It seems to me that it wasn’t until much later that many of the carriers walking around the city were women. I could be wrong.
Anyway, the spectacle of a young, attractive female mail carrier (even if she was just a summer employee) was apparently unusual enough to warrant a photo, as seen above in the item that appeared in the Journal on July 6, 1968. Marie Cunningham was the junior from Bowling Green University helping out for the summer.
I know – the photo and caption are a little politically incorrect by today’s standards. But it was all in fun in a much more innocent time.
Dan, I must say . . . I'm occasionally amazed at your depth of memory since I'm the same age. You remember details of multiple cereals of the day and their various prizes, the price of gasoline in 1975 and what your mailman looked like! Honestly, all I remember from the 1970s was the Volare I drove, my macrame shirt with matching choker and bell bottoms that dragged on the ground. If I ate cereal at all, I don't remember what kind and certainly never remembered the mail dude. Interesting article about the female mail carrier. I like to think of myself as not politically correct, but I would NOT want to be referred to as a "package." Good looking, yes. Package, no.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, thanks for the great comment and perspective.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I worry about posting articles like this, but I guess it shows how things weren’t always respectful back then, that’s just the way it was. As for my great memory about cereal and mail carriers, I was always sending away for stuff on the back of cereal boxes, so the arrival of the mail man was a big deal. It still is!
Prior to the Postal Reform Act in the Nixon Administration the postal service was dominate by political patronage. Local party officials controlled hiring, particularly in the old industrial states.
ReplyDeleteMy Aunt and Uncle retired from the post office many years ago. In terms of the uniform, I remember them saying that there were very specific rules about when the carriers could switch from their summer to winter uniforms. It was date based (think maybe June 1 for summer, but not sure) - any way, sometimes weather would turn warmer before they were allowed to wear their summer uniforms and they were miserable - but it was the rules, so they had to follow them.
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