Do you ever wonder what might become of the U.S. Postal Service with the advancement of technology? We can print stamps at home on our personal computers, pay more and more bills online, use E-mail instead of “snail mail,” and even have packages shipped directly from vendors to recipients without ever setting foot in a post office. While stamps are probably one of the best bargains around, the U.S. Postal Service has been losing money, closing many of its offices, and debating whether to cut mail delivery days.
New to the MVCC Library collection is the book Neither Snow Nor Rain: a History of the United States Postal Service by Devin Leonard. The tagline always was that “neither snow nor rain” or any type of bad weather could keep the postman away. What could possibly keep them away would be dogs; in fact, I just saw a postman interviewed on a morning show this week stating that, while it’s humorous to think of, the biggest stumbling block for him has been dogs chasing him down! Even the word “snail” mail emanated from the dawn of E-mail because it was faster sending electronic mail than using the slow postal service.
An excerpt from Leonard’s interesting book reads: “In parts of America 
that it can’t reach by truck, the USPS finds other means to get people their letters and packages. It transports them by mule train to the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Bush pilots fly letters to the edges of Alaska. In thinly populated parts of Montana and North Dakota, the postal service has what it refers to as ‘shirt pocket’ routes, which means that postal workers literally carry all their letters for the day in their shirt pockets.” Hearing situations such as these remote delivery areas leads one to wonder if the U.S. Postal Service will continue to exist in the future…pick up this book and check it out!
For a limited time you can find the book shelved in the library lounge on the 2nd floor among the new arrivals. Otherwise, it can be found here in our catalog.