I admit, I was taken aback by the 3-cent price increase. I mean, I only bought the roll of 100 29-cent stamps about ten days ago. Why couldn’t the postal worker have mentioned the rates were about to go up? Oh, I grumbled, and almost lost my resolve. “You expect me to pay 32 cents just to send a freakin’ POSTCARD?” It ain’t easy squeezing 4 stamps into that tiny little box.
On the plus side, it reminds me yet again of foreign travel. For some reason, back in the 1990’s anyway, I could never manage to get a single stamp for my postcard in Hungary or Italy or Yugoslavia. They always had to sell me three or four per card, and the stamps were all unusual-looking and pretty, much like the currency. Once I wrote my message (which always wound up barely fitting – I seem perpetually to have problems fitting everything I want to say into a confined space), and the address in my big fat print, and then tacked on the “U.S.A,” it was especially difficult to get all the stamps on without covering up something essential.
And it always surprised me when I learned the postcard actually arrived at its intended destination.
So the other day I trudged down to the P.O. yet again, only this time, I didn’t wait in any line. I went to the little kiosk at my neighborhood Piggly Wiggly, and bought a sheet of 2-cent stamps and another sheet of 1-cent stamps. Tiffany lamps on one. Some strange piece of jewelry on the other.
Exotic.
1 comment:
I have to tell you that I went to buy stamps the other day. I bought a book of regular .40+ stamps, then asked how much postcards stamps cost. She looked at me, said ".32, might as well use regular stamps." I agreed & decided to spend the extra for postcards because surely that will help the post office stay in business. Such a silly thought. I received your letter & will reply soon. Promise. Now that I have stamps...
Post a Comment