I'VE GOT MAIL by Camille Minichino
I've
been a fan of the US Postal Service since I was a kid. It could have been the
uniforms that got my attention. In my working class neighborhood, uniforms were
a rarity. The men, most of them laborers like my father, wore nondescript
"work clothes," usually in olive drab or khaki; the women wore
housedresses and aprons.
The
mailman, however, wore a snazzy blue-grey outfit with an Eisenhower-style
jacket—banded waist, two pleated-patch breast pockets, and buttoned cuffs. The round
patch on the sleeve, of a pony express delivery, couldn't have been cooler. A
matching safari-style hat topped it off. What was not to like?
My
sixth-grade teacher also contributed to my interest when he assigned a special
project: We were to write a "business letter" and ask for information
through the mail. The who and the what were wide open, leaving us to our own
imaginations. (Thanks for that, Mr. D.)
I'd
certainly never been on an airplane, but for some reason I chose to send a
request to an airline for information about becoming a stewardess. Pre-Google,
who knows where I got the address of an airline? The important thing is that it
was my first foray into research and it worked! I still remember the package
that arrived a couple of weeks later—the requisite application forms, with my name and address on the large
envelope! Colorful pamphlets toppled out also, all showing the glamorous
life of a waitress at thirty-thousand feet. I took the package to school and
impressed all my friends.
After
that, I couldn't be stopped. I sent away for all kinds of things, just to
receive letters or packages with my name on them. "Send for more
information" was an invitation I never refused. As a result, I acquired
such items as brochures from the army, kits for home improvement, pamphlets on
family health, and brochures for colleges and universities all over the world.
When the pen pal craze hit, I was there.
Since that time, I've had many jobs, from
research physicist to novelist, but one of my proudest tenures was with the USPS
as a temporary sorter during my holiday vacations from college. My only regret
was that I didn't get to wear the uniform.
My
latest tribute to the men and women in whom we put our trust to take care of
our communications is my new series: the Postmistress Mysteries.
The
first in the series, DEATH TAKES PRIORITY, was released this month. In it,
Cassie takes on the mysterious disappearance of two hundred phone books and the
murder of an old high school beaux. The book is topped off by fun facts and
stories about the USPS. Haven't you always wanted to know, for example, that the ZIP
in ZIP codes stands for Zoning Improvement Plan and that there are nearly
forty-two thousand zip codes in the country?
I hope you enjoy Cassie as she hoists the flag every
morning over her own small USPO.
Camille Minichino
(aka Margaret Grace, Ada Madison, and Jean Flowers) has written more than 20 cozy
mystery novels as well as short stories and nonfiction. A retired physicist,
she teaches science at Golden Gate U. in San Francisco, and writing in the SF
Bay Area. Visit Camille at www.minichino.com
Comments
I do remember mail twice a day; ours would ring the bell and hand deliver!
Thanks for introducing me to your readers.
Camille, aka JEAN FLOWERS