smelled so bad we had to leave them outside, and sometimes
we just literally threw them out when the flies were too bad. Others
dropped off packages beautifully wrapped as gifts to send through
the mail..bows, adornments, sequins, etc.
Then we come to the truly bizarre. Packages that in the address
section carry a half-nude picture of the sender vs. an address
label. Packages in a foreign language that no one in our postal
office could read or translate and which we could not figure out how
they made it to a small post office in central Connecticut. Parcels
adorned with religious symbols. Ashes of the deceased sent through
the mail ("contents inside from dead loved one"). To this, add the
fact that we had to collect from post office boxes often subject to
pranks containing...well, I won't go there.
For amusement, some of the letter sorters would hold letters from
the Department of Health up to a fluourescent light to see if they
knew the person receiving the notification of a socially transmitted
disease. They identified quite a few leaders in the community.
Welcome to the US Post office.
To this day, it amazes me that things I mail ever reach their destination.
Eric Melanson
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