Thursday, September 15, 2005

Mail Call

It used to be my favorite time of the day: the arrival of the mailman. When I was a kid in SF, we were the third stop on the mailman's route. I'd sit in the window and watch him get off the bus and head down the hill...mail for Leah, mail for Irma & Joe, mail for us. I had penpals in those days. I used to contact a Mrs. Chegwidden who would set me up with some girl in England. I looked forward to my letters.

At Christmas it was great because sometimes the mail might come two or three times a day. A real bonus!

When we first lived in Davis, we hosted foreign students and everybody wrote to us when they got home. There was a time when our mailman (in the days when we knew who our mailman was) told me I got more foreign mail than anybody in Davis. That may have been true, because once a girl in Brasil sent a letter to "Mrs. Beverly, Davis, CA" and I got it.

(years later, I sent a note to "Longs Drug Store, Covell and Sycamore, Davis" and it was returned because I didn't have a street number on it!)

Nowadays, though, I get instant gratification for mail and it all comes in e-mail so now 99% of the mail that shows up in the mailbox is bills and junk mail. The junk mail can be overwhelming. This clip shows a "light" day!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, Bev, tell me you're recycling all that paper, not literally throwing it in the garbage! Secondly, email those companies and ask to be removed from their mailing list. I do it all the time and it does seem to make a dent in it.

This is one of my favorite subjects - getting off my soapbox now. :-)

Bev Sykes said...

Oh yes, very definitely recycling. I'd be run out of town if I didn't recycle!