SEVEN LITTLE POSTMEN

A couple of days ago, UPS delivered my fruit picker basket on 13-foot telescoping pole, an item I have wanted for years but put off ordering, Half the fun of ordering something is anticipation of delivery, but Amazon doesn't make us wait long. 

Other recent deliveries have included a Barbie doll, a shirt and leggings for me, hunter orange mittens for Mike, and a package of yarn. I couldn't begin to enumerate all the stuff that Mike orders. Perhaps he feels the same about me. And yes, sometimes we get surprises, such as a box of chocolates from brother Chuck or the lined jeans that a son found in a thrift store in Mike's hard-to-find size. Getting a package is a bright spot in any day.

I'm reminded of a "Little Golden Book" I loved in childhood, Seven Little Postmen by Margaret Wise Brown and Edith Thacher Hurd and illustrated by Tibor Gergely -- all famous, long gone, and having their own internet presence. My copy was published in 1952 by Simon and Schuster.

"Mrs. Potter" -- a.k.a. Mrs. Warnock

Seven Little Postmen follows the letter that a little boy writes to his grandmother. Once the boy puts the letter into the mailbox, it's handled six times until it's picked up by the seventh little postman, the RFD delivery person. The book then shows the seventh postman making personal deliveries to the people on his route, bringing anticipated deliveries or surprises and (mostly) making people happy. The book spoke to me in childhood and it still speaks to me today. What fun it is to get mail!

How long ago was 1952? Gosh! 67 years. Even though the delivery process outlined in the book is outdated, the anticipation and joy at delivery are still the same.

Grandmas used to look like this.

As an aside, RFD (Rural Free Delivery) was a godsend to folks living on farms. Otherwise, they had to go to town and call at the post office for their mail. As we segued from farming with horses to mechanization, some of the old timers were unable to keep up with the times. Still in the 1950s, the country folk could make arrangements for their rural mail carrier to pick up and deliver groceries or other necessities. I can remember my dad arranging for the mailman to take something from town to Grandma Ina on the farm. This service enabled many elderly farm people to remain in their homes.

"Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." -- inscribed on the James Farley Post Office in New York City. KW