US Postal Service

[mlm668]

I was talking to our Postmistress yesterday and she was telling me about some more changes the Postal Service is implementing in the next year (other than changing the forms for certified mail - which I found out about when I tried to use the old forms yesterday. )

I was taught years ago that when you have an address that has both a P.O. Box and a street address you type the P.O. Box first (or preferably only that) and the street address second.  Well, I was informed yesterday that its now reversed (street first, P.O. Box second, but preferably only P.O. Box).  Within the next year, they will start reading address from the bottom up and kicking back any where the address isn't in the "system".  

For example:  I don't have a mailbox at my house and use a P.O. Box.  If mail comes to the Post Office addressed this way

Michelle
P.O. Box XX
XXX Main Street
Anytown, VA XXXX

it will be sent back because I am not set up for residential delivery.

Something else to relearn.  Just thought I would pass that along for those of you who may have been taught the way I was all the those years back.



Michelle

[ohiosec]

I was always taught to use one address or the other and preferably the street address because that was less likely to change.

[countrigal]

What I have found interesting (and bothersome) is Rural Routes going to street addresses.  My mother lives in the middle of no-where and it was always so easy to address it to her at RRX, Box XX.  Now I have to remember 123456789 Y street.  I understand that this is to help emergency workers (fire/police/ambulance) find the houses easier but come on... In SD most of the houses are in the middle of farmland, and what happens when Junior moves a house on the hay grounds in the back 40, and a new road is put in for him.  What are they going to call it? And what huge number will his be?  Geesh, advancing technologies... a necessary evil.

CountriGal
Staff Member

[chris68]

CG,

I understand, my friend in Texas lives in a trailer park and the route numbers all start with FM# and go on from there, so that is really confusing.  But for mail purposes she does have a PO box.  So guess I'll have to remember to start this new.

Chris68
Staff Member

[mlm668]

I agree about the rural routes.  I moved to this county right after it started naming the streets and I grew up in a small city.  What I want to know is who was the brilliant soul who decided that one name should be used to cover what is actually 4 different state route numbers considering that one of those routes actually branches off the main route and doesn't merge back for at least 5 miles.  And my Dad was so funny about it because the name they gave his road is not what the locals called it when he grew up here and alas that name covered 3 different route numbers.  So you had to know the state route number and the street address when you called 911 or it took them to long - defeating the whole purpose of the system.  AAAUUGGHHH!!!!!

Michelle

[countrigal]

Exactly my point MLM!  Heck, I can't even remember my own mother's addy because it has way, way too many numbers on it, the road isn't named anything close to what the locals have always called it, and if I were at her home and called in an emergency, the quickest way to get anyone there would be to talk to an lder person and say "I'm at the old Swanson homestead".  That's not what it is now, but that's the name that it was for years and years and years and how everyone still refers to it.  Except for us of course.  Mom and dad named it DunRoven Ranch, because mom said she's done roving around from place to place with dad.  This is where they've retired and neither wants to move again.  Gotta love 'em!

CountriGal
Staff Member

[bethalize]

DunRovin Ranch! Ha ha! Dunroamin' is what you see over here on retirement bungalows.

We wanted to call our hous Dunnothin', because we were only young and hadn't really done anything yet. My mother says that this applied to the housework as well!