During our first year teaching, Rick worked in Grand Bruit on the southwest coast of Newfoundland while I worked in Buchans. The phone system was terrible on the coast so we recorded messages and mailed cassette tapes back and forth to each other as a way to hear the other's voice privately. These tapes were delivered by coastal boat out of Port aux Basques to Grand Bruit and back in addition to the trip over land.
During our married lives we've had postal boxes, super mailboxes and door-to-door service which we currently have in Summerside. However the postal service in Canada is changing. Over the next few years, Canadians will be losing their door to door service all across the country. The super mailboxes that are now in use in some areas will become a fixture throughout the country.
This change in mail delivery brought to mind an old saying of Rick's father, Melvin Smith. Coming in from the mailbox, empty handed, he often smiled and said, "I got the mail. There was none."
One of the reasons that "snail" mail is changing is because of email of course. Now, as I sit in my home in the evening, periodically Rick's computer signals that he has mail. Will there come a point in our lifetime when we won't need the super mailboxes because everything will be mailed electronically? It certainly is possible.
The lack of any mail service would make Melvin's commentary a national reality.
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