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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

#71

Post by usefulcat »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #55

You get your postmark from the originating post office. If I drop something in the mail here, the local post office marks the item (verifying & invalidating the postage), perhaps encodes the address in the barcode at the bottom (I don't recall whether that's centralized work or not), and sends it along its merry way to the destination. The postmark is obviously printed by a modern (impact?) printer. Why the post offi…

Sometimes they don’t notice that the postage is wrong, or even missing entirely. I’ve heard stories of people drawing “stamps” on letters to see if it would pass, and I know I’ve successfully mailed a letter without putting a stamp on it at all (by accident, and was surprised that it was delivered).

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#72

Post by seizethecheese »

A lot of jokes on here about this being an improvement for USPS, or a distraction.

The truth is that USPS performance has improved dramatically over the last two weeks. You just haven't heard about that because there is very little appetite for good news. See here:

https://carriers.shipbob.com/#lp-pom-block-1909

Our company (bottomless.com, YC W19) uses USPS to do real time delivery and keeps a very close eye on arrival times. Our own internal arrival time data has normalized considerably as well.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#73

Post by tartoran »

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.

The story seems to be either to get clicks or to intentionally make the USPS look bad, perhaps it has something to do with the election. I bet most people didn't read this part and some of them really formed the conclusion the mail got lost for 100 years in the mail system after skimming over this article.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#74

Post by ZainRiz »

js2 wrote: post #68

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…

Wow, this is a great story! Do you have pictures of the post cards by any chance?

And how long did it take her to realize what the message was?

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#75

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

organsnyder wrote: post #28
golem14 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember the USPS is rumored to have recently dismantled hundreds of sorting machines. Entirely possible that some old mail was jammed in there somehow. Also, cf. "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett.

I had that initial thought as well, but there's no way those machines are anywhere near a century old.

the card is old enough to have been considered an antique in 1970, reinserted into the postal system, then gotten stuck in a "modern" sorting machine for another 50 years until ... TADA !!

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#76

Post by slig »

hk__2 wrote: post #66
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.

futureme.org. I remember writing some about 10 years ago.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#77

Post by btilly »

js2 wrote: post #68

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…

My mother did something like that, but as a prank on my brother who was at the time in a military hospital. (This during the Vietnam days.)

What she did was got an atlas and identified every town whose name was at all romantic. (Things like Loving, New Mexico.) The postcards that she had come back appeared to be from random girls with as different as she could make the handwriting to be. It was all timed to show up on Valentine's day.

After getting two stacks of postcards from girls with cryptic messages like, "I hope to see you again" and "Visit any time", my brother got a reputation for being a total stud.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#78

Post by js2 »

ZainRiz wrote: post #74
js2 wrote: post #68

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…

Wow, this is a great story! Do you have pictures of the post cards by any chance? And how long did it take her to realize what the message was?

I just added a photo of them all as received:

https://ibb.co/YQfx4jZ

It's been eight years. I think she texted me after she got the first few. I don't recall when she realized there was a message. I seem to recall they came in in batches. She's get none for a day or two and then get three or four. I also recall there wasn't a lot of correlation between how far they travelled and when she got them. It probably mostly depended how long it took the post master at each post office to re-mail.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#79

Post by fuzzer37 »

JadeNB wrote: post #52
trhway wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post office will have time machine by then to get back and deliver on time and change the temporarily altered history. May be we already living in that alternative branch.

> May be we already living in that alternative branch. You conjugated the future semiconditionally modified subinverted plagal past subjunctive intentional incorrectly.

I can't tell if this is a very elaborate grammar joke that I don't know enough to understand or a troll.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#80

Post by _whiteCaps_ »

codezero wrote: post #37
wtn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS was probably much more adamant about delivering lost mail in the 1950s. The level of service was higher, with twice daily delivery.

I never knew they did twice daily deliver, time to google up some more info!

http://500years.royalmailgroup.com/gallery/delivery-frequenc...

In the UK it was up to 12 times / day in cities!

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