By John Branston
President-elect Trump is PO-ed about the PO and intends to cut it down to size, by his measurements anyway.
The guy has timing, you gotta give him that. ‘Tis the season of catalogs and Christmas cards from people you have not seen in decades.
RFD stands for Rural Free Delivery, the FDX of the 19th century in America’s transition from farm to city. It was suddenly in the news this week when Trump called out the PO and the postmaster general for waste and inefficiency – coinciding with the holidays and soon-to-be-common 73-cent First-Class Forever stamp which cost a penny a century ago and a nickel within living memory.
It is weird to see RFD and the Pony Express and Wells Fargo in news backgrounders in the age of AI, but there it was, and fine reading fodder for a rainy winter day. One John Wanamaker was sort of the founder of the PO, doing for mail and parcel post what Henry Ford did for cars and roads and Fred Smith and Jeff Bezos did for express delivery. Among the local glories of his age was Sears Crosstown, now Crosstown Concourse, a living history book in itself.
As a Memphian I have to pull for FDX, the private company solution if you have the dough.
As a homeowner and postal customer I know the PO as an avenue of upward mobility especially for Black women like the friendly, reliable, hardworking carriers who walk ten miles a day on their Midtown routes while schlepping a heavy bag. If only they were the norm of a government entity that loses billions every year.
And as a Seinfeld diehard, I love the 30-year-old episodes with Newman the mailman and Wilford Brimley as the postmaster general shaking down Kramer for trying to opt out of mail (“I’m a general, and by God I take my job seriously!”).
Really, can you name anything besides your car tags that you have to get by mail? Assuming the clerk’s office has its act together, that is.
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John Branston covered Memphis as a reporter and columnist for 35 years.
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Yes, it hard to imagine the transformation in communications over the last 40-50 years. I grew up with a wired-in telephone (my family was well-to-do, so we had a private line). Of course, anything of any importance came through the Post Office. Now I use the post office for mailing charitable contributions. And Xmas cards. Plus, it is the source of catalogs and other commercial askings. It was so important that we put reference to it in the Constitution. And to replace it — FedEx and UPS for physical boxes, and email/texts for everything else. What a weird transformation into the post-modern age.