"Grandmother collects trail of discarded mail, including checks, cards and car decals".
“I just saw some papers in the ground, in the floor, in the street, so I kept driving a little bit and I said, ‘Wait, that’s mail,’” Witherspoon recalled.
She turned around and what she found was startling; nearly a quarter-mile of scattered mail.
“Wow, that could be my mail. In my head, I’m thinking that could be something I’m looking for,” Witherspoon said.
The envelopes were addressed to people across the state, from Henrico to Fredericksburg, Farmville and even Appomattox.
This is one of many reasons why I never send anything, nor receive anything, through the U.S. mail if I can possibly avoid it.
I don't blame you. The postal system is broken, but the bureaucrats don't want to fix it. Nor do the unions.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's ignoring the porch pirates!!!!!!
I keep a careful eye out for my mail.
One of the horror stories I encountered when I first began records management involved the medical records of the royal family and a good many related aristocrats, found on a dump somewhere in England.
ReplyDeleteDumped paper originals because they'd been microfilmed? I've worked on microfiche a few times over the years - the transparent cards are amazingly resilient - the screen readers break first, the cards never wear out. Those Germans.
DeleteBut in the olden days the papers would go in an incinerator. Too much pollution for people now.
Yes, paper originals Bruce. The story didn't mention whether they'd been microfilmed. I'd expect them to be shredded at least!
DeleteMicrofilming, invented by Germans cWW2, was widely adopted in Anglo countries c1960s. It was a big thing to reduce storage space and aid access and preservation. Before that all VIP documents were kept in archives. Once copied, originals were supposed to be destroyed.
DeleteCrosscut shredders only invented in 1959, not widely adopted for years after that. Before that every institution had an incinerator: school, bank, post office, police station etc. We lived in smoke until about 1970 when awareness grew. Shredders took over when incinerators were phased out. Smoke everywhere, why don't we oldies all have lung cancer eh?