When was the last time your kid addressed an envelope? Like, with the actual stamp and addresses in all the right places, then successfully placed it in a mailbox that wasn’t in your playroom?
… Exactly. Not that often. Snail mail has become a fading practice for many families with younger kids. So grab your nearest kiddo (well, don’t be weird about it) and settle in for a read-aloud about letters, stamps and fun while we revisit some basics about the United States Postal Service. Heck, I even threw in some free printables.
You can also consider the following content as a family-friendly primer to my next Behind the Finds column, which involves a very cool, very vintage thing Gig Harbor’s post office once did that I randomly stumbled upon … on eBay. Ah, service journalism meets local history rabbit hole. My love language.
The U.S. Postal Service
In 1775, Benjamin Franklin became America’s first Postmaster General, helping launch a nationwide mail system written into the U.S. Constitution. Its network of evolving postal routes and offices have linked Americans to their incoming and outgoing mail for the last 250 years. The agency saw a big change in 1970 when Congress reorganized the old “Post Office Department” into today’s United States Postal Service, an independent federal agency established on July 1, 1971. From horseback routes to barcode scanners to today’s online tracking, postal service has grown and adapted to keep pace with the public it serves. According to its anniversary materials, USPS milestones over the past half-century include expanded ZIP codes in 1983, its first website in 1994, Forever Stamps in 2007, and Every Door Direct Mail business marketing in more recent years…