Blue Mountain Lake, 12812
Today, like most days I stopped at the local post office to pick up the mail. We don’t have mail delivery in our small village called Blue Mountain Lake in upstate New York – everyone has a box. Liz is our postmistress and she knows everything that is going on and is not averse to passing along information, which suits everyone just fine. In and out is impossible as locals and summer residents stop to talk about what’s going on in town (not much, usually but that’s the way everyone likes it), the weather, or how bad the black flies are this year.
I was gathering my mail when a local woman walked in and handed Liz a package with a laugh, a big laugh. Of course, I and everyone else in the post office wanted to see what was so funny so Liz showed us the box from the local gunsmith, who couldn’t make it to the post office that day. Instead, he wrote a note of instructions and taped the note to the front of the box.
In case you can’t read the note, it says:
ALL HAIL! United Postal Service of Blue Mountain
Lake, Herewith is one package and $15 to
cover the cost of entrusting your finest rider +
his trustiest steed with the high calling of
delivering this lowly package to its’ awaiting
recipients….cheap and slow is OK, but
please insure for $150.- Thank you very much,
Your Humble Local Gunsmith
Liz commented that he should have written “ALL HAIL MOST GLORIOUS POSTMISTRESS.” Sharing a laugh, I realized this is what living in a small town is all about. For a village of 150 residents, we have our fair share of characters which keeps life interesting. We’re not Beverly Hills, 90210 and that’s ok.
