Why My Local Post Office Loves Me

By: Thomas Huff

One day I was talking with my friend Shawn and he told me that there is a part of the United States Postal Service's chartering documents that allows patrons to send mail to the post office for pick-up at the post office by a post office patron. No, not a P.O. Box. It's called 'general delivery.' This basic principal is in the founding documents of the post office and cannot be changed due to certain rights surrendered by the citizens when accepting 'commercial free delivery service' at a 'commercial address,' and ALL non-general-delivery-addresses are 'commercial address.' 'Commercial free delivery service' was instituted by Lincoln on July 1, 1863 under Postmaster General Montgomery Blair.

Anyway, being the inquisitive person that I am, I wondered if this would actually work. So, I did a little research on how to address such a letter and sent if off. Even though my right to receive this kind of mail is protected under common law, I wondered if it would actually go though and if the people at the post office would even know what I was talking about when I stopped by to collect my mail. Well, it turns out that they have a box in back that they throw all the general delivery stuff in for 30 days after they receive it. There is a hand written circled 2/3 on the envelope that signifies the date after which the post office is no longer require to keep it.