Extra-Special Delivery

I love to go to the post office.

This has not always been so. When I lived in New York City, going to the post office was as enjoyable as having root canal. The lines were always long and the clerks were cranky and frequently mean, sending you to the back of the line if you filled out the Registered Mail form incorrectly or had not wrapped your package securely. That never happens in Falls Village, because Postmaster Lois McKee is too kind. If a package is not well wrapped, she pulls out some of her own tape and remedies the situation pronto. If you can't fill out a form properly, she walks you through it step by step. If you want to see all the different stamps because you're persnickety, she is glad to oblige. And if you want a Falls Village postmark on a special card or letter, she is happy to hand stamp it for you. (Otherwise, she once explained to me, all our local mail is trucked to Hartford where it gets postmarked and then it's driven back to us the next day. Doesn't the Post Office know there's an energy crisis?)

Lois is retiring this week, and she will be sorely missed. Just like the letters she sorted and weighed for us over the years, Lois was First Class.