P.O. Boxes

Have you been following the USPS story? Latest headline, “The U.S. Postal Service made a strong first impression in fiscal 2016, marking the second consecutive year in which it posted a billion-dollar profit.”  It wasn’t too long ago that folks heard rumors that the USPS was insolvent and would need to close down. Close down the P.O.Boxes?

Now, “that”, would be a problem. This morning, I saw a notice on the counter for a P.O.Box fee. It was $24 for 6 months and $48 for 12 months with a handy envelope to return the fee before the box expires. I have two keys to this box and have had it for a year, never once entering the box to check it or sending any mail to it. It is not the first one that I have had in this area, where I am in and out, frequenting for work related travel. It is actually the third one. Let’s name these towns by first initial. I had one in “M” in 2012, one in “T” in 2013, and now one in “C” for 2015.  At the same time, I have a street address in “G” with an overflowing mailbox and a P.O. Box in my hometown of “B”. Today, I am rethinking my P.O. Box trail and whether I really need to keep any of these?

I can certainly understand my desire to keep one in three different locations. But, is that really sensible? Each one has an independent fee. So, I just paid $88 for the one in “B”, that I rarely get any mail and if I do, it’s usually some local advertisement that goes straight in the trash bin inside the doorway of the P.O. The idea was that “one day” I would have a home or land or some reason to retire there. So, for 13 years, I have paid this box rent to keep that identifier and constant feeling of “going back home”. It’s in a cute little historic building where everyone knows everyone. To  be honest, I like going in now and then to see what my box holds, smell that familiar smell, see what’s on the local bulletin board and casually notice who else is picking up mail. This past year, I was determined to “give it up”. So, when February rolled around, I ignored the notice and counseled myself to let it go, be sensible, look at reality, consider the unlikely chances of retiring here and think of the wasted money invested in a tiny locked hole in the wall, half the size of a decent shoe box.  By March, I had been in town about three times and on that last time, I just knew that I was not ready yet. I repeat, I am not ready to give up that little dream and if you consider that all it costs me is about a $100/ year, perhaps it is worth it for my mental health!!!  It is an investment, in my future! I love the number P.O. Box 1-C, “B”.

So, what am I going to do about this P.O. Box in the little town of “C” that is up for renewal today? Did I mention that it has a nice number, P.O. Box 1? Did I mention that I might need mail or packages delivered to me while I am out of town working?  I think I will go by there today and clear it out, of any advertising or junk mail. I have a few days to decide. Let me give it a little more thought. The truth is, these P.O. Boxes are like anchors. They hold you, until you are ready to go. They give you a sense of security, that you don’t have to let the location go, until you are ready to “pull” the anchor. It’s just $24, for 6 more months. Let me see how I feel then. I will give myself that luxury!!!

Well, what do you know? As I was googling a photo of a post office to include here, I found out what nobody is reporting. The USPS is selling historic post office buildings to finance their solvency. Check out the Web site, Save the Post Office, attempts, among other things, to map the sale and possible sale of the buildings. “They are losing iconic buildings,” said Mr. Hutkins, who questioned whether the Postal Service is “artificially inflating the seriousness of the deficit problem to justify downsizing.”

The PMCC Online Post Office Photo Collection can be found at postmarks.org/photos/ or on Flickr at flickr.com/photos/postoffices/collections/.  You can get a preview with this slideshow of the Pennsylvania album.  Read more on Going Postal.

The collection includes active post offices and former post office buildings, regular post offices as well as processing facilities and contract postal units, relatively recent photos plus over 600 photographs taken prior to 1950, most of which were digitized from the National Archives, where Evan spent much of one summer on a research grant.  (Evan, by the way, is featured in the prologue to Devin Leonard’s new book, Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service.)

Now, I will have to read Leonard’s book, which I posted front and center. I urge you to do so, as well. Losing our post offices, one building at a time? That’s a unique way to dismantle a system that the government has decided to shut down quietly with little public input. Well, take a look at the photos. I checked every Post Office that I support by paying P.O.Box fees and discovered that NONE of them are on the photo list!  Here is where your educated decision making comes in. What are you going to do? I am keeping all my P.O. Boxes now and reading his book next! I probably need to submit my favored P.O. building photos for this collection. It is always amazing what people with a purpose can do. Evan and his group collected 55,000 post office building photos and over the last three years have been able to digitize 25,000 of them. The links are above- enjoy! Perhaps something here will spark your passion. It certainly sparked Evan’s!! His goal is to visit every PO in America- estimated at over 36,000. That’s a lifetime project!!