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Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

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Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#61

Post by 205guy »

TuringNYC wrote: post #8

Like many office buildings in NYC, my employer's building had a system of air-pressured mail tubes. I understand (now) that they are kept in some cases as decoration, historical artifact, or due to the building being designated a historical monument (not sure if internals are covered (?). We didn't understand that as first, and several colleagues and I put postcards and some expense reports into them. I can see the p…

There was also a discussion of mail chutes in old buildings a while ago, and many suffered from blockages (or being non-operational, as in your case). I could see someone finally clearing out a blockage during a renovation, then dropping the old letters in the mail. But the original article was a card written between families, so probably not in an office building. The flea-market theory from the article seems the most plausible.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#62

Post by colejohnson66 »

renewiltord wrote: post #20
alex_g wrote: post #2

The response from USPS is what I expected. It's unlikely this was in the system for 100 years, but someone put it in the mail recently and the USPS decided to deliver it.

If I can do that, then I'm going to get my tax return postmarked early and then just sit on it for a while.

“What do you mean you won’t pay me? Your requirement said postmarked by $date!”

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#63

Post by mindcrime »

starpilot wrote: post #57
mindcrime wrote: post #53

I ordered a package of plastic worms (for bass fishing) back in June. They were shipped from Texas on 06-21, and as of today (09-10), they still haven't arrived (Chapel Hill, NC). Yet strangely enough, the postal service tracking system updated the status about a month ago, from "In Transit" to "In Transit - Arriving Late". Derp, derp. Anyway, I've pretty much given up on them at this point, but I wonder if like 100…

I had a small package in customs in Chicago for three months recently. Seems to be the norm in these times.

Yeah, I mean, I could understand something coming through customs. But this particular package was something manufactured and shipped in Texas.

I did recently have a rather long wait for a book that was shipped from, aaah... I think it was either Germany or England. I think it took about a month and a half to arrive.

Of course I understand that COVID has had a major impact, but the one from Texas still annoys me. I mean, c'mon... over two months from TX to NC? Give me a break. :-(

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#66

Post by hk__2 »

marktangotango wrote: post #26

I used to be in the habit of emailing myself links to read later. I once had an email arrive at my gmail account 3 months after I sent it. That's like what 1000 years in internet time? :D

There are a couple services that allow you to write a letter to your future self and get it delivered in X months/years.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#67

Post by 5555624 »

205guy wrote: post #61
TuringNYC wrote: post #8

Like many office buildings in NYC, my employer's building had a system of air-pressured mail tubes. I understand (now) that they are kept in some cases as decoration, historical artifact, or due to the building being designated a historical monument (not sure if internals are covered (?). We didn't understand that as first, and several colleagues and I put postcards and some expense reports into them. I can see the p…

There was also a discussion of mail chutes in old buildings a while ago, and many suffered from blockages (or being non-operational, as in your case). I could see someone finally clearing out a blockage during a renovation, then dropping the old letters in the mail. But the original article was a card written between families, so probably not in an office building. The flea-market theory from the article seems the mo…

I've lived in several apartment buildings that had a mail chute, from the top floor to the first floor, next to the elevator. I don't know how often it was checked for blockage; I think the USPS just picked up the mail form the box at the bottom of the chute.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#68

Post by js2 »

Years ago for my sister's 30th birthday, I did a fun project involving the USPS.

I wanted to send her the message "Happy Belated Thirtieth Birthday!", which is 30 characters, via postcards, one character per postcard.

I found 30 post offices in unique places throughout the U.S. (For example, I found a town that had the same name as her given name in Illinois. I found another with my name, etc.)

I used Zazzle to print a custom post card for each location with a picture of the location on one side, and a large block letter on the other. I just did a Google image search at the time to find photos of the location. Here's the image I used for "Truth or Consequences, NM":

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Truth_or...

I then hand wrote a message on each postcard that started with the block letter. This was because she'd be receiving the postcards one-by-one and I didn't want her to realize right away that a message was being spelled out. It would seem like a postcard I might send her from that location if I'd actually been there.

I also found a set of 50-state stamps the USPS had previously issued on eBay, and used the correct state's stamp for its postcard.

Finally, I round-tripped each postcard through its respective post office by mailing it inside an envelope addressed to the postmaster at that post office along with a note to the post master:

Dear Postmaster:

I am mailing my sister 30 postcards from 30 towns for her 30th birthday. I have enclosed a postcard, which I ask be hand-cancelled with a postmark from your town. To protect the postcard from machine cancels in its journey through the mail system, I have enclosed a stamped envelope addressed to my sister in which to seal and mail the postcard. Thank you very much for your time!

I wasn't sure if this would work, but damn if she didn't get all 30 postcards each properly postmarked.

I dropped them all in the mail in NC. Some went as far as Alaska and Hawaii.

She received them in Miami. I think she got the first one within a few days and the rest dribbled in over the next two weeks.

Edit: here they are after she received them all:

https://ibb.co/YQfx4jZ

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#69

Post by tjr »

ghaff wrote: post #6
alex_g wrote: post #2

The response from USPS is what I expected. It's unlikely this was in the system for 100 years, but someone put it in the mail recently and the USPS decided to deliver it.

That seems almost certainly the case. It seems unlikely that any USPS sorting facility or post office where this could have fallen behind something would still be in use 100 years later (at least without extensive renovations/changes).

I do not have any data, but could easily imagine some post offices in small towns (say: Brandon, Iowa) have gone largely unchanged for a very long time.
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