That it's 2018 and I'm updating my review of the post office is odd. It's odd for many reasons…read more Mostly it's odd because I use this post office quite frequently, and over the years I've probably used just about every service that they have, from buying stamps, to sending important documents with signatures and tracking and all kinds of bells and whistles. But it's also a little odd, because I seem to be a dying breed. In a world where you can print postage at home, or have packages picked up, or 99.9% of the time just send it all digitally, I feel like some kind of anachronism. I like the feel of real stamps, on real paper, with real envelopes. In a digital world, I'm okay with being an analog communicator sometimes.
Have a special laugh at me when it comes to postcards, especially. What prompted me to revisit my thoughts on the post office today, is that earlier this afternoon I read where someone was asking a question that struck my heart -- they were asking about postcards. "Does anyone still send them?" they questioned. I had to chuckle, because not even four hours before reading that, I had actually purchased a postcard (and not just a postcard, but a vintage postcard from the early 1900s) to send to a friend.
You see, I have a collection of vintage postcards from places I love, and modern postcards from all the national parks and national monuments I visit. I love the fibers of the paper, I love the old pictures, and I love the nostalgia of postcards that are so closely tied to a time and a place. At antique stores I read old, already-sent postcards and imagine the look of delight on the receiver's face, and make up stories in my mind about how they knew the sender. The modern postcards I have are slowly aging, and will one day yellow and remind me of my travels as a younger man.
To answer that question, yes. Yes, people still send postcards. I do. And I always will, as long as there's a postal system to deliver them. From simple gas station glossies to old linen lithographs, I will keep sending them.
Will you join me? Are you the kind of person who still sends postcards? If you are you're my kind of person. Let's send postcards. Let's send them to each other. Even if we go to the same place, let's go home and send postcards to each other to remember the trips.
This location has been my stamp central for a long time. Shout out to Jackie who NEVER AGES and is lightning fast at the register--that dude is an institution. He wasn't in last time I was there, which is a first. They were training someone new, so hopefully he was just taking time off.
Boxes, tracking, signature, PO Boxes; they have almost everything here but a stamp vending machine. You'll find me in line for postcard stamps.
