# Is That All The Address They Needed Back Then? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168 "2006-05-25T14:43:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/41 "2006-05-26T02:48:11Z")
In the foregoing post replace “contest” with “picture offer.” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/42 "2006-05-26T05:36:34Z")
Years ago, I read that the USPO correctly delievered a letter with the following info on the envelope: Wood John Mass Sounds too cute and ULish to be true. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/43 "2006-05-26T09:13:19Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Wood > John > Mass > > Sounds too cute and ULish to be true. I agree that it’s likely too cute to be true, but the riddle is an old favorite of mine. Solution:John Underwood Andover, Mass ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/44 "2006-05-26T09:34:19Z")
One of my classmates in college gave us her address as: Anna Lastname Littlevillage Province When we asked her for more, she said “c’mon, my Dad owns the only factory and it’s a 12-house town! You think the mailman will miss us?” In Costa Rica they don’t have adresses. They have directions. You ask someone for their address, they’ll say something like “in Liberia, 150 meters south of the BK”. South may not mean geographical south: it actually means “in the direction you’d take to go to San José (since San José is somewhat south of Liberia)”; the road may actually be heading northeast. Oh, and the references may not exist anymore: “north of the old Pizza Hut”, only there’s a clothing store there now and if you haven’t lived there for at least 6 years you’ve never seen that old Pizza Hut. And yes, those same “adresses” are used for mail. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/45 "2006-05-26T11:53:18Z")
On a somewhat related note, my mother has an old bottle of linseed oil from some shop in Glasgow. I have no idea how old it is, but on the label alongside the name and address of the shop is the telephone number, which is something like Glasgow Bell 154. Nowadays we’re up to ten digits. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/46 "2006-05-26T13:05:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Years ago, I read that the USPO correctly delievered a letter with the following info on the envelope: > > Wood > John > Mass > > Sounds too cute and ULish to be true. Considering that I saw this in a book of puzzles published in the 1950s (and it’s almost certainly much older), I’d agree with you. [spoiler] Just in case you haven’t seen it before, it’s John Underwood Andover Massachusetts You can figure it out [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/47 "2006-05-26T14:04:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > In Costa Rica they don’t have adresses. They have directions. You ask someone for their address, they’ll say something like “in Liberia, 150 meters south of the BK”. South may not mean geographical south: it actually means “in the direction you’d take to go to San José (since San José is somewhat south of Liberia)”; the road may actually be heading northeast. Oh, and the references may not exist anymore: “north of the old Pizza Hut”, only there’s a clothing store there now and if you haven’t lived there for at least 6 years you’ve never seen that old Pizza Hut. > And yes, those same “adresses” are used for mail. I just got back from Costa Rica about a month ago, specifically the areas around San Jose and the central valley. Part of what we did while we were there involved collecting names and adresses. All of the people I “signed up” (about 300) had a postal address, usually consisting of a house number and barrio name. As far as directions, though, they still use the method you described. One of the first things I noticed was the lack of street signs. I asked one of our hosts about directions and she sheepishly answered exactly as you did. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/48 "2006-05-26T14:40:10Z")
I’ve read that in the Fifties mail addressed to “Mr. Hockey, Detroit” or even just “Mr. Hockey” found its way into Gordie Howe’s fan mail bin at the Red Wings office with no trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/49 "2006-05-26T18:12:35Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > Years ago, I read that the USPO correctly delievered a letter with the following info on the envelope: > > Wood > John > Mass > > Sounds too cute and ULish to be true. Delete “Mass”, insert “Hants”, and you’ve got the English version - although I wouldn’t fancy your chances in the Hampshire town of that name, it’s a fair size. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/50 "2006-05-26T20:33:02Z")
Well, now that **Slaphead** has opened up sideroad, I’ll tell this - that even though I’m not a \*really old \* man, (I’m just about a baby boomer) when we moved to a far south suburb of Chicago in the early 50’s, the phone system was VERY primitive, with party lines going to new-comers and operators who answered when you picked up the phone to make a call, and connected you to the person or business you asked for - by name if you wanted. The numbers were often two digits for the more well-established companies. You could ask for them by number, e.g. “Could I have 33 please?,” or you could just say, “Could I have the movie theater, please?” I suppose if you were calling from far away, it would be the same thing. You could call a friend by number, but the operators knew everyone’s numbers, too, so you could ask for 338, or you could just ask for the Gordons on Ashland and they’d put you through. Much like the mailmen in these smaller towns, I gather. xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/51 "2006-05-26T20:46:16Z")
