This Post May Actually Be Longer than the Line at the Post Office
Monday morning. Long line at the post office. I had a stack of packages to mail—same as everyone else there. I also needed to pick up more of the flat-rate priority mail boxes, but the racks were empty. A man ahead of me in line needed some too, and one of the clerks had to go hunt up a new batch of them in the back room. Listening to the impatient sighs all around, I was glad he’d beat me to that request.
Except it turned out—after the guy left, which is a bummer—that the new stack of boxes was the wrong kind, just plain priority mail, not the flat-rate boxes. So that poor customer went home with a pile of the wrong thing. I was the one who discovered the error, while the clerk was taking care of my packages.
“Are these the same as the flat-rate boxes?” I asked, not seeing the words “flat rate” anywhere on the white slabs of ready-to-fold cardboard.
“Oh, shoot,” said the clerk. “No. Shoot. We gave him the wrong kind.”
I had already told him I was going to need a dozen of the medium flat-rate boxes, so he said he’d have to go look for them after he finished ringing up my packages. More restless sighs from the long line of people behind me. Now I was going to get to be that person, the delayer.
The clerk handed me my receipt and disappeared to the back room. Shuffle, sigh, murmur goes the line. Seconds tick painfully by. This is the kind of situation that makes me squirm; I have a tendency to blurt out inanities in a vain effort to break the tension.
“This is the awful part,” I said to the line in general. “When you’re the one holding everybody up.”
Every single person in that line stared back at me blankly. Not one single commiserating smile, not even a quirked corner of the mouth. Just—blank. Except for the one woman who muttered to the man in front of her, “She picked an interesting time for this.”
Which, I couldn’t help it, made me chuckle—an interesting time for what? For picking up shipping boxes? In the post office during the holidays? That’s an interesting time? I think it’s kind of a pedestrian time, an obvious time, don’t you? Or maybe it’s just that I “picked” a time when the line was very long. Which is to say, I went to the post office in December. Hee. I’ve stood in no less than four very long lines at three different branches of the post office in the past week, at various times of day. (Y’all are keeping me busy with these book orders!) I feel fairly confident in saying categorically that there is no time the line isn’t long, this time of year.
It was funny, the contrast between that P.O. trip (mortifying) and the one I made last Saturday morning, with Stevie along for the ride (amusing). We had three packages to mail and I was hoping to pick up the flat-rate boxes then, but then, too, the display rack was empty. And—ironically—I didn’t ask the clerk (different clerk, different P.O.) to fetch me some that day, because the line was moving so very slowly. When Stevie and I got in line, there was a woman finishing up at the counter who had mailed six or seven packages, and I gathered her order had been complicated and had taken a while. The man at the front of the line was clearly at the limits of his patience; he was puffing air out his nose quite angrily, like an irritated bull.
The clerk, a cheerful, portly fellow, seemed to be trying—with much more success than I had a few days later—to lighten the mood with humor. As the six-package lady was packing up her wallet to leave, the clerk announced, “All right, and FIVE..FOUR…THREE…TWO…ONE! We’re closed, people!”
Gasps all round—but immediately he was laughing, waving his hand to show he was teasing us. Everyone giggled except the puffing bull-man, who barked, “You’re lucky we don’t all have pistols!”—which I think was meant to be funny, actually, but came off rather alarming.
Then it was that man’s turn at the counter. As he strode forward, he watched the six-package lady exiting and said, loudly, “Doesn’t she know they teach remedial math in night school?”
I looked anxiously at the door to see if the woman had heard the insult. I think (hope) she was out of earshot by then.
“Harsh,” I murmured, and the woman in line ahead of me, a lovely twinkly-eyed grandmother with fluffy Miss Marple hair, shook her head in agreement.
The bull-man pointed at the angel stamps on the poster and said, “I want 25 of those.” But they only come, the clerk explained, in books of 20. Bull-man snorted, exasperated. “Fine. Then give me 25 of those blueberry ones,” he grumped, pointing at the juniper-berry stamp in the Evergreens collection.
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the clerk. “Those come as a set—the four evergreen designs.”
“But I only want the berries.”
“I’m sorry, sir, they don’t come separately.”
“But I don’t want the pine cones!”
