When the mail arrives, do you look at the stamp before you open the envelope? Does the stamp matter to you? I ask because I was stuck in line at the Post Office today when an older woman went up to buy stamps. Oh no, not just any stamps, she wanted Christmas stamps, but they could not be rectangular, they had to be square. The clerk said he only had one type left but pointed to several other types on the bulletin board that were available. Nope, not good enough for her. He made the mistake of saying maybe another clerk (there are only 2 there) had some, so of course she interrupted the other clerk mid-sentence to ask — loudly — if he had square Christmas stamps.


He, of course, said he’d check when he was done with his customer. So the other clerk asked her to step aside and wait and let the next person go. She wasn’t happy but did as told.

Then it’s her turn, and the other clerk didn’t have the stamps she wanted. She demanded they “check in back” for the stamps, so I guess to humor her they checked with the boss who said whatever the clerk had in their drawer was all that was available.

Ok, so she said she wanted to see everything available but did not want to have to squint at a board and wanted to see them up close. Let’s just say this went on through 3-4 more customers. She finally did buy something but at this point everyone in line was shaking their head at her.

Does it matter? I have to admit when I get the mail, I check to see who it’s written to, I check who it’s from, then I open it. I don’t think I have ever paid attention to the stamp on the envelope.

Years ago we didn’t have a choice. They had square flag stamps you had to lick and that was it. Now all the stamps are self-sticking which is good in many ways. Years ago, all those you had to lick would cause issues in the humid summer! They would stick to other things or each other. The problems now, they tell me, is older people don’t know they are self-stick and lick them, then complain they don’t have glue on them!