Grandad Delivered

My Grandad, Joe Hoye, was the superintendent of mails in Taunton, Massachusetts when I was a little girl. I got to spend a couple of weeks with Nana and Grandad each summer and I learned his routine. He would go off to work in the morning and then come home at noon for his dinner. Nana would have a nice hot meal ready and he'd sit down to watch his programs. Grandad was a fan of As the World Turns and Search for Tomorrow.

Once in awhile, Grandad would be a few minutes late and he'd explain that he'd had a letter for Aunt Hattie that had come in after the mail went out for the day. Then there was a package for Max Goldstein and he probably needed it right away, at the store, so Grandad had delivered it on his way home. Sometimes he'd tell me that it took a few minutes extra to find a person addressed simply at:

Mrs. Teatrault
Near the house with the big piazza on Smith Street
City

Those were the days when stamps cost 3 cents, when mail was delivered at least twice a day, when the post office could actually manage to deliver a package to the right house even if the address was the one next door, and when the mail man was everybody's friend.

I wish my Grandad was still around. I truly thought he could do anything. Hey! He packed a wallop when he put his mind into it. Heck! he even took on the TV station in Boston that fed him his daily soap and told them off. See, he was extremely offended when they began airing commercials for girdles and brassieres during his dinner hour. He let them know that he and the other respectable gentlemen of Taunton would not watch the station nor would they shop with their sponsors. The station took the commercials off the air! (Good thing Grandad can't see what they advertise now. He'd have a conniption fit if he saw Happy Bob!)

I would love to sit and talk with him but I also believe the world needs him. In my little girl faith in him, I know he could straighten out the problems the "modern" Post Office seems to create with each postage raise. I think he'd really be upset if I could tell him what happened today.

This historic presidential election campaign was the first that I have really followed closely. I was totally wrapped up in the entire thing. Then the complications began to set in when we were getting registered and awaiting our absentee ballots. We had one delay after another, but they finally arrived. Big Jim and I stood there in the post office, filled out the ballots, and put them in the return mail-six days before the election. Cutting it close but with a couple of days to spare.

Today I got a letter telling me my vote had been rejected because it did not arrive in time! I was really disappointed. But then I realized Big Jim had not gotten any such letter.


Now I'm mad and I'll bet Grandad is too.

See ya down the road,
Yarntangler