My mail gets delivered around 4 p.m. — if I’m lucky. Sometimes it’s a lot later.
I’ve heard stories that back in the day, Westporters got mail twice a day. In the early 1900s — before the widespread adoption of telephones — people here communicated by sending postcards to each other.
“06880” reader Jill Christerson recalls twice-daily delivery of mail — and she graduated from Staples in 1974.
“When did the mail stop being delivered twice a day in Westport?” she asks.
“I know in the early ’70s it was twice a day because I had a boyfriend in Viet Nam. I lived on Caccamo Lane, and I remember waiting for the afternoon delivery because the Air Force mail always came in the afternoon vs. morning!”
I think she’s wrong. I don’t remember twice-daily delivery at all, except a few days before Christmas.
But Jill has a bet with a fellow Westporter, so a lot rides on this. We’ll leave it to “06880” readers to deliver the answer.
Joey Karmanosky was a lifetime Westport resident and retired postal worker. He died in 2005 but we had long talks about his work and the transition of this town since his Staples graduation in 1941. According to my memory of our talks and my experience, mail was never delivered twice a day since my arrival in 1953 EXCEPT for holidays when the mail increased nearly tenfold. By coincidence, we calculated that Joey had delivered my draft notice in the winter of 1968. He was a good guy.
Only once a day in Weston since we moved there in 1957. Also I only remember once a day delivery in Norwalk in the 30s and 40s.
Those of us who lived in Greens Farms had to go to the post office to get our mail. And we got twice a day delivery– morning and afternoon. I remember clearly watching the bags being thrown off the afternoon train and then racing down the hill to wait while Ken and John sorted. In 1960, my family moved to Hillspoint Road and we didn’t go the post office anymore. There was only once a day delivery to the end of driveway mailbox.
I lived near Longshore from the early 1960s to 1985; we always had once-daily delivery.
As a high school student in Rochester NY I worked for the Post Office during the mid forties delivering holiday mail, I never remember twice a day deliveries at that time although twice a day was the rule in the thirties. During the thirties the Post Office rule was that Christmas cards could be mailed unsealed for 2 cents and sealed for 3 cents. My mother said that receiving a sealed card said that the sender was “well to do”. I checked the incoming cards one Christmas and found only unsealed cards–I guess our friends were as poor as we were.
I lived in Westport in the mid to late 70s, and my mail was delivered once a day.
I guess memories of twice a day delivery goes along with walking to school in 10′ high snow and apple pies cooling on window sills back then.
Our mail also comes late, but the other side of the street gets theirs a 3 or 4 hours earlier. Maybe they could reverse the route half way through the year so that we could get ours earlier part of the time.
Best suggestion is to get a P.O. Box and then your get it early and
no issues of identity theft.
After I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new feedback are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any approach you can remove me from that service? Thanks!