Post Office

This is my 1937 post office...or as much of it as I could get in the frame from across the street...on a morning of shadows and sun.

Morning temperature: 47 degrees

Steps: 10,090

National Card & Letter Writing Month

This is my local post office,  the Old Chelsea Post Office. It opened in 1933 when FDR was president and James A Farley was postmaster. Now James A Farley is the name of my all time favorite post office in NYC across from Penn Station.

I love mail. I love receiving mail and sending mail. Naturally I'm talking about fun mail. I'm not so appreciative of bills and junk - though the occasional clever piece of advertising will often give me seconds of fun.

Here it is the 10th day of April and I have not been doing much to celebrate National Card & Letter Writing Month. The celebration is to promote literacy (and perhaps sell some postage stamps.)

I have gone through several letter writing phases in my life and I know the pleasure of writing with a good fountain pen. I survived an addiction to the Current catalog which caused me to buy all kinds of stationery especially note cards that folded in a way to become their own envelopes.

I just googled National Card & Letter Writing Month and was led to a Pinterest site where the person managed to misspell stationery over and over again. This spelling was one I learned a trick for long ago and never misspell. A "stationer" (now an old fashioned term) refers to a person or store that sells stationery. Stationary means standing still...not moving. Picture that Stationer with an "e" and you'll always spell stationery correctly.

I admit to doing a lot less letter writing and a lot more card making. I also write fewer handwritten letters. The first thing I liked about using a computer was the ease of correcting mistakes while typing a document. I always hated making a mistake in a handwritten letter. In order to avoid crossing out mistakes I often would extend the sentence saying something like "oops, I didn't mean to write that - what I meant was ...."

So why not buy a card or make a card and send it. Write a letter or write a postcard. April is as good a time as any.

Morning temperature: 43 degrees
Morning steps: 7081

More Post Office Decorations

At the James Farley Post Office

When I saw these "candy" decorations I immediately thought of NYC's Mayor Bloomberg. He must be annoyed that he doesn't have control over how the Federal government decorates for the holidays. The Feds probably were proud of their neutral non-religious theme.

But the Mayor has had a war on childhood obesity. He's gotten trans fats banned from restaurants in the city. He's even put limits on the size of carbonated beverages food service establishments can sell.

And now the post office decorates with candy!

Gingerbread House at the Post Office

Gingerbread House in the James Farley Post Office