“I’m sorry, sir…”
By now Miss Marple and I were both giggling, hidden from the bull-man’s view by the big empty rack that was supposed to hold my flat-rate boxes. The young guy in front of Miss Marple shot me a grin. There was this ripple of camaraderie all down the line—the bull-man had been so disgusted with the six-package lady for taking so long. He would have hated to be behind his own self in line. It was kind of delicious, this moment.
Now, threaded through the seven or eight minutes it took the man to agree to suffer the pine cones along with the berries, Stevie was chattering to me in his hybrid of English and ASL, and I was speaking-signing back to him, and he was melting the hearts of the other women in line, as he is wont to do. He’s just such a cute little guy, you know? Miss Marple loved him. Ms. Marple, I should say, because she told me all about her granddaughter who is deaf, and she, grandma, signs a little, “but not enough.” And we talked about Signing Time and ways to learn ASL.
And it turned out the young guy in front of her was mildly hard of hearing and had worn hearing aids as a child, but didn’t wear them any longer. He cracked Stevie up, making eyes at him around the empty box rack. It felt like we were all passengers together on a cruise or something, fellow travelers bonding on a long journey.
At last the bull-man stomped out with his despised pine cones, and the next few transactions moved rapidly. Stevie and I were beckoned forward by the same affable clerk who’d been so patient with bull-man and six-package lady. He greeted me heartily and signed hello to Steve. And proceeded to explain, as he weighed my packages, that he too was hard of hearing. (What are the odds? It was kind of incredible, this convergence of hard-of-hearing men young and old.) I learned to sign when I was little, he signed, and Stevie grinned and got shy, and I was kind of relieved the bull-man wasn’t in line anymore because our conversation undeniably added a few extra moments to the transaction.
Good moments. Moments of connection. Everyone in that line was smiling—the bull-man’s ironic surliness had put us all in merry spirits, somehow. That and a cute little deaf kid with blue hearing aids.
I guess that sense of connection, that we’re-all-in-this-together feeling, is what I was looking for on Monday, three days later, when I babbled my remark to the impatient queue in the other post office. I was a six-package lady myself that time and already self-conscious about that when the whole wrong-kind-of-box thing happened.
I should have brought Stevie with me that day. Or a loud and bitter hater of pine cones.
Michele Quigley says:
Loved this post –LOVED it. I couldn’t stop laughing at the pistols remark and oh my goodness how sweet to picture the clerk signing at Stevie! I swear we have that same cheerful portly fellow at our branch as well and ohh do I know the pine cone hater, I’ve been in line in front of him for sure!
So did you know that you can print all that priority mail postage online and that they will come and pick them up for you for free! And you can order the boxes online and have them delivered for free as well (though it does take a fortnight or more for them to arrive). Don’t get me started on those flat rate boxes –why they even have those other ones is beyond me!
Even so I often drop my packages off when I am running errands. I had to stand in line to do it today because the post office I stopped at (not my usual) doesn’t have a big enough drop box. I was the lady in line with EIGHT packages and I am sure the people behind me weren’t happy. That is until they saw that all I had to do was place them on the counter and leave. At that point I am sure I made their day.
Normally though I go in with am armload or two of packages, drop them in the fancy schamcy thing they have for packages and resist the urge to call out “suckers!” to the very long line. As it is it’s very satisfying not to have to wait, especially in December. You are a braver woman than I am my dear. But I do so appreciate it –I can’t wait to get the books!
On December 8, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Helen says:
I LOVE this story – Melissa!! Actually I was at the local PO today morning – the main PO in Concord.
I absolutely love this place – the line – no matter how long – is always moving really smoothly (yes – even now in December!!)
But the best part is that EVERY clerk was loudly & clearly greeting EVERY single person in line by MERRY CHRISTMAS ! There was no person without a smile on the face there 🙂
On December 8, 2010 at 10:33 pm
tanita says:
Oh, this is such a quintessentially American moment — speaking aloud in the post office, and having people turn to you and giggle along.
I am not always big on … I don’t know, speaking, but when I’m not in an introverted daze, I occasionally say something here in Scotland. Now, we know the UK people will stand in line FOREVER with a patience that is bred into them from their WWII ancestors — but trying to make a joke about it or say anything, and you get those same blank looks. It is the weirdest thing. Maybe I’m not the right joke-maker, or something. Who knows.
