Saturday, January 29, 2011

The Post Office: Americana and the Reality of the Present Day

The Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers, reports that the Post Office will be closing 2,000 post offices in the next year. What will happen to all of those abandoned buildings, and what will happen to the social life that once clustered around them throughout America? I will never forget witnessing the arrival of mail on Tangier Island; just about everybody in town had come out and collected their mail, and proceeded to catch up on the latest gossip and news from outside their small island. It was truly a special moment.

That being said, my relationship with the United States Postal Service has rapidly declined in the last ten years. 95% of my mail is now junk mail, and I find myself excited when I actually get a bill nowadays, as it is something that is actually addressed to me. I expect the Post Office to be dead in the average American's lifetime.

1 comment:

  1. I think most small town post offices will remain, they actually work well and due to size have lower overhead (building-wise), medium size ones that might close can be adapted easily, most are wide-open and in good locations. It will be interesting to watch this huge change in our culture...

    ReplyDelete

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