Mailbox Memories: Going to the Post Office

Hi friends!

If you recall, we introduced Mailbox Memories last Thursday and today we are featuring our first "real" MM post and we are so excited!  Merry Momma Cindy is going to let you into her world a bit and talk about "Going to the Post Office".

Y'all.  I grew up in a small town.  And I don't mean small as in a suburb of some big city that only had one 5A high school.  I mean a real small town.  Like less than 2,500 people, small.  And there were no cities anywhere around, just farm land.  A town where you really did know everyone and everyone knew you (and your parents, and your grandparents).  True story - my 7th and 8th grade science teacher taught both of my parents.  Anyway, I think you get the point.

And this was our post office:

I'm not really sure why, but our town didn't really do "house mailboxes".  A few people had them, but most everyone had a mailbox in the post office.  And the mailboxes were opened with a combination lock that looked almost exactly like this:

One of my most favorite things to do during the summer was ride my bike down to the post office (almost 3 blocks away) and peek into that window and look for mail!  The mail was typically delivered around 11am.  I might have been known to go down to the post office around 10:45am just to check the box.  And then happily go down again around 11:15am if the box was empty on the first attempt.

The post office almost always had one or two people in it and because it was a tiny town (see the first paragraph), I knew them...or they knew me.  It was a place of social activity. It was a place to say hello and catch up on the latest gossip news. It was one of the epicenters of our community.

It was also a place to learn.  I learned how to unlock a combination lock on box 419 in that building.  I learned about far off places in National Geographic and even places right here in Texas Highways. I learned about celebrating life's big moments when wedding, birthday and shower invitations were delivered.  I learned that sending a thank you letter was a wonderful and right thing to do.  Nothing was more fun than finding mail that wasn't typically in there - you know something other than bills and magazines. 

I really do think my LOVE of mail started in that building!  No, I know my LOVE of mail started in that building.

In the early 1990's our town opened a brand new post office...it is a nice building, it's cleaner and has more secure boxes (you could break that glass with a hard finger poke).  But it isn't "MY" post office.  My post office is now home to my home church's outreach program - a place where people can receive food and clothing if there are in need.  They also run a literacy program out of this building.

And I guess that's okay...because for many years, those doors opened a new world to me...and now they are opening a new world to others - just in a different way.