Wednesday, November 5, 2008

What is a Post Office?

This row of rural mailboxes is what people in Lonerock, OR, have labeled as a post office.

Lonerock is located at the bottom of the 1,000-foot-deep Lonerock Canyon, on the north slope of a spur of the Blue Mountains. The town is named for a huge boulder right next to the Lonerock Community Church. A very small, rural community actually served by a post office 25 miles away.

But this shows the urge that communities have to identify themselves, and a big part of that is their local post office.

Which makes me wonder, just what is a post office? Is it just another retail/service outlet like any other? Or do they still have a part of that original intent to "bind the nation together?" Is there something unique, special, and worth saving about My Post Office?

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