A Touch of Country Kindness

Today as I was driving I thought of my sister out on her mail route and was reminded of the way my grandmother used to wrap a dime, a nickel, and a few pennies into a small neat package which I would place in the mailbox on top of the letters she was mailing. The good-hearted mailman would take the change and in exchange, apply stamps to all of Gram's envelopes. I asked my sister recently if people still do that in the country. "Of course they do," she said. In the city, such an action would result in a pre-printed note in the mail left by the mailman that stamps must be applied to envelopes--stamps may be purchased at the post office. It's one of the charming things I love about the country and the people in it.