Either way, what a wonderful story of confluence — all of those hard of hearing people in one place for your little poppet to see that he can grow up and be patience and nice (well, he probably didn’t catch all of that) and make googly eyes (he probably already does that) and have grandkids of his own someday (he definitely didn’t catch that).
Maybe the moment was all for Mom. What a gift.
On December 9, 2010 at 2:56 am
Eileen Smithdeal says:
Don’t you just love the Christmas spirit that abounds at this time of year? This is such a great vignette of American life in December. Your next book ought to be a collection of such stories. You tell them in such clever , humorous, and endearing ways 🙂 Hope you don’t mind my sharing this one!
On December 9, 2010 at 4:40 am
Penny says:
Great post Lissa! I can’t think of anything to say that doesn’t sort of poke fun at being anti pine-cone, so I’ll just say thanks for sharing and I hope that you continue to connect in merry ways wherever you are!
On December 9, 2010 at 4:48 am
Anne says:
one of my personal goals this year? to not EVER be rude in a store, post office, etc. My busy-ness does not give me a pass to be more important than my good manners!
On December 9, 2010 at 5:42 am
Heather says:
Oh, this was funny. Don’t you think these scenarios would never happen if everyone loved to read? Stuck in traffic? Pop in an audio book. Crowded restaraunt with an hour wait for a table? Pull out the Kindle. Sitting in a waiting room for a doctor who’s triple booked every 15 minute slot? No problem. Of course this all changes when you throw toddlers into the mix. But if everyone loved to read, road rage would not exist, and Pine Cone Hater would have had his nose stuck in a book, albeit a book full of self-centered jerks packing pistols, but nevertheless, a book.
On December 9, 2010 at 5:50 am
Harmony says:
What a delightful post! Thank you for that picture of your post office community. Posts like this make me want to run out and buy all your books :^)
On December 9, 2010 at 7:01 am
Margaret in Minnesota says:
I love you. Just that. I LOVE you. You’re the best and I will think of you in those horrible long lines and I will smile at the sweet dame in front of me holding everyone up.
Unless it’s me.
And then I’ll start to cry when they all glare at me.
Happy feast!!!
On December 9, 2010 at 9:19 am
TEN says:
I have two favorite post offices that don’t normally have long lines like at the one closest to my house. One is a one room post office near my parents house close by and the other is in a federal office building adjacent to where I catch my bus in the afternoon. As a bonus, if you send packages from the federal office building, they need to scanned. They then receive a stamp that says inspected by federal marshals.
(Yesterday, the line moved slow and when I got to the front they didn’t have the pine cone stamps. At least it kept me out of the frigid cold for a bit. To add to the fun while waiting, the two guys behind me were obviously chemically impaired and were having a conversation you could only laugh at.)
On December 9, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Jamie says:
I’m hrer from Margaret!
Great story, almost makes me want to go to the post office! (almost) I do need to go, but I go to the grocery store, they have shorter lines! (and happier people)
I found myself wishing I’d been in your line, my sister is deaf (she’s 33 now) I pictured myself signing to your little boy as I read the story!
Thanks for the laugh this morning!
On December 10, 2010 at 7:28 am
Love2learn Mom says:
Sigh. The happy, contented kind. 😉
On December 10, 2010 at 7:59 am
Paige says:
Great post Lissa! It made me grin from ear to ear as I imagined myself with Eli, Nikolas or Kingsley in our town’s tiny little post office and the various scenarios I’ve seen in busier ones.
On December 10, 2010 at 8:44 am
Carlie says:
What a wonderful post. I want to print it off and keep it under my pillow to read in low moments. I wish you were in line at my post office.
On December 11, 2010 at 6:42 am
Karen Edmisten says:
Love the post, love Stevie, love you, love your comrades at the post office and now I especially love my small town post office, because I waltzed in the other day and sent six packages in no time flat, with no line at all.
But, I’m paying for it today with a blizzard, so there you go.
On December 11, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Blythe says:
“I don’t want the pinecones.” I may never recover after reading that.
I spent most of a day packing my daughter’s viola for safe shipping to Australia. Compared to that, the books, toys, and widgets I sent to everyone else were a snap.
On December 13, 2010 at 11:50 am