During any normal day I talk to folks all over the U S of
A. One day last week I noticed something that I had never really given much
thought to previously. There was nothing
I found that was horribly earth shattering or profound. It was just one of
those mundane things that never received any conscious recognition on my part and I imagine
most of the rest of you haven’t given more than a passing thought to either. I've had one
of these everywhere I've lived since I was in 3 cornered pants, the rest of you
probably had one too. The only time any of us really thinks about this is
when we’re tossing something in the mailbox. Yep, I am talking about our friend the zip
code.
You may be
asking yourself why hell is he writing about the zip code. All I can say in my defense is this is what I
get occasionally when something makes me stop and think, “Hmm, never noticed
that before.” When I pull a loose thread on an old sweater I never know what I’m
going to get, though occasionally I do have an idea what that pile of thread
may look like, but not always.
I happened to be
having one of those days were I seemed to be talking to people from the
Northeast, primarily the New England states. For the first time something
dawned on me that I had never consciously acknowledged before; all the zip codes
for the New England states start with a “0”. I spent a lot of years in the
Northeast and had never noticed the connection before; just slap the old zip
code on a letter or bill then send it off expecting it to make it to its
destination. Who the hell thinks about their zip code or gives much thought to some
silly bunch of numbers and wonders why they are what they are? Yours truly
that’s who. I've always been somewhat of a numbers nut and as a kid would pour over
the box scores in the newspaper on a daily basis just to devour the stats. Numbers are still tasty, though stats I've come to realize rarely tell the whole story, though this little numbers game
lit a spark in me. Thankfully, my pants didn't catch on fire.
Filled with intrigue, well marginally anyway, I decided to investigate the mystery, which really isn't a mystery, though like any other mystery there were questions that couldn't be answered. The Zip Code was initially established in the
early 60’s to help move the mail more efficiently, though they weren't mandatory at that time. How efficient mail delivery was prior to Zip Codes is up for debate. A few years later they were made mandatory for bulk rate mailings and the rest of the country followed along; the rest is as they
say is history.
The Zip Code numbering
system starts with the New England states, though I could not find a reason why
they start there. I’d venture a guess it has something to do with the whole Plymouth
Rock, Pilgrims, and the first thirteen colonies thing, but I could find nothing
to refute or prove that either way. The country is basically divided into 10 zones,
numbered 0 thru 9, and the first digit determines the zone. The next two digits specify a region or city within
that zone and the last two are for more specific locales.
There are
several business locations, like General Electric at Schenectady, NY and the Empire State building along with some government locations like the CIA and the
main Post Office in Alexandria, VA that are actually assigned their own
specific zip code. Santa Claus doesn't have a US Zip code, though the Canadians
using there alphanumeric postal coding send all mail to him at Santa Claus North
Pole H0h 0h0.
I had a bit of
fun with this little project as it developed and spent way more time on it than
I should have; that numbers thing again I guess. I remembered being a kid and
seeing the Public Service Announcements on TV with Mr. Zip reminding us to use our zip code. Little did
I know at the time it was a relatively new addition to day to day life in the
US. The video at the top is from the Library of Congress and runs about 14
minutes. If you can sit through the corny lyrics and goofy choreography the
part in the middle with the guy sitting at the desk is worth it for the comic relief
alone. It was obvious he was not cut out for being in front of a camera; he looked like he didn't know whether to shit or wind his watch. Thanks for
joining me on my little history mystery and remember to use your zip code; Mr. Zip
is watching.
Research Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment