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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast

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Speaker 1: on Holly Friend and I'm trade Pobe Wilson, and today

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about a topic that we've actually

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Speaker 1: had quite a few requests for. Most recently, I had

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Speaker 1: a request from a listener who came to see one

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Speaker 1: of the live shows in Salt Lake. And I feel

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Speaker 1: bad because I did not get her name, but she

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Speaker 1: is a postal worker, and I had mentioned women US

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Speaker 1: postal workers being on my short list of topics that

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Speaker 1: I wanted to do during Q and A after that show,

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Speaker 1: and she came up and introduced herself and she took

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Speaker 1: a photo of me, and she was super charming and sweet.

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Speaker 1: So it made me want to cover this topic even more.

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Speaker 1: So we're finally going to get to it, women postal

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Speaker 1: workers in the United States Postal Service. The earliest reference

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Speaker 1: to a female postal worker is in a periodical called

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Speaker 1: the Postal Record from June six, so we should clarify

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Speaker 1: post worker in the United States. There's an article in

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Speaker 1: that issue about a woman named Lydia Hill, who was

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Speaker 1: the first person in charge of the mail for Salem, Massachusetts.

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Speaker 1: In the late seventeenth century, so women have been part

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Speaker 1: of the postal services from the colonies all the way

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Speaker 1: back to that time, when those services in what became

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Speaker 1: the United States are basically in their infancy. In part,

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Speaker 1: the early involvement of women in getting the mail delivered

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Speaker 1: really stemmed from a simple matter of logistics. Most male

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Speaker 1: at this point went through establishments like local general stores,

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Speaker 1: which were often family owned and run, so it wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be unusual for the ladies of the family to be

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Speaker 1: part of the process. But even outside of handling actual

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Speaker 1: parcels and letters, women were the ones taking care of

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Speaker 1: post writers on their stops, and if a patriarch of

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Speaker 1: a family business that also handled mail were to die

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Speaker 1: and leave his wife a widow, she would often simply

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Speaker 1: assume her late husband's duties to keep the family business going,

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Speaker 1: and that included handling mail. One such woman was Elizabeth Timothy.

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Speaker 1: She's often touted as the first woman newspaper publisher and

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Speaker 1: editor in the United States, and she stepped into that

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Speaker 1: role when her husband Louis passed away. Louis Timothy had

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Speaker 1: been encouraged in his publishing career by a young Benjamin

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Speaker 1: Franklin and his leadership role at the South Carolina Gazette

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Speaker 1: was part of a six year partnership with Franklin, but

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Speaker 1: when Louis died, there was a year remaining on that

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Speaker 1: contract and the couple's eldest son, Peter, was only thirteen

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Speaker 1: definitely not ready to take on the job, although he

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Speaker 1: had been Louis's apprentice, and so Elizabeth stepped into her

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Speaker 1: late husband's position in January of seventeen thirty nine. Franklin

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Speaker 1: was amenable to this arrangement, with the understanding that Elizabeth

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Speaker 1: was filling in until Peter could realistically take over the

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Speaker 1: job himself, and along with the editing and publishing, of course,

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Speaker 1: came the work of handling letters and parcels. Peter did

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Speaker 1: eventually take over the family printing business, but not until

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Speaker 1: seventeen forty six when he was twenty one. As the

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Speaker 1: Revolutionary War took hold of the colonies and many men

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Speaker 1: were serving in the military, their jobs, including male hand ling,

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Speaker 1: were often assumed by women. In the interim hear a

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Speaker 1: lot about similar things happening and all of the other wars,

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Speaker 1: basically in particular World War two and World War One,

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Speaker 1: so we hear a lot about this happening in World

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Speaker 1: War Two and sometimes World War One, but we don't

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Speaker 1: really hear about it as much during the American Revolutionary War,

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Speaker 1: even though this happened basically in all of the wars

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Speaker 1: where a lot of American men went to fight, and

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Speaker 1: I other men in other nations too. Yeah, that's not

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Speaker 1: an uncommon thing. Uh. You know, when when men go

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Speaker 1: to war, the women step up and take over a

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Speaker 1: lot of the jobs that need to be done. Other

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Speaker 1: notable early US postal women included Mary Catherine Goddard, who

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Speaker 1: was appointed postmaster of Baltimore, Maryland in seventeen seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Like Elizabeth Timothy, Goddard also had some other business credentials.

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Speaker 1: She grew up the daughter of the new London, Connecticut postmaster,

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Speaker 1: who was also a physician, and Mary's brother, William, actually

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Speaker 1: established the colonial postal system, but as he became busy

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Speaker 1: with other tasks, the day to day of the post

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Speaker 1: work was largely handled by Mary and their mother, Sarah

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Speaker 1: Upnight Goddard. Mary was so proficient in her work that

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Speaker 1: giving her the official role of postmaster was a widely

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Speaker 1: supported decision, and she was a really devoted worker. She

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Speaker 1: took her duties and responsive responsibilities so seriously that she

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Speaker 1: would at times pay postal writers out of her own

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Speaker 1: pocket when it was necessary, basically anything to keep the

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Speaker 1: service going, running smoothly and ensuring that the people that

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Speaker 1: she served continued to receive all of their correspondence and eventually,

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Speaker 1: though Mary Catherine Goddard was ordered to resign from her

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Speaker 1: post by Postmaster General Samuel Osgood. The order was issued

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Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty nine in anticipation of Baltimore becoming the

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Speaker 1: regional headquarters for the Postal Service. Osgood's opinion was that

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Speaker 1: the travel and workload that the post would demand as

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Speaker 1: a consequence of this expanded role was simply going to

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Speaker 1: be too much for a woman to handle, and he

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Speaker 1: appointed one of his buddies to the job. Goddard actually

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Speaker 1: fought her dismissal on the basis that her work had

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Speaker 1: been impeccable, which every agreed with, and her post office

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Speaker 1: was quote the most punctual and regular of any upon

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Speaker 1: the continent. Unfortunately, despite a huge support from the community,

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Speaker 1: her appeals never resulted in reinstatement. In her petition to

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Speaker 1: Postmaster General Osgo, though is now a part of the

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Speaker 1: National Archives, The first woman to be appointed as a

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Speaker 1: postmaster under the United States Constitution was Sarah Moore Delano DeCrow,

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Speaker 1: and that was a position she was appointed to in

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Speaker 1: seventeen two. Her post office was in Hertford, North Carolina,

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Speaker 1: and while she held a prominent position, she really wasn't

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Speaker 1: happy with her pay. In seventeen nine, she wrote to

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Speaker 1: the US Postmaster General, Timothy Pickering, threatening to resign over it,

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Speaker 1: but his assistants response was that she was receiving the

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Speaker 1: highest compensation allowed to any of the postmaster's deputies. While

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Speaker 1: she didn't get the rays that she wanted, she decided

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Speaker 1: to stay in the job, and she was the postmaster

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Speaker 1: until she died in early seventeen Yes, Sarah DeCrow is

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Speaker 1: actually a pretty interesting topic, and she may end up

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Speaker 1: being an episode all on her own. And despite the

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Speaker 1: fact that there were women doing perfectly good work in

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Speaker 1: the fledgling postal service in the seventeen hundreds, by the

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds it had actually become forbidden for women to

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Speaker 1: serve as post office clerks, and if a man were

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Speaker 1: to appoint a woman to such a job, he would

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Speaker 1: be fired from the postal service as well. Just the

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Speaker 1: same in plenty of establishments like the general stores and

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Speaker 1: printing shops that we've been talking about since the beginning

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Speaker 1: of this episode. Women were still handling the mail, they

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Speaker 1: just didn't have any official title attached to the work

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Speaker 1: that they were doing. By the eighteen thirties, however, there

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Speaker 1: were instances of the Post Office Department approving cases of

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Speaker 1: widows stepping into their deceased husband's mail jobs as the

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Speaker 1: quickest means to basically keep everything running smoothly. But because

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Speaker 1: President Andrew Jackson made Postmaster General a position in the

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Speaker 1: presidential cabinet, it cemented the push out of women from

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Speaker 1: the work. For a while, post office jobs were often

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Speaker 1: traded for political favors, and since women weren't part of

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Speaker 1: the political process, they simply weren't in the running for

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Speaker 1: the work. Okay, And that actually went on for a

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Speaker 1: few decades until the US found itself at war internally.

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Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's pause for just

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Speaker 1: a moment for a word from one of our sponsors,

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Speaker 1: history stuff. As has been the case reputedly in history,

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Speaker 1: wartime shifts the job landscape, and the US Civil War

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Speaker 1: was no exception, as many of the nation's men went

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Speaker 1: to battle, jobs in the postal service were left vacant,

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Speaker 1: so women were temporarily hired into post office positions for

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Speaker 1: the duration of the war, and the women that stepped

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Speaker 1: into those positions were really good at their work, so

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Speaker 1: much so that when the war was over, Postmaster General

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Speaker 1: Montgomery Blair praised that work, saying that the women employees

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Speaker 1: were quote more faithful in the performance of their duties

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Speaker 1: than the men. This really opened the doors again to

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Speaker 1: postal work for women. The dead letter office, in particular,

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Speaker 1: became staffed by significantly more women than men by eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty five, but even though they were there and doing

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Speaker 1: fantastic work, they were being paid far less than men

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Speaker 1: for the same job. Women earned, on average across various

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Speaker 1: postal positions four hundred to seven hundred dollars a year

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Speaker 1: and estimated thirty five percent less than their male counterparts.

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Speaker 1: This was not really a case though, of apples to

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Speaker 1: Apple's work comparison, either. Often the women were taking on

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Speaker 1: greater responsibility than the men who were being paid more.

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Speaker 1: For example, in the dead letter office, the men were

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Speaker 1: often opening the letters, but the women were the ones

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Speaker 1: that were trying to piece together information and do the

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Speaker 1: detective work to ensure those letters got to their intended recipients.

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Speaker 1: While we may think of wage disparity as a social

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Speaker 1: issue that only came to light in the mid twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: this pay gap was being discussed openly in the late

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixties. The New York Times addressed it in a

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Speaker 1: printed letter to the editor on February eighteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 1: titled Women as Government Clerks. And this editorial opens with quote,

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Speaker 1: whatever arguments may be urged with more or less force

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Speaker 1: against the theory of women's political equality with man, very

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Speaker 1: few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal

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Speaker 1: work should command equal pay, without regard to the sex

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Speaker 1: of the laborer. But it is one thing to acknowledge

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Speaker 1: the right of a principle, and quite another to practice it.

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Speaker 1: This article goes on to discuss the various branches of

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Speaker 1: government and how women are positioned in each, but when

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Speaker 1: it gets to the postal service and addresses why men

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Speaker 1: are given the job of opening the mail quote, the

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Speaker 1: post Office Department employs fifty women in the dead letter

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Speaker 1: office in redirecting the letters which are first opened by men, who,

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Speaker 1: for this merely mechanical work receives salaries of the first

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Speaker 1: and some even of the second grade. The letters must

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Speaker 1: be opened by men, because, as is said, immoral things

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Speaker 1: are sometimes found. To see these things, would it is

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Speaker 1: supposed to corrupt the morals of women. It is not argued,

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Speaker 1: I believe that man is stronger morally than women, but

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Speaker 1: rather that in doing this work he will be injured

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Speaker 1: less than her because he has less moral sentiment to

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Speaker 1: be corrupted. Or in other words, the less strength persons have,

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Speaker 1: the less they are in danger of falling. Still is

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Speaker 1: a theme that exists that like women, somehow needs to

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Speaker 1: be protected by official policy. Yeah. So those passages followed

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Speaker 1: up with a note on the position of one of

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Speaker 1: the Postmaster General's assistants, who went on record as saying

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Speaker 1: he believed that mature or elderly women were able to

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Speaker 1: safely open any item and deal with the court the

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Speaker 1: contents without demoralization and quote with perfect propriety. That sort

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Speaker 1: of cracks me up. I just, uh, you know, it's hilarious.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty six, the US Congress issued the official

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Speaker 1: Postal Laws and Regulations, and in them, women in postal

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Speaker 1: work are acknowledged by the government. For the first time

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Speaker 1: on record, though it's not really in the best way.

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Speaker 1: These regulations actually stipulated that miners and married women were

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Speaker 1: excluded by law from holding a position as postmaster, is

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Speaker 1: they could not legally execute an official bond. These rules

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Speaker 1: did change a few years later. In eighteen seventy three,

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Speaker 1: the regulations updated to say that married women could hold

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Speaker 1: the position of postmaster and that bonds executed by them

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Speaker 1: would be valid. That same year, there was a federal

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Speaker 1: law and acted that gave government managers the power to

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Speaker 1: appoint women as clerks at equal pay to men, but

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Speaker 1: that didn't magically change things. The law wasn't enforced, and

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Speaker 1: even three years later, women were still earning approximately twenty

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Speaker 1: less than men holding the same postal jobs, and as

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Speaker 1: the suffragette movement became more vocal about this disparity and

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Speaker 1: pay and opportunities for women, there was still really strong opposition.

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Speaker 1: There was still a strong belief within the postal system

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Speaker 1: that while women were capable of working in large cities

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Speaker 1: where they had lots of supervision, they wouldn't be able

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Speaker 1: to handle more rural postmaster positions because they wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: able to handle leadership jobs without male superiors. On hand,

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Speaker 1: so while women were still struggling to get even footing

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Speaker 1: in the job side of the postal system, men were

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Speaker 1: using the postal system more and more as correspondents became

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Speaker 1: more fashionable than ever, but even as customers there were

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Speaker 1: There was serious segregation in the works when it came

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Speaker 1: to the design of post offices, with separate counters for

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Speaker 1: women and men. In some cities. There were plenty of

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Speaker 1: people within the Post Office who felt that women postmasters

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Speaker 1: were disruptive to society. Women who worked for a living

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Speaker 1: were seen as less likely to marry, thus preventing some

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Speaker 1: lucky gent from starting a family, and there were assertions

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Speaker 1: that mail clerks complained less and worked harder. In nineteen two,

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Speaker 1: Postmaster General Henry C. Paine made it clear that he

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Speaker 1: felt that women should be supported by their husbands and

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Speaker 1: should stay home and take care of their households, and

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Speaker 1: went so far as to issue a statement that if

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Speaker 1: a woman who was already working for the Post Office

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Speaker 1: were to marry, she would no longer be a postal worker.

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Speaker 1: Some women employees of the USPS were required to submit

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Speaker 1: formal letters stating their marital status and the details of

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Speaker 1: their husband's work. If they were married, But there were

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Speaker 1: proponents of women postal workers within the system. UH. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen oh six, Postmaster General George Cordelou was open in

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Speaker 1: his belief that women were perfectly suited for postal work,

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Speaker 1: as it gave them an opening into government work while

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Speaker 1: also offering the chance to stay close to and involved

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Speaker 1: with their communities. At this point in the timeline, women

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Speaker 1: held about ten percent of the government's postmaster positions. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to a shortage of city mail carriers in nineteen seventeen,

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Speaker 1: after a large number of men quit their carrying jobs

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Speaker 1: due to pay in labor condition disputes, women got a

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Speaker 1: new opportunity to work not just as clerks but as

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Speaker 1: regular city route workers. Of course, there were doubters who

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Speaker 1: thought that women couldn't handle the job and that merely

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Speaker 1: carrying a mail bag around would be too much for them.

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Speaker 1: Two women were hired for temporary positions on city roots. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was one piece I was reading about it that

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Speaker 1: was pointing out that women had been carrying around babies

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Speaker 1: that wiggle in addition to being heavy for a long time,

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Speaker 1: and that may be mail bags would not be such

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Speaker 1: a problem. UH. And then World War One once again

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Speaker 1: saw a bump in the number of women employed in

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Speaker 1: the postal Service as many men went to war, although

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Speaker 1: this was largely temporary uh many of those those women

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Speaker 1: had been married to the men that left, and most

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Speaker 1: of the women who had filled vacant positions left those

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Speaker 1: jobs to make them available once again for returning soldiers.

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Speaker 1: Saw a major change when will Hayes became Postmaster General.

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Speaker 1: He removed the ban on married women in the postal

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Speaker 1: Service that Harry C. Payne had instituted almost two decades earlier,

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Speaker 1: and when World War Two came around, women once again

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Speaker 1: became the focus of postal service discussion as jobs needed

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Speaker 1: to be filled. But the Postmaster General at that time,

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Speaker 1: Frank Walker, still felt that women could work as clerks,

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Speaker 1: but that they should not carry the mail. He had

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Speaker 1: to reverse his position, though, as more and more of

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Speaker 1: the men in his postal service left to serve in

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Speaker 1: the military and he really had no other option. Coming up,

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Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the postal uniforms and other

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Speaker 1: moves toward work workforce equality, as well as some notable

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Speaker 1: ladies in postal service history. But first we will pause

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Speaker 1: for a word from one of our sponsors. After World

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Speaker 1: War two, the number of women working in the U

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Speaker 1: s Postal Service increased from year to year, though there

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Speaker 1: were still very few women employed as male carriers, and

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Speaker 1: they were still a small enough segment of the US

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Speaker 1: Postal Service that there had never been a standardized uniform

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Speaker 1: for them. Skirts were added to the official uniform in

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, but it took another full decade before

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Speaker 1: a woman's uniform standard was established. Finally, in the nineteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: there were enough women in the USPS to merit this move.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty two, President John F. Kennedy passed the

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Speaker 1: Equal Pay Act, legally establishing the right to equal pay

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Speaker 1: for women and men in federal jobs. From nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: four to nineteen seventy four, women went from making up

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Speaker 1: eight percent of the Postal Services employees to more eighteen percent,

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Speaker 1: and the largest area of growth was as mail carriers.

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Speaker 1: In the mid nineteen seventies, Postmaster General et Klassen found

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Speaker 1: the founded the Postal Service Women's Program to identify women

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Speaker 1: who would make good leaders and then offer training to

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Speaker 1: enable more women to move into higher levels of employment

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Speaker 1: within the Postal Service. However, it should be noted that

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Speaker 1: while that program certainly helped some women. Mary Valentino, who

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Speaker 1: was the woman who was really pivotal in designing that program,

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Speaker 1: was unhappy with this execution, and she really felt that

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Speaker 1: there were some institutional issues of discrimination within the Postal Service,

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Speaker 1: and she filed a class action suit against the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Postal Service for discrimination. That suit was ultimately unsuccessful. We're

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Speaker 1: going to attack next about some of the notable women

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Speaker 1: and USPS history, which will also you know, phillis in.

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Speaker 1: But what's happened between the nineteen seventies and today. And

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Speaker 1: while we mentioned earlier that women mail carriers were virtually

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Speaker 1: non existent for a long time, there were some exceptions.

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Speaker 1: And there are so many any notable women in the U. S.

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Speaker 1: Postal Service history, uh and even before it was the

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Speaker 1: US Postal Service, that we can't possibly include them all.

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Speaker 1: So hopefully we're not missing your favorites. The first woman

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Speaker 1: given an official mail carrying post was actually back in

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty five, per an appointment by Postmaster General Cave Johnson.

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Speaker 1: This woman, Sarah Black, carried mail back and forth between

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Speaker 1: the Charlestown, Maryland post Office and the railroad daily or

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Speaker 1: as required, and she was paid forty eight dollars a year,

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Speaker 1: and we know she did that job for at least

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Speaker 1: two years. We don't know if it went much longer

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Speaker 1: than that. Uh. Polly Martin was a Star Root carrier

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Speaker 1: that's a contract worker who carried mail parcels, telegrams, and

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Speaker 1: even passengers between Attleborough and South Adelborough, Massachusetts for sixteen

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Speaker 1: years starting in eighteen sixty. She was known to be

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Speaker 1: tough and smart and only faced one attempted robbery in

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Speaker 1: all her time as a Star carrier. That attempt failed miserably,

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Speaker 1: as she beat the man who had tried to climb

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Speaker 1: aboard her wagon with a horse whip until he fell away.

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Speaker 1: In nine hundred, the first woman full time rural free

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Speaker 1: delivery carrier was Ethel Hill. Whereas in previous years, women

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Speaker 1: were sometimes listed as substitute carriers for their spouses or

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Speaker 1: other male family members, Hill was the first to list

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Speaker 1: a man, her father, as her substitute. Up until that point,

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Speaker 1: there had been women working in the rural roots, but

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Speaker 1: they were all basically serving as substitutes. Uh. Stagecoach Mary,

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Speaker 1: who we mentioned in our Six Impossible Episodes podcast, was

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Speaker 1: a former slave who ran mail in Montana between Cascade

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Speaker 1: and St. Peter's mission, and her reputation was that of

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Speaker 1: a rough, tough woman who was also much beloved. Miss

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Speaker 1: Ada Nelson ran a mail route in Pittsfield, Maine, by

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Speaker 1: a horse and buggy from nineteen o three to nineteen

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Speaker 1: o seven. She won the distinction of most efficient male

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Speaker 1: carrier in the state in nineteen o seven, shortly before

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Speaker 1: she retired from her position to get married. Catherine Stinson

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Speaker 1: was the first woman to carry mail by plane in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen, she dropped mail bags from the air at

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Speaker 1: the Montana State Fair as part of a demonstration. She

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Speaker 1: also flew regular airmail at one point from Chicago to

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Speaker 1: New York, again the first woman to do so, and

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Speaker 1: that was in nineteen eighteen, and that trip actually didn't

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Speaker 1: go his plan. She had to land earlier than she

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Speaker 1: meant to and it ended in something of a disastrous

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Speaker 1: crash for her plane. She landed in a muddy field

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Speaker 1: and her plane flipped over. Uh Stinton was unharmed and

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Speaker 1: she did deliver that the mail that was on that

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Speaker 1: thing a few days later, but she broke two American

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Speaker 1: flight records in the process. Even though uh that flight

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Speaker 1: did not go his plan, she had still gone further

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Speaker 1: than anyone had gone before and flown longer than anyone

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Speaker 1: had gone before. The two women we mentioned earlier who

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Speaker 1: were appointed to temporary positions as the first city mail carriers,

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Speaker 1: where Mrs Promelias Campbell and Mrs Nellie m McGrath. Campbell

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Speaker 1: was a widow and McGrath's husband was serving in the military.

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Speaker 1: Although they weren't used for more than a couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: their work was deemed highly satisfactory. Yeah, And that was

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventeen. And then in nineteen twenty Genevieve Basque

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Speaker 1: fee Oild was made the Umbroda, Minnesota village carrier. Postal

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Speaker 1: work was in her blood. Her father was actually the

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Speaker 1: local postmaster, and when her father left office in nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty four, Genevieve resigned her position. In nineteen sixty three,

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Speaker 1: Mrs Evelyn Craig Brown became the first wanted to deliver

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Speaker 1: mail in Washington, d C. Since World War Two. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, Jackie Strange was the first woman to

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Speaker 1: rise to the position of Deputy Postmaster General, the number

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Speaker 1: two position in the U. S. Postal Service. She started

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Speaker 1: her postal career as a temporary clerk in nineteen forty six,

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Speaker 1: and she slowly made her way up the ladder over

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Speaker 1: the course of the next forty years. She retired in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, just a little more than a year ago.

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Speaker 1: On March six, the first female Postmaster General of the

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Speaker 1: United States, Meghan Brennan, was sworn in. Brennan has worked

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Speaker 1: for the Postal Service for thirty years and started as

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Speaker 1: a mail carrier, a job one believed to be too

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Speaker 1: strenuous for women. My hat is off to all of

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Speaker 1: these gals. I have a female postal carrier, and I

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Speaker 1: love her. I have to confess, I am not sure

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Speaker 1: who are Uh. This is because we live upstairs and

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Speaker 1: I I don't think I ever see the mail being delivered.

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Speaker 1: I do. Plus, she'll always, you know, if there's a parcel,

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Speaker 1: she will always come and knock on the door. And

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Speaker 1: if it's raining, she will always uh put it in

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Speaker 1: a bag and make sure it's tucked up on our deck,

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Speaker 1: or she'll knock on the door. If I'm she sees

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Speaker 1: the car in the driveway, she knows I'm probably teleworking,

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Speaker 1: and she'll come and say hi and drop off the

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Speaker 1: mail in a bag so it doesn't get wet. She's

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Speaker 1: the best. I love her. I also have a little

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Speaker 1: bit of listener mail which is related to this, and

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Speaker 1: it is one of the mini requests sort of that

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Speaker 1: we've gotten. But it's also a very funny story. I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to read her whole mail, but I will

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Speaker 1: read the part that is germane to this this topic,

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Speaker 1: and it is from our listener May it is and

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Speaker 1: she said, hello, I love your podcast and that now

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Speaker 1: I must seem like a jack of all trades to

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Speaker 1: people because of the random historical events that I bring

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Speaker 1: up in conversations. Recently, there was a listener mail that

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Speaker 1: mentioned that you should do a podcast on females becoming

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Speaker 1: mail carriers. This made me think of one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite stories about my daughter Maddie. When she was four,

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Speaker 1: we got a new female mail carrier. The old one

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Speaker 1: she puts out in quotes, was also a female. One day,

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Speaker 1: while we were walking, she saw a very tall black

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Speaker 1: man delivering mail and she kind of looked at him funny,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, oh, no, she is looking at him

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Speaker 1: because of his race. And I asked her why she

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Speaker 1: was making that puzzled face, and she said, I didn't

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Speaker 1: know men could do that. Job she is. She is

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Speaker 1: seven now, and she still doesn't know why this story

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Speaker 1: is funny. I love this so much. It's like such

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Speaker 1: a great out of the mouth of Babe's moment that

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Speaker 1: I wanted to include it in this one. You would

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Speaker 1: like to write to us, you can do so at

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Speaker 1: History Podcast at house to works dot com. We're also

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Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, slash missed in History on twin

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00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,680
Speaker 1: or at misst in history at pinterest dot com, slash

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00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,639
Speaker 1: miss in History at mist in history dot tumbler dot com,

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00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,359
Speaker 1: and on Instagram at mist in History. If you would

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Speaker 1: like to learn more about what we talked about today,

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Speaker 1: you can go to our parents site, how stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: Type in USPS in the search bar and you will

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Speaker 1: get an article called how the USPS Works, so you

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Speaker 1: can learn all about how the Post office works. Uh.

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Speaker 1: If you'd like to visit us, you should do that

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Speaker 1: at misston history dot com and there you will find

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Speaker 1: show notes for all of the episodes Tracy and I

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Speaker 1: have worked on, as well as every episode of missed

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Speaker 1: in History that has ever existed, from the very beginning,

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Speaker 1: long before we were hosts, So we encourage you kind

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Speaker 1: of visit us at how Stuff Works dot com and

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Speaker 1: missed in History dot com. For more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is It How Stuff Works dot com,