I worked at the Post Office nights during college to put myself through school. Here are a few things I learned (besides the fact I didn't want to make it a career!!):
1. The sad fact is, they don't care about your mail. Simply put: they are there for the benefits. It's like Wal-Mart. Once you start working there and get a few raises, you don't think you'll ever find a better job with health insurance and before you know it, you've been there 30 years sorting mail.
2. Since they've worked there so long and feel like their lives are slowly wasting away, they get angry at the silliest things, like beautiful lettering! I saw my share of "heated disagreements" there and wished I could become invisible while spit was flying. It's just mail, people!
3. Mail gets stuck in the machines all the time. This makes them even more angry because then they have to "hand-sort" it. Grumble, grumble--to think there's still a need for human sorters!!!
4. It's always best to take fancy lettered mail (anything a machine might not be able to read) to the post office and not only get them hand-cancelled, but also ask that they are "HAND SORTED." There is a separate place they put those if they are in a helpful mood.
This is CRITICAL if there is anything lumpy in the envelope--there's a high percentage that anything like nibs would rip the envelope open in the high-speed sorting machines.
5. Sorting postcards was the best place to get stuck on a long night. lol
Schin--as for the "LOON" written on your beautiful letter, here's why: in my experience they only write the first 4 letters of the last names to save time whenever there is a questionable address. So my last name would be FOUT instead of FOUTZ. Hopefully this makes you feel better about the mistake!!! It's a shame they had to write anything on it in the first place!!
