The morning mail in this household was always a big event in my childhood.  My grandfather would go to the post office sometime in mid-morning and he and my grandmother (and any of the other family members who happened to be here) would gather around the woodstove to hear ‘the news.’
     My grandmother had lost her sight by then, so Papa always read the correspondence aloud.  It was the highlight of the day and usually provided conversation topics right through the dinner hour.  Family members were scattered all over the United States and there always seemed to be a letter or two that was just plain-old friendly correspondence – not business related, not advertising  The term “junk mail” hadn’t been invented yet.  Neither had “spam – at least not to do with the mail.
     Of course, there was usually some mail other than letters from friends and family.  I remember that my grandfather opened and read all the advertisements, too – and he and my grandmother actually talked about them and thought them over.  It was one more way of keeping apprised of the greater world here in isolated Oysterville.  But there weren’t so many of them as now.  And, as I remember, they were targeted more specifically at my grandfather’s business interests – not just a generic information blitz.
     We still get morning mail but it has changed character considerably.  Friendly correspondence is frequent but comes in the form of emails or as facebook messages.  Unfortunately, so do advertisements.  Most of those I just delete without even opening them. I mentally file them under the heading, Information Overload.  Of course, we go to the post office each day, as well, but if there is ‘friendly correspondence’ in our mailbox, we consider it a Red Letter Day.  It just doesn’t happen very often.
     At some point during the day, we do get together to open (or simply toss) the snailmail.  Mostly what we get are bills. and they are seldom topics for pleasant dinnertime conversation.  If we can remember our email or other online messages, we talk about those, too.  I guess the operable words here are “if we remember.”  In some ways, communication (at least within the household) was simpler in the days of my grandparents.  A letter in hand was certainly more likely to be discussed and remembered than is a message from cyberspace.  Or, at least that is my current excuse…