Still Waiting For That Item In The Mail? Fear Not!

.... it will eventually arrive

http://www.kptv.com/story/21135590/...-in-oklahoma

I read about that incident, but I always wonder why these incidents make news. To me, the likely scenario is that the postcard was mailed and received back in 1967 but just that someone in the present day placed it in a mailbox and it was delivered again a second time. This would account for both a 1967 and 2013 postmark appearing on the postcard.

While it is not outside the realm of possibility that the postcard did end up in an old mailbag or stuck in the corner of a piece of mailing equipment that was recently repaired or replaced, it seems to me the probability of such an incident is much lower than someone just having dropped the postcard in a mailbox just to see what happens.

In 1975 I spent 6 weeks in NYC, living at the Biltmore Hotel, and on assigment at Mobil Oil's headquarters on 42nd st. I made a special effort to get all kinds of nice picture postcards to send to my family, parents, sisters, etc. They were all mailed via the hotel's brass "post office chute" that ran by the elevators. In total I mailed close to 20, but not one ever arrived. Of course some of my loved ones remarked how "I should have sent a card", and when I said I did, they just smiled at me.

Not all that long ago the hotel was torn down. I was hoping that those cards would have been found and subsequently mailed. Of course they were not...............

Those chutes were notorious for having mail stuck in them between floors. It took quite a bit of work to clear jams in them too, as I recall.

While the chutes were a convenience in high rise office buildings and hotels, and still exist in some older buildings, I believe they were outlawed quite awhile ago as a safety issue, since a possible fire within the walls of a building could be spread through those devices extending from floor to floor.

One piece of trivia: The primary company manufacturing these mail chutes was the Cutler Manufacturing Company of Rochester, NY. Mr. Cutler, the President of that company was the former mayor of that City.

Interesting. I wonder if the mom owed the guy an apology for saying she never received the postcard?


-IBFS

Same thing happened to my wife. She works in an older building and had to mail the mortgage check. Put it down the nice mail chute, and thought everything was done. Eventually got a notice from the bank that we were late. Found out later that everyone in the older building knows that they no longer use those chutes, that they are just there for posterity -- the post office didn't even know they were there. Cost us a few bucks in late fees.