> [@Kizarvexius](#): > > Ah, but how things have changed. My company sends letters that get returned by the post office because the client forgot to include his apartment number. Or because the person to whom it was being sent was not on the post office’s official list of residents for that particular address. I don’t think that’s correct. There isn’t, to my knowledge, _ **a list of residents** _. What the post office has is a list of addresses to which they deliver. They don’t deliver to people so much as they deliver to address. It wasn’t until the turn of the century (of course that’s the pentultimate turn of the century) that deliveries to address became common (except in the larger cities). Most mail was addressed as, “SandHook, Sandy Hook, KY.” You had to stop by and pick it up. Visiting in Chile a few years ago we went to a post office in a larger town. Along one counter there were a series of boxes, each labled with the name of a nearby smaller town. You were supposed to come in and just rifle through them and pick out your own when you came to the big city. Our driver told us that they’d pick up any neighbors mail also. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/52 "2006-05-26T21:29:06Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Then why pay for a P.O. box? One reason is that post office boxes are often in a lobby that’s open 24 hours a day and also contains a slot for outgoing mail, stamp vending machines, etc. General Delivery items have to be picked up at a customer-service window during normal business hours. When I worked at the Cedar Point amusement park in the summer of 1979, all mail to seasonal employees was sent via General Delivery. As I recall, there were several cardbboard boxes marked A-D, E-H, etc. You’d show your ID, and the clerk would find the appropriate container, then look through the envelopes (alphabetized by surname) until yours were found. **SandyHook** : The “list of residents” indeed exists in some form. My sister-in-law is a USPS employee, and she’s told me that when mail for a previously-unknown resident (let’s say “Amy Smith”) shows up, the carrier is supposed to ring the doorbell and ask if a person of that name indeed lives (or has been authorized by the owners/tenants to receive mail) there. If nobody answers the door, the carrier writes “New? Please inform me or PO” on the envelope, then delivers it with the expectation that the question will be answered (by a phone call, note left in the mailbox, or face-to-face chat) at the earliest reasonable opportunity. If the answer is positive, Amy Smith is “added to the list”; if negative, she is not, and an attempt may be made to learn if the address is off by a few numbers or by the name of the street on which Amy now lives. **Johanna** : My paternal grandfather died in 1964. His widow and daughter continued getting mail for him until they moved from their Cleveland home a quarter-century later. After they moved into a condo in the suburbs, their mail (including catalogs and meeting notices for Grandpa) was forwarded. Grandma soon moved into a nursing home, and my aunt died in 1993. Mail for her was subsequently forwarded to my parents, who live in another Cleveland suburb, and they still occasionally get mail addressed to Grandpa! ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/53 "2006-05-26T21:42:51Z")
> [@FatBaldGuy](#): > > When ZIP codes were first introduced, they were touted as being optional. AFAIK that is still the case, although some classes of business mail are required to be pre-sorted by zip code. Nope. I once sent a letter out down the street from me and didn’t put a zipcode. Found it right back in my mailbox the next day with “zip?” printed on it. ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/54 "2006-05-27T18:52:47Z")
My husband’s family is in a small town in central Pennsylvania. Uncle J’s house has a house number, but the mailing address of record doesn’t. When I send Grandma flowers, I call the florist 2 towns over (the closest one). I tell them who the flowers are for, and they mail me a bill! Really different than life in the big city. ---
**Author:** ![Swede\_Hollow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Swede\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swede_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/55 "2006-05-28T03:28:15Z")
> [@RCGDC](#): > > I was listening to the \* Jack Benny Show \* last weekend, and they had an offer for a picture > > They wanted a quarter and a box top of “Grape Nuts Flakes” > > And they said > > “Send to: Jack Benny, Hollywood California. That address again is Jack Benny, Hollywood California. And don’t forget to include your quarter and box top from any size package of Grape Nut Flakes.” > > My question is back then is that all the address they needed? A name and a city? > > This had to be in the '50s Just to narrow it down in time a bit… Jack Benny was sponsored by Grape Nuts and Grape Nuts Flakes from October 4, 1942 to June 4, 1944. Before that he was sponsored for 8 years by Jello (both owned by General Foods) and after that by Lucky Strikes (LSMFT; So Round, so firm, so fully packed, so free and easy on the draw.). ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/56 "2006-05-28T06:01:20Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I suspect this may account for several mysterious delivery failures addressed to my new name. This is preposterous. They still insist on delivering mail addressed to earlier occupants that haven’t lived at this address in years, after we’ve repeatedly told them those people moved, but they blow off Johanna mail, after the carrier was told yes she does live here. Something here doesn’t add up. I got married thirty years ago, and some members of my family still can’t seem to remember my last name. The post office here won’t deliver anything with my maiden name on it, so I didn’t get my nephew’s graduation announcement last week. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/57 "2006-05-28T06:09:56Z")
_Mayberry RFD_ Do you remember what the _RFD_ stands for? ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/58 "2006-05-28T13:02:13Z")
RFD= Rural Free Delivery ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/59 "2006-05-28T16:25:43Z")
I bought a new mobile phone last week. Included with it was a prepaid envelope to send back my old phone for recycling. The only address on the envelope is :- “FREEPOST Foneback Recycling.” That’s it , no town or any other details. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/60 "2006-05-28T16:30:17Z")
When I was a kid, our address was just Name, City, State. Then they introduced zip codes and we could get mail at Name, Code. We did live on a named road, but mail was only delivered to the post office, and we did not have a numbered address on that road. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168.md?page=4)