The Call of the Mail

This afternoon I heard on the radio that the U.S. Postal service was closing about 2,000 branches and an author about my age lamented and reflected about the little joys of getting and sending mail – now known as “snail mail” – in the 1970s and 80s. Then the program reflected about what was in a family’s mailbox was truly a snapshot into who we were in the same way as our groceries and our garbage cans. You see whom they correspond with, whom they owe and what they shopped for.

On the street where I grew up, our mailman was named Mike, Mike the Mailman. He drove a white jeep and had a sunny smile and longish sandy brown hair worn in a fashion that never changed for him. And as far as I can remember, his favorite word was “hi.”

He knew Dad’s bills, Mom’s magazines, my brother’s catalogues, my penpals, and that my little sister, was, well, little, cute and adored by everyone.

Mike delivered my family’s mail for as long as I could remember: back when I received birthday cards from Uncle Kel – the ones that were fun to shake to loose the nickels and pennies fitted into slots – through the springtime when the fat or light envelopes with college acceptance notifications arrived. He was a part of our community, a fixture in our lives. Boy, did I love the mail!

Every Christmastime, Mom gave him one of her loaves of Christmas bread and, in more prosperous years, I think Dad slipped him a check. We kids would wait for Mike the Mailman in the summertime and run down the driveway when we heard the rev of the Jeep as he accelerated from 20 Village Way up our hill to 10. Mom would catch up with him when she was home, just to hear how things were around the neighborhood and in his life outside of his white Jeep and stretched out light blue socks.

Sigh, what a time...

Rummaging through my parents keepsakes I once found all of the letters I wrote to them when I was on a term abroad in England, leafing back through them was like a sweet and silly diary I had never meant to keep. I wonder if a parent of today has a way to save and reminisce over the texts and tweets and emails from their kids.

It just makes me wonder how our communications have changed and how that change may come to define our memories.

Christmas newsletters and pictures, arriving November through January were (and still are) always a highlight of the holiday season for me. When I was a kid, often they were the only communication we got from friends my parents had in their lives before I was born: Funny stories about some other family’s vacations, random but sometimes serious illnesses, pets who came and ran away, and other people’s babies that got bigger each year. Even these days, I believe the phrase “I’m taking so-and-so off of my Christmas card list” still carries a strong social connotation for most people.

And I’ll bet that mail call at summer camp, in college, and in the Navy is still kind of a status thing. Care packages with stale baked goods and even the simplest stickie note keep spirits up for a week or more, long after we gorge ourselves on the contents. My mom sent me white chocolate chip and craisin oatmeal cookies once with a note apologizing that they might be stale or broken. We at sea have entirely different standards of freshness and excitement. If it comes in the mail and manages to make it to the ship and to our office or berthing, it is great! Each package a little home capsule – like a time capsule but a slice of what the sender from home thinks might make their Sailor happy.

And now that I think about it, though most of America’s mail has dwindled and become less important to them since the advent of the internet and snail mail, when my dad discovered the internet, he started collecting books by mail. In many ways, my dad has remained the kid most of us grew out of; the arrival of the daily mail is still the highlight of his day.

Go Dad and hi Mike -- wherever you are!

And although my mailbox now contains mostly junk and bills, I know that next time I am out to sea, I will again feel the thrill of mail call… the call of the mail!