Inside the Oysterville Post Office

     Both yesterday and the day before our post office box was empty – not a letter, not a card, not a catalog or a piece of junk mail.  It’s worrisome.  Even though I realize it’s a sign of the times, I feel an almost personal threat when it comes to decreasing postal usage.  It’s not because I miss getting snail mail (although I do); it’s that I’m always fearful that our little post office will finally get the axe.
     Ours is the oldest post office operating continuously and under the same name in Washington. The key words are “continuously and under the same name.”  The sign above its entrance says “Oysterville Post Office Established 1858.”  Several other settlements had post offices before that date but they either no longer exist or the name of the community has changed over the years.
     During the 152 years of our little post office’s existence there have been several times that the ‘powers that be’ have threatened to close it.  I remember in the 1940s when Tommy Nelson’s oyster cannery was going strong, he shipped many-a-package of smoked oysters out of our post office, even though it might have been cheaper to ship them another way.  As a native son, he wanted the Oysterville post office to continue its operation.  I do, too.
     Unfortunately, like many of us these days, I do most of my business transactions online and almost all of my correspondence by email.  About the only regular bit of business I do at the Oysterville post office is return Netflix packets or mail out an occasional order of books. I know I’m part of the problem and I feel guilty about that.  I console myself that change is inevitable, but that little voice persists:  “Please, not in Oysterville.”