What the
office does.
If you need to send something, bring it in. We can help you figure out the best way to get it there. If you're not sure what you need, that's fine -- we've seen most things.
Warren can look up anything in the record if you need documentation. I can usually tell you what it costs before he gets back to the desk.
Sending something out
Four things happen
at this counter.
Most of what we do here is the same four steps, in the same order. We weigh the thing so we know what it costs. We sell you the postage to cover it. We frank it, so it carries the date and the mark of this office. And we sort it, so it leaves grouped with the rest of its district.
You can work each one yourself below. None of it is complicated. It's a system, and it has worked for a long time. Warren keeps the record; I keep the counter moving.
-- D. Reyes, counter, Tuesday and Thursday
First, we find out what it weighs.
Everything starts on the scale. Set your letter or parcel on the platform and the needle settles on the weight -- that's the number the whole price is built from. A single sheet in a plain envelope is one thing. A parcel wrapped in butcher's paper is another.
Pick an item below. Watch it settle on the scale, and the rate it points to is the same reading I give you across the counter.
Postmaster available for inquiries.
"Once we know the weight, the postage is just arithmetic."
-- D. Reyes
2 Buy the postage
Then you buy
the stamps to cover it.
The weight sets the class, and the class sets the postage. First-class letter, printed matter, parcel post -- each has its own rate. Feed the vendor a coin, choose the value, and it reels out a strip of stamps and tears it off clean.
It's a plain machine and it does one plain thing, which is why it has never once given anybody trouble. However many you need for the weight we just took -- that's what you buy.
"A stamped letter isn't done until it's franked."
-- D. Reyes
3 Frank it
Next, we mark it
with the day.
Franking puts today's date and the name of this office on the letter, so anyone down the line knows where it entered the post and when. Set the date wheel to today, dial in the postage that's due, face your envelopes on the bed, and crank the batch through.
Warren is particular about the date wheel being right. I don't argue with him about it. He's correct. Run it here and watch the whole batch pour out franked.
"Marked mail still isn't going anywhere until it's sorted."
-- D. Reyes
4 Sort it
And last, we sort it
for the road.
Every piece goes to the pigeonhole for its district, so the mail heads out grouped by where it's bound instead of one loose pile. Key the holes first, then read each letter and drop it where its key is.
Once every letter is in its hole, the whole batch is ready for the road -- weighed, paid, marked, and sorted.
That's the counter
Weighed, paid, marked,
and sorted. It's ready.
That's the whole of it. Bring the thing in, we weigh it, you buy the postage, we frank it, we sort it, and it goes. Four steps, same order, every time. It isn't a competition and it isn't complicated. It's a system, and it works.
If you want to know when to come by, the hours are posted. And if you're the sort who likes to know how long the office has been doing this -- that's in the record.
-- D. Reyes, counter, Tuesday and Thursday
Hours
Before you come in
When the counter is open, and when it's just the postmaster. He knows what he's doing.
See the hoursHistory
If you're curious
The full record. Founded 1889, telegraph retired 1964, postal services never interrupted.
Read the record