Did you know zip codes went into effect in only 1963?

[WI_DEM]

Among those who were around before then how was mail organized and addressed prior to that? Just curious.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Yes, I just learned that by reading Stephen King's new novel.

[WI_DEM]

2. Is that the one that has JFK surviving the assassination?

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Yes. It was really well written, IMO.

I haven't been that thrilled with King lately, but this one was excellent.

[Ptah]

3. Usually with

Address
City, State

[Arkansas Granny]

4. It was addressed the same way as now, just without a zip code. Some larger cities had zones

that you would put after the city name, i.e. Chicago 3, Ill.

[WI_DEM]

8. Thanks! I wonder if mail was faster or slower then?

[Arkansas Granny]

23. I don't remember how long it took for mail to get to it's destination, but I assume it was slower.

Most mail traveled by truck or train and you paid extra for air mail.

[malthaussen]

29. Faster or slower?

Here's an anecdote a friend likes to tell: circa 1959 she lived in a small town in Kentucky. In "those" days, there were two mail deliveries per diem. The local radio station took requests by mail, and one morning she sent in a request to the station by the first mail... and the request was aired that evening.

Oh, there was a cartoon character representing the new codes -- he was called "Mr Zip." Leading to the joke "If Mr Zip was a teenager, he'd be Mr Zit."

-- Mal

[starroute]

31. It was often faster

I have some letters my mother-in-law exchanged with relatives in the 1930's, and mail often traveled in one day between, say, Michigan and New York. They'd sort that day's mail at the post office during the evening, put it on a train, and it would be delivered the next day.

My mother told me when I was little that there had formerly been two mail deliveries a day -- I assume during the Depression, when labor was cheap. Long distance phone calls were complicated and expensive then, and business depended on rapid and reliable mail deliveries to keep things going.

I grew up, by the way, in New York, 25, N.Y. It's now 10025 -- but it just doesn't have the same ring.

[malthaussen]

39. I was Pittsburgh 27, Penna

When they decided to change to two-letter state abbreviations, my whole family rebelled. I still write out the whole state name when sending mail -- it must drive to PO crazy.

-- Mal

[roguevalley]

5. you just addressed it and it reached the town. truly, address, no zip.

it is magic in my mind. Now, ask me about bar codes.

[yardwork]

19. I remember when bar codes were first required and Mad magazine made their bar code the whole cover.

That was funny.

[pinto]

6. Name, address, city and state. Sorted by hand, iirc.

Albeit in the reverse order...

[Jazzgirl]

15. Definitely sorted by hand.

My cousin used to have to do that when she worked at the PO. She had little practice boxes and she would study all the time.

[pinto]

32. Lived in a real small town at one time. They had a seperate "slot" at the PO for local mail.

Carriers picked them up for delivery, sans sorting.

[MineralMan]

7. That was the year I graduated from HS.

I remember it. Before that, letters were addressed without the zip codes. Large cities, though, had codes for districts within the city. If you included those, they went directly to the distribution center for that district.

There were also no 2-letter state designations. Every state had it's own abbreviation, like Calif. and Del. Wyo. and Mont. were also abbreviations. NY was used for New York state, but was usaully written N.Y. My favorite was Penna.

The Post Office sorted mail by hand, rather than by machines, for the most part, and it took a week to get a letter from California to New York, most of the time, at least. Unless, of course, you sent it Air Mail. Then it took three days.

But, the mail went through, for just 5 cents a letter in 1963.

[originalpckelly]

12. Things that also made appearances in 1963: Dirt and water.

Before then it was just a big cloud of hydrogen.

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. You are the exact same age as my father.

Now I am sure you feel old.

[MineralMan]

25. Not really.

Not at all.

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. Neither does my...

father

[yardwork]

20. I remember those strange state abbreviations, and being taught not to use them in school.

Now, I think we're not supposed to use any punctuation at all. The USPS would prefer that we omit commas, for instance.

[originalpckelly]

10. Personally I think that zip codes are communist plot, Mandrake.

Have you ever seen a commie using a zip code? No, nada, zilch, zip in the way of zip codes.

But it's just the type of socialist commie pinko thing that a commie would do. You know?



It's OK Mandrake.

[Charlemagne]

53. prevert

[trackfan]

11. There were postal codes that were sort of a predecessor to the Zip Code

in some cases. When I was a kid our Zip Code was 90041, but some older relatives, into the late 60s still used the format:

Los Angeles, 41, Calif.

[CurtEastPoint]

13. Yep, zones. ZIP was Zone Improvement Plan.

We went from Charlotte 7, NC to Charlotte, NC 28211. SOmetimes the old zone number was the last 2 digits of the zip. Sometimes not.
We also used to be able to just write the word 'City' and it would be delivered to the local city.

[KansDem]

16. We had "zones"

I grew up in Long Beach, California, and our zone was "8." Our address was street address followed by "Long Beach 8, Calif."

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. There were zones in many areas.

**** *****, 18, **** for instance.

How old are you?

[EC]

18. With the address. n/t

[barbtries]

21. i didn't know the exact date,

but i kind of remember it, so i'll say yes. i was 8 that year.

[Brickbat]

22. I remember a TV ad during Saturday morning cartoons that reminded people to use the ZIP code.

A person would mail a letter and then a hand stuck it back out again and the VO said, "Don't forget the ZIP code!"

These were the kind of ads that ran before the weeping Indian and after Schoolhouse Rock, all a part of my Saturday-morning liberal education.

