I’m very curious as to what a mail delivery person might actually think when there are like five postcards from all over the world that have to be delivered to one address. And then situations like that just keep happening. If I worked to deliver mail I’d personally be very curious.
I feel like most mail that people receive here nowadays are official boring letters from like the government, or bills and stuff - except when it’s christmas time - so I imagine a post delivery person might find some joy in delivering postcards?
What do you all think a mail delivery person might think about all of the postcards they have to deliver to your address? Or has perhaps your mail delivery person said something to you about it, or are you a mail delivery person and have some insight about this situation?
My post- person is called Ian. He’s made occasional comments “Here’s your post, a parcel…and the postcards”, but with no curiosity whatsoever about the origin of the postcards, or why I receive so many. I would have loved to have the opportunity to explain, but the chance has never arisen.
Yes, my old mailman (who I have not seen since the beginning of the pandemic … ) once asked me why I received so many postcards. I explained postcrossing to him and I got the impression he found it quite cool.
Now my mail gets delivered by lots of different people and I have no idea what they think about all the postcards or even if they think anything about them at all.
I am a mail carrier and in my tiny office everyone gets excited about incoming postcards. We process lots of outgoing because I live in a very touristy town, but those are just pushed through the system because we don’t know the senders. We know all the residents though and when postcards come in, we all are interested.
In fact, one of the reasons I got such a fast transfer to my hometown post office from the one I started at last March was because the people who work there kind of felt like they already knew me because of all the mail I get (I also write lots and lots of letters). I heard, “Oh! You’re the one who gets so many postcards from all over!”
We have a postcard mystery going on at the office for about a year. Someone with absolutely atrocious handwriting is sending postcards from all over the world to an address we can’t make out. We think the address might be to a child because the signature looks like a version of “pop pop” but the street is completely illegible. It could be the sender has the wrong town, even. But we can’t return to sender because there isn’t a return address, so we are holding onto the cards with the hope someone comes in to ask about them.
The real reason your postal workers don’t mention your postcards is probably because in training they are told to never tamper with the mail, and that includes reading postcards. Even just commenting on what’s in the mail is frowned upon. But, I bet there are many more postal employees excited to see your colorful postcards than you can imagine. We all just have to keep our joy between ourselves and coworkers
My postie, Joe, is very friendly and chatty. He knocked the door to deliver a parcel and I said ‘no postcards today?’ and he seemed inquisitive so I told him I’d signed up to Postcrossing and explained it a bit. He looked at me like I was mad!
He knows I’ve been working from home since March last year so I got the impression he thinks it’s a symptom of the pandemic! And maybe it is He also collects the mail from the village postbox so he will have noticed an unusual amount of postcards being sent from a rural village!
I correspond frequently with my sister via postcard, even though she is not yet a postcrosser. Her postman is named Josh, so I often leave him a note on the postcard as well. They both seem to enjoy that. Connections.
Since I have a post office box, the personnel there know about my getting many postcards. One time I was chatting with a friendly clerk who was on her break outside. She noted my postcard mail; then I mentioned to her about my membership with Postcrossing.
Something comical happened about a week ago. I got a political postcard in my box. By the look of it, I could tell it wasn’t sent through PostCrossing. Moreover, since I am completely neutral with regards to politics, I knew no entity had my name. Sure enough, when the turned the card over, it was addressed to someone else. Kinda cute that the back office clerk(s) who sort the mail for insertion into the boxes…when they saw a postcard, they thought it was for me. LOL
I tried to talk to my carrier about cards and Postcrossing but he doesn’t care. In the US carriers are followed by supervisors and timed, so they are not supposed to talk to people on the route
As a student I lived in Latvia in a youth hostel/student home for half a year. Of course I was doing postcrossing! Normally the hotel girl would pin the mails to the door, which was ok as long as it was one or two letters/postcards. Delivery for those letters was once a week. I often got more than 2 postcards a week, so she just put it in front of my door. One time we also had a nice chat and she loved looking at the pictures of the postcards. As well as the other hotel staff. I explained postcrossing to her and she sounded quite interested. Never knew if she finally signed up. It was fun to realise that my postcards brought joy to so many other people before they came to me.
I joined up in February in the brutal depths of COVID isolation. And of course there’s a slow buildup with Postcrossing (took me a while to find the Forum too!). So it wasn’t for several months that there was noticeable activity. One day this summer I happened to see my postal worker and so I told her about the postcards and Postcrossing, thanking her for her increased level of work delivering my mail. She laughed and said she just figured I had a LOT of family!
My mail delivery person first surprised delivering me postcards. He said me untill your postcards I delivered only bills and now I have cards all over the world to deliver you. Noone in my village receives postcards so I feel special
I am fairly sure that my mail is delivered by different persons, so I don’t know what they think when they push my mail and cards through my letter flap. No one has asked this far. But I imagine that they might have been a bit baffled at first when other people in my building receive regular boring stuff.
I personally never see my mailperson as I live in an apartment complex with many flats but my mum was once asked by her mailwoman why she gets so many postcards - „no one else gets that many postcards“, she said My mum then also explained about Postcrossing.
I also sometimes get postcards that are actually for other people in my apartment complex, so I guess the people delivering the mail just think every postcard is for me
Unfortunately, I have no idea what the mail delivery person thinks of the postcards I get because most of the mail gets delivered when I’m at work. I think the most prosaic explanation is that they don’t have any particular opinion–I live in a busy suburb and I’m sure they’ve seen more interesting things considering how much mail they handle every day. If I lived in a tiny town with not much going on–that might be a different story.
I have wondered the same thing! I have a great mail delivery person and she has never mentioned anything about all the cards but I explained to her about postcrossing. But perhaps they do take time to look at the postcards sometimes, I would not mind at all!
We used to have a wonderful letter carrier, Carolyn, who loved to see all the places I’d get mail art from. (This was before I found Postcrossing.) She knew I had health issues and if my dad’s car wasn’t in the driveway, she’d usually bring it to the door instead of the end of the driveway, to save me the walk.
My favorite and I think hers was that I ordered a walking stick off of Etsy and instead of putting it in a box, they wrapped it in layers and layers of bubble wrap
Sadly since she retired, our service has been okay, but we’ve never wound up with the same person more than a few days at a time and haven’t built up a rapport. I did find out recently that some of my Postcrossing postcards get misdelivered to the same neighbor. She left a note in my mailbox, saying she keeps getting them and bringing them over, but doesn’t mind because I get such cool mail. I get a lot of handmade cards.
Anyway, I’ve always figured postcards are fair game for other people reading them. I can see why it may be discouraged and postal workers may say they don’t (and these days at the USPS, there may be so much stress that they don’t, but they have my blessing to read mine.
) once asked me why I received so many postcards. I explained postcrossing to him and I got the impression he found it quite cool.
He also collects the mail from the village postbox so he will have noticed an unusual amount of postcards being sent from a rural village!
My mum then also explained about Postcrossing.