Do you remember those days when the highlight of the day was the mailman stopping at your mailbox? I do. I put up the flag on the box when I had a letter to mail. Seeing the flag was no longer up meant the mailman had made his run. Today, getting mail means a little signal on your computer saying an email has arrived, but it wasn’t always that way.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – CIRCA 1999: Stamp printed in USA dedicated to celebrate the century 1960s, shows star trek, circa 1999
When we built our house at Manos Meadows, we lived at the end of a long, private drive. Our mailbox was on the highway. So, each day either my husband or I stopped at the box or made a special trip to pick up the mail. When the post office finally allowed us to place a mailbox in front of our house, it was a red-letter day.
My grandmother, Mary Edna Latty, was the first postmistress at Etta. The first post office was at her house. Then, much later, Ed Sanders started the first rural route at Etta. Important times! Getting the mail was vital. I still watch for that little vehicle to come to my box each day. But, wait a minute–will the postman one day be obsolete?
Remember reading about the Pony Express and the mail trains steaming across our land? Communication was vitally important to people and it still is. It connects us to those who are not with us. Servicemen looked for those letters and packages from home. They meant that somebody cared, somebody missed them and would be glad when they came back. Those letters were a vital part of knowing what was going on with family and friends they left behind in that wonderful place called home.
Communication is still important. We still love to get the mail, but we don’t have to wait days or weeks to hear from anyone. Texting, email, Facebook–we know what’s going on instantly. That can be wonderful. It can also be information overload. Good news, bad news, we are bombarded by it.
I still have a mailbox in front of my house. I’m sure you do too. But, I wonder for how much longer? Will it one day be a thing of the past like rotary phones? Or, one day will we come full circle and actual hand-written letters once more be in vogue?
The second Darcy and Flora cozy mystery, Grave Shift, begins with Flora receiving a letter. You see, going to the mailbox was one of the things Flora looked forward to each day. But, if she had known the request that was inside that particular envelope, I wonder if she would have opened it? That request led her and her daughter Darcy Campbell down a mighty treacherous road to a startling new friendship, and a discovery that changed everything. And, the earthquake helped with that discovery too. This book was written before Oklahoma had so many earthquakes, so it was a little ahead of its time!! But, yes, the mailbox and the earthquake were big factors in Grave Shift.
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