[doc03]

24. I remember when the zip codes started, I guess the mail clerks had to be able to read

bad handwriting back then. I remember when you made a call you gave the city and a three digit number, we had like eight parties on the same line. Funny how well we survived without
24 hour access to a cell phone.

[lpbk2713]

26. Where I live in central Florida ...

back when parts of it were rural ...

Thre were "Rural Routes 2, 3, 4, etc" and you would address your letter to Joe Smith, RR-3, Box 123, Town, State.


That all changed when ZIP Codes came to be.

[marybourg]

28. there were 2 digit codes

which became the last 2 digits of your zip code. eg. Flushing 55 N.Y. became Flushing N.Y. 11355

[immoderate]

30. I was in Far Rockaway, 91, which became Far Rockaway, NY 11691.

It's interesting that mail addressed and Manhattan and Brooklyn were addressed "New York" and "Brooklyn" respectively, and letters to Queens usually were addresses to their section, like Flushing, Forest Hills, and Jamaica.

Perhaps because Brooklyn was a city before being annexed to NYC.

--imm

[marybourg]

43. and Queens was rural enough

that it was a series of small towns

[immoderate]

50. Yes, we would speak of "going into town."

It was a lot like growing up in a small town. (Except you could hop a subway ride into "the city.&quot

--imm

[shraby]

33. After the zip codes went into effect there was a saying.."We will deliver

no mail before its time"
That's how much slower it became.

[malthaussen]

34. The other thing that changed was phone numbers

And that happened even later. Used to be the first two digits of the phone number were letters, and there was a mnemonic to remember them. For example, my first phone number was TUxedo 2-5026. Then I moved clear across the state, and my new phone number was TUrner 6-something. I remember wondering if all phone numbers started with "88," lol. Around the beginning of the 70's it occurred to someone that it was easier to remember 7 digits than to hunt around the phone dial for two letters...

-- Mal

[marybourg]

44. They ran out of coherent

letter combinations. what word could you hook up to JL?

[The Genealogist]

47. There was actually a whole group devoted to keeping the numbers the old way

I personally like the old way better myself, though I was born after 7 digit numbers became the norm. Oddly, my town had a TUxedo exchange, as well as a UNiversity. They built a TEmple exchange as well, but by the time it went on line, it was 7 digit numbers, so it was just 83- whatever. My grandmother used to sell Stanley Home Products, and a little advertising thing the salespeople did was to give out little note pads with their contact info stamped on the back. So, I have one of the little pads she gave out, and stamped on the back is her name, her address of Rte 8 box whatever, and her TU3-xxxx phone number. TUxedo was not spelled out, just the letters were used.

[Arkansas Granny]

51. Where I grew up, the phone prefixes I remember were Mayfair, Sunset and Prospect.

We lived out in the country and we were on a party line. There were 8 families on our line.

[KatyaR]

52. HA! I'm so old, we had -digit phone numbers

until I was probably 10 or 11--I can't remember for sure. We had a party line and we were 1 ring; my grandparents down the road were 2. Our phone number was 401 and theirs was 402.

As for mail, we were out in the country but had a little post office in our little town. Our address was simply Route 1. We had one mail carrier in town and he knew everybody, so it wasn't a problem. He drove his own car to deliver the mail.

That little post office is still there, even though the town's pretty much gone. It's on the list to be closed if the PO changes go through. It's been there since probably before 1900.

[drm604]

35. I remember it.

My dad worked for the Post Office.

They actually had some difficulty getting people to use them. Older people especially were resistant.

They used Mr. ZIP to promote their use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._ZIP

Bulk mailers could get a discount for using zip codes on their mailings.

[JitterbugPerfume]

36. I not only know it

I remember it! I had a heck of a time remembering to add the code to my mail!

[SomethingFishy]

37. Other notable 1963 appearances...

The Lava Lamp.

The Chevy Nova SS

The Ultrasonic Hearing Aid

The Beatles


On TV

The Andy Griffith Show

The Flintstones

In Theaters:

From Russia With Love

Jason and the Argonauts

The Great Escape


Also Me. I was born in 63'.

I'm actually working on a live "nostalgia" multimedia show that combines live music and video to take people on a journey through late 20th century pop and rock music. This list comes from my research into 63'. Didn't know about the zip codes... will add it to my show... Thanks.

[DURHAM D]

48. I was in college in 1963. The thing I remember most about that year -

the assassination of President Kennedy.

[Behind the Aegis]

38. Yup. Learned it on "Pawn Stars."

[frazzled]

40. Gee, I was alive when the first area codes were put into effect

But just barely. That happened in 1951, when I was one year old. Before that, you just went to the long-distance operator. Actually, I remember placing long distance calls through an operator, so area codes may not have been in general use until later.

But I do remember the coming of zip codes, when I was 13 -- it sounded so modern. No, not just modern, space age! "Zip": it was like sending a letter into space.

I remember when the first McDonald's came to our area, probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s. A hamburger cost 15 cents, and we were amazed.

I don't think of myself as being very old, but I guess I am when I think back on all the changes I've seen in my lifetime. (When I was in high school, calculators were still exotic and expensive things, even though they could just do basic arithmetic. I used a slide rule in my junior year chemistry class.) I can't imagine what my 95-year-old father thinks about the changes that have occurred across his lifetime: he seems to take it all in stride.

[kestrel91316]

41. There was a shorter numerical code attached to larger cities.

[joeybee12]

49. Yeah, I knew that....I recall the Post Office

rolling it out to make people aware of them.

[musette_sf]

54. Brooklyn 9, NY

This building WAS my post office for Brooklyn 9, later 11209: