The one thing that I can say for certain about the Post Office is that they always, ALWAYS… make sure that I get my bills on time! HEY, just a little Postal humor!
The Postal Service is one of our oldest federal agencies. And although a lot of us tend to take them for granted, we still rely on them EVERY single day!
And let’s be real, I mean, would you go get into your vehicle and drive somewhere to bring a letter to somebody’s house for $.55 cents?
Probably not, so let’s not complain about the cost of postage stamps going up to 55 cents… Have you shipped anything with UPS and Fedex lately? Yeesh!
And can you imagine way back when transportation such as railroads didn’t even cover the whole country? We had… the Pony Express baby! Those horse mounted Mail Carriers famously sped mail to cover the entire rest of the country. For example like the 1,800 mile route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in which mail got delivered in just ten days. Now that’s dedication! And… possibly a commercial for preparation H. Butt anyway… (pun intended) Have you heard of this?
National Thank a Mail Carrier Day!
Ok, so how many of you know that February 4th is “National Thank a Mail Carrier Day”?
Wait, let me rephrase that. How many of you that are not Mail Carriers know that February 4th is “National Thank a Mail Carrier Day”? Exactly! I was thinking “why don’t Mail Carriers have a day? Maybe I’ll start one.” I thought that I was about to spearhead and create something special, but nope, after doing some research, I found out that it’s actually already a thing. I had no idea! But I guess that’s actually kinda the point of this blog article dedicated to our US Postal Workers. And we need to use February 4th as a reminder of appreciation that “SOMEONE” makes sure the mail gets through 6 days a week and 52 weeks a year! Bringing us toilet paper from Amazon, and masks, and all of our meds, while we got to stay home, safe in our beds. Because through rain, shine, sleet or snow… even in a pandemic, Mail Carriers are still on the go!
A little Postal history.
The U.S. Postal System was established on July 26th 1775, with non other than Ben Franklin as the first Postmaster General. He put the foundation in place for many aspects of today’s mail system.
During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns.
In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight.
In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job. However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country.
Today, the United States has over 40,000 post offices and the postal service delivers 212 billion pieces of mail each year to over 144 million homes and businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The postal service is the nation’s largest civilian employer, with over 500,000 career workers. The postal service is a not-for-profit, self-supporting agency that covers its expenses through postage (stamp use in the United States started in 1847) and related products.
So let’s show a little love, support, and appreciation to our Postal Workers!
And remember when February 4th rolls around that it is National Thank a Mail Carrier Day!
Because the Post Office gets the mail delivered whether it’s rain, shine, sleet or snow… even in the middle of a pandemic, mail carriers are still on the go!
I hope this blog article brings a little happiness and appreciation to all of you Postal Workers out there for the important jobs that you do. From a humble Christian Author in Mississippi, We appreciate you!
Special thanks to the History Channel and various other sources for their input on this article.
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