Check the Mail

Kingston, AR is a small town near where I grew up.  It’s one of the oldest villages in Arkansas and has had a post office since 1856.  It still has one today.  I love our US Postal Service because I love getting letters.  Two faithful friends write me letters—Mary Bourne and Jonell Gatlin.  Sometimes, I even get a package.  Once when I was feeling low, my friend Amy sent me some soothing tea in a sweet letter.  

The other picture is the post office at Ben Hur, AR.  It is no longer in service.  The folks at Ben Hur now get their mail addressed to the Pelsor Post.

We used to get all bills in the mail, but now they only want to send them email.  My Dad called bills “duns”.  Webster defines dun as noun and adjective forms that relate to color. It probably comes from German roots, and may be related to the word dusk, as a dun color has a dull quality that you might associate with dusk or fading light. A dun horse is called a Dun. As a verb, to dun means to attempt to collect an overdue bill.   

Junk mail is just what the term says and it’s annoying.  We don’t get quite as much of it as we once did.  Even if we had a “do not mail” list it’d probably be as successful as the “do not” call one.  When I worked with Pooch McCollum, he saved all his junk mail in paper grocery sacks just to see how much it amounted to in a year.  

Do you write letters?