Neither rain, nor snow, nor wind, nor hail, nor 74 years will stop the mail from coming.
A man in Portland, Oregon received a postcard in the mail. Nothing weird about that fact. The postcard was for his great grandmother and was sent in 1940.
The postcard’s message is brief, written along its edge in fading pencil: “Arrived in Portland at 8 o’clock. Having a fine time. Be home sometime Sat. — Blanche.” But the writing on the postcard, addressed to Florence Marion of Butte Falls, isn’t its defining characteristic. The date it was sent — and the date it finally arrived — all but redefine the term “snail mail.”
Postmarked from Portland: 12:30 p.m., Feb. 20, 1940.
Arrived in Butte Falls: July 2013.
Formally delivered to Florence Marion’s great-grandson, Alan Marion of Phoenix, Ore.: April 14, 2014.
The postcard arrived first at the post office in Butte Falls, Oregon and it took a postal employee named Sunny Bryant, a woman named Charleen Brown, almost 10 months and some real Murder She Wrote sleuthing to track down a relative of the original recipient.
“Obviously these kinds of situations are very rare,” explained Peter Hass, USPS spokesman and pointer of fingers everywhere but at the USPS. “It’s really difficult to determine where it might have been for those many years. The good news is it did get delivered to a relative, at least.”
Yes, that is good news. I’m sure all the dead people involved in the sending and receiving of the postcard can finally rest in peace.
Oregon man gets postcard from the past [Register Guard]