# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/61 "2006-05-28T18:14:06Z")
GrandMa MXXXXXXX Texas Always got to the correct GrandMa. This was good until she died in 1969. All other GrandMa’s had to have an additional name. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/62 "2006-05-28T18:36:50Z")
On The Howard Stern Show, Howard’s sidekick, Robyn Quivers, often gets mail with nothing on the envelope other than “Nigger Quivers” :dubious: by fans who just want to see if it gets delivered. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/63 "2006-05-29T09:51:27Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Today, in Colorado (US) some counties do not have rural delivery or in town delivery. You must have a PO Box to get mail. You can get mail delivered to a PO box at the closest Post office where you live in the county that you live in, and you won’t have to pay for the box. > > Since we live just over a county line, and drive to a different county every day to work, we are paying for a box at the PO in the county we work in. > > We (all the residents in the county) had a bit of a battle about that with the PO a few years ago. > > “Everyone else gets free mail delivery, ummmmm, why do we have to pay for a PO box?” You mean they don’t have Rural Free Delivery? I thought every post office in the US (that has a rural area to deliver to) had to do that. The town I grew up in in Montana (mid 70’s-80’s) had Rural Free Delivery, but they took that rather literally. If you were one of the thousand-or-so residents who lived in town, they did not deliver your mail. Instead, most people paid for a P.O. Box, but if you really didn’t want to pay, you could choose General Delivery and pick your mail up from the post office window every day. Most people (including my family) had a P.O. Box because it was easier…that area of the post office had longer hours, and there was no chance of waiting in line. When I was older, since I passed the post office on the way home from school, I had the key for our P.O. Box, and I would pick up the mail every day. Sometimes, confused out-of-town relatives would address mail to our street address, and it always made its way into our box. However, you know you’re in a small town when those relatives can address UPS packages to your post office box and UPS still delivers them to your house! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/64 "2006-05-29T13:10:20Z")
I read a story in grade school, a true story but I’ve forgotten the name. A black couple was driving one night and saw a bag fall off a truck. They were the only ones around. So they recovered the bag and found it full of money from a bank, I think it was like $500,000. Must have been a Brinks truck. They easily could have kept it. Instead, they returned every penny. So they got a reward from the bank and instant fame. But when the guy went back to work, everybody sneered at him. “Why you going back to work? You had $500,000.” But other people respected him, incredible as it was that anyone could really be that honest. So the story goes that the Post Office delivered letters to him addressed with nothing more than “Honest Man, USA.” ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/65 "2006-05-29T13:40:00Z")
And now the flipside: my firstname+lastname is unique within the U.K., but I’ve often had mail delayed or lost. Of course, the Post Office don’t exactly have a good reputation around here. A flatmate used to work for the PO and he said that being fired for stealing or not delivering mail was quite regular. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/66 "2006-05-29T17:31:58Z")
I mailed a book to Bucharest a month ago, and have been feeling a lot of sympathy for the mailman who needs to find this address: Intr Reconstructiei NR 10 BL29 SC2 ET9 AP83 Sector3 031726 I think it must be in the Matrix. (What can all those numbers mean?) ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/67 "2006-05-29T17:32:20Z")
Rush Limbaugh, back in his TV days held up a enevlope addresses to “Rush Limbaugh, NYC” which apparently got to him through the USPS. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/68 "2006-05-29T20:10:21Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > You mean they don’t have Rural Free Delivery? I thought every post office in the US (that has a rural area to deliver to) had to do that. > > The town I grew up in in Montana (mid 70’s-80’s) had Rural Free Delivery, but they took that rather literally. If you were one of the thousand-or-so residents who lived in town, they did not deliver your mail. Instead, most people paid for a P.O. Box, but if you really didn’t want to pay, you could choose General Delivery and pick your mail up from the post office window every day. TIn the Montana town where I have my store, there is no option for mail delivery, and this is a town of over 2,000 people! P.O. boxes, however, are free. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/69 "2006-05-29T21:40:35Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Rush Limbaugh, back in his TV days held up a enevlope addresses to “Rush Limbaugh, NYC” which apparently got to him through the USPS. Not terribly difficult. As a sorter, I regularly receive mail for television personalities. There are only three commercial networks (and two government ones), and I know their delivery post offices. Once they get to those offices, the networks would be amongst the biggest businesses in their area, and once they get to the networks, the people in the mail room would just have the items sent to the stars’ dressing rooms. Same goes for poiliticians. “Parliament House” gets there. I believe it would be technically possible for a letter to get to my mother with “_Surname_ 2805” on it, posted from any major country. The local sorters would know the four digit code is either Australia or South Africa, and if it goes to South Africa by mistake, that would only delay it. When it gets to my mum’s village here eventually, the place only has about two hundred people, and the post office is part of the general store. The owner knows my mum. As a postal worker, you could send me a letter at work, and the address would be just as short (and I live in a city). ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2006, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/70 "2006-05-29T23:21:19Z")
When I was opening an account with an online brokerage several years ago, they completely boned my address when sending me the application forms and mailed them to: Sublight 205 ABC Apartments Japan No town, no state, no postal code. Somehow, the post office found me. Kinda scary. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/71 "2006-05-30T01:45:09Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > TIn the Montana town where I have my store, there is no option for mail delivery, and this is a town of over 2,000 people! P.O. boxes, however, are free. According to the [USPS](http://www.usps.com/receive/businesssolutions/cityruralandgeneraldelivery.htm), an area needs 2500 residents or 750 possible delivery points in order to establish city delivery. So, your town must be just under the mark. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/72 "2006-05-30T09:31:41Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I read a story in grade school, a true story but I’ve forgotten the name. A black couple was driving one night and saw a bag fall off a truck. They were the only ones around. So they recovered the bag and found it full of money from a bank, I think it was like $500,000. Must have been a Brinks truck. They easily could have kept it. Instead, they returned every penny. So they got a reward from the bank and instant fame. But when the guy went back to work, everybody sneered at him. “Why you going back to work? You had $500,000.” But other people respected him, incredible as it was that anyone could really be that honest. > > So the story goes that the Post Office delivered letters to him addressed with nothing more than “Honest Man, USA.” Impressive! Diogenes (not the Doper) would have been envious. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168/73 "2006-05-30T14:46:21Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > According to the [USPS](http://www.usps.com/receive/businesssolutions/cityruralandgeneraldelivery.htm), an area needs 2500 residents or 750 possible delivery points in order to establish city delivery. So, your town must be just under the mark. Interestingly, when the new post office building was constructed a while back, they put the matter up to a vote: The USPS could either build a smaller post office and provide street delivery (smaller PO because fewer boxes required), or stick with PO boxes and not offer delivery. The majority of residents voted for staying with PO boxes. It appears that picking up the mail is the social high point of the day for many of the town’s residents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-that-all-the-address-they-needed-back-then/358168.md?